Romeo Character Quotes

But all so soon as the all-cheering sun
Should in the furthest east begin to draw
The shady curtains from Aurora’s bed,
Away from the light steals home my heavy son,
And private in his chamber pens himself,
Shuts up his windows, locks far daylight out
And makes himself an artificial night.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 1. A worried Montague reveals the extent of his son Romeo’s depression. When the sun rises Romeo doesn’t just hide himself away in a room, but he shuts up the windows and locks the daylight out. Montague’s speech includes the use of personification in "all-cheering sun," while "draw the shady curtains" is a metaphor for sunrise.

Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O any thing, of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 1. Romeo is full of conflicted emotions because of his unrequited love for Rosaline. To express this he uses oxymorons, a figure of speech in which what seem contradictory terms appear in conjunction. This passage blurs the lines between love and hate and reflects the themes of the play, in which love and hate are intricately bound up in one another. When he speaks of "brawling," "hate" and "chaos," Romeo is not only lamenting Rosaline not returning his love, but also the feud raging between his family, the Montagues, and the Capulets.
Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs - quote

Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes;
Being vex’d a sea nourish’d with lovers’ tears.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 1. Romeo is not finding love very easy. He uses three metaphors to explain the heartbreaks it causes. He compares it to a smoke made up of lovers’ sighs, a fire burning in the eyes of lovers, and when twarted a sea filled with lovers’ tears. This is one of Shakespeare’s most famous definitions of love, showing how it be either a source of great happiness or heartbreak.

When the devout religion of mine eye
Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fires;
And these, who often drown’d could never die,
Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars!
One fairer than my love! the all-seeing sun
Ne’er saw her match since first the world begun.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 2. Romeo uses vivid religious metaphors and hyperbole as he counters Benvolio’s suggestion that looking at another woman will make him forget all about Rosaline. Romeo says how his eyes worship Rosaline, and if he lied his tears would turn into fire and be burnt at the stake as heretics. He shows himself to be rather shallow here, valuing Rosaline’s physical beauty above all else.

MERCUTIO: Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.
ROMEO: Not I, believe me: you have dancing shoes
With nimble soles: I have a soul of lead
So stakes me to the ground I cannot move.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 4. Mercutio tries to persuade Romeo to dance at the Capulets’ party to forget his lovesick troubles. Romeo responds with a metaphor saying that he is weighed down with a soul made of lead. He uses a pun when he refers to his friend’s "nimble soles" and then speaks to his own heavy "soul."

MERCUTIO: You are a lover; borrow Cupid’s wings,
And soar with them above a common bound.
ROMEO: I am too sore enpierced with his shaft
To soar with his light feathers, and so bound,
I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe:
Under love’s heavy burden do I sink.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 4. Mercutio tries his best to talk Romeo out of his gloom and not be a party pooper when they are at the Capulets’ ball. He advises him to metaphorically "borrow Cupid’s wings" and soar because he is in love. But Romeo, whose love is unrequited, puns that he is too "sore" to "soar." In another pun, "bound" is used in two different senses, first to mean constraint, and secondly to mean leap. This reflects the conflicting aspects to romantic love.

If love be rough with you, be rough with love;
Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 4. The playful and cynical Mercutio makes light of Romeo’s moaning about love being rough and pricking "like thorn." He uses pun and sexual innuendo to advise Romeo to have sex ("prick love" and "beat love down") to get over his sexual frustration ("pricking") because of Rosaline’s chastity vow. Mercutio personifies love as if it were a person who can be beaten down, speaking of it in aggressive and violent terms.

ROMEO: I dream’d a dream to-night.
MERCUTIO: And so did I.
ROMEO: What was yours?
MERCUTIO: Dreamers often lie.
ROMEO: In bed asleep, while they do dream things true.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 4. Romeo and Mercutio engage in banter about dreams as they walk through the streets on the way to the Capulets’ household. The skeptical Mercutio mockingly says of Romeo’s dreaming, that people who dream often lie. Romeo quickly retorts with a pun that they lie in bed asleep, as they dreams true things.

I fear, too early: for my mind misgives
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night’s revels and expire the term
Of a despised life closed in my breast
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 4. Romeo agrees to gatecrash the Capulets’ ball with Benvolio and Mercutio, but fears that it will lead to tragic and deadly consequences. He is responding to Benvolio’s claim that they will be too late for the party. This passage reflects the theme of fate and free will found throughout the play. The stars are a metaphor for fate, with people then believing that their movements determined the course of their lives. The passage, with its sense of fear and foreboding, also foreshadows the tragic deaths that are to come.

O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear;
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,
As yonder lady o’er her fellows shows.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5. These lines tell us how Romeo is smitten by Juliet when he first lays eyes on her at the Capulets’ ball. In the first line Romeo uses a metaphor to compare Juliet to a torch lighting up the room. Then in a simile he compares her shining beauty against the night to an jeweled earring sparkling on the ear of an Ethiopian. Another metaphor likens Juliet to a magnificent "snowy dove" in a room full of "crows." Romeo uses the imagery of light against the dark to describe the radiance of Juliet’s loveliness. His speech indicates a love-at-first-sight moment for the young man. But Romeo’s ominous statement that Juliet has "beauty too rich to use, for earth too dear" is foreshadowing of how she will be laid out in the tomb too early and of the tragic events that follow. We also see here an example of Romeo’s impetuous and impulsive behavior. From being depressed before this over his unrequited love for Rosaline, he instantly falls for Juliet the moment he sets eyes on her. This is a case of situational irony, since Romeo came to the Capulet party hoping to see Rosaline, so one wouldn’t expect him to instantly fall in love with another girl.

Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!
For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5. There are two kinds of irony here in Romeo’s soliloquy, as the young Montague meets Juliet for the first time and is immediately smitten. He instantaneously and unexpectedly forgets his love for Rosaline and falls hopelessly and completely for Juliet. This is an example of situational irony. There is also dramatic irony, because what he doesn’t know and the audience does is that Juliet is a Capulet, making their love impossible because of the long-standing feud between the two families. This quote also provides evidence of Romeo’s immaturity and impulsivity.

If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5. An impulsive Romeo rushes up to Juliet at the Capulet ball and speaks his first words to her, clearly smitten. Boldly asking for a kiss, he recklessly ignores the fact that Juliet is a Capulet, the enemies of his Montague clan. He indulges in hyperbole, speaking to her reverentially as if she were a demi-goddess or saint. He uses two metaphors to compare Juliet’s hand to a "holy shrine" and his lips to "two blushing pilgrims."
Close