Romeo and Juliet Violence Quotes

Civil blood makes civil hands unclean quote Romeo and Juliet

Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Prologue. The opening lines of Shakespeare’s tragic love story introduces us to the ancient feud between two great houses in Verona, the Capulets and Montagues. There is irony in the repeated use of the word "civil" in the Chorus’s introductory words. While Verona’s citizens ought to be civil, we learn that their hands are metaphorically stained ("unclean") with the blood of the victims of their civil war. There is also irony in the description of the warring families being "alike in dignity," since we later learn that they are alike in their undignified behavior.

SAMPSON: Gregory, o’ my word, we’ll not carry coals.
GREGORY: No, for then we should be colliers.
SAMPSON: I mean, an we be in choler, we’ll draw.
GREGORY: Ay, while you live, draw your neck out o’ the collar.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 1. Two servants of the house of Capulet, Sampson and Gregory, go out looking for trouble. Sampson talks tough, warning that they won’t be humiliated by anyone, or "carry coals." He specifically means that he won’t take disrespect from a Montague and warns that they will draw swords if they are made angry – "in choler." Gregory cautions that this could lead to the hangman’s collar for them. This exchange speaks to the violent feud between the Capulets and Montagues. It foreshadows the brawl that takes place in the scene between the two households and their servants. There is also a deal of punning in this passage, with the use of similar sounding words "colliers," "choler" and "collar."

True; and therefore women, being the weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the wall: therefore I will push Montague’s men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 1. When Sampson says this to fellow Capulet servant Gregory, it illustrates the themes of violence, sex and gender roles found throughout the play. Men view women as the "weaker" sex, while the word "thrust" has both a violent and sexual meaning. Sampson boasts about attacking the Montague men and assaulting their women, including sexually. He demonstrates a sexist and misogynistic mentality.

SAMPSON: I will show myself a tyrant: when I have fought with the men, I will be cruel with the maids, and cut off their heads.
GREGORY: The heads of the maids?
SAMPSON: Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads; take it in what sense thou wilt.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 1. Capulet servant Sampson boasts of how he will murder the Montague maids and forcefully take their virginity. When he says "cut off their heads" and "their maidenheads," that is a pun for taking their virginity. Sampson is equating fighting the Montague men to raping their women, believing this to be the manly thing to do. Sampson’s disturbing joke about what he will do with the Montague women shows a worrying level of misogyny in his attitude towards the female gender.

GREGORY: Draw thy tool…
SAMPSON: My naked weapon is out: quarrel, I will back thee.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 1. As two from the house of the Montagues approach, Sampson draws his sword and asks Gregory to start a quarrel and provoke a fight. The pair exchange bawdy puns, with Gregory inviting the other to: "Draw thy tool." Sampson continues with the phallus imagery and also personification to describe unsheathing his sword – "my naked weapon is out." Comparing the sword to a penis is an example of the misogynistic mentality in a play where men like to exercise dominance over women. In this scene Sampson tends to talk big but is something of a boastful coward, wanting Gregory to pick the fight.

CAPULET: What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!
LADY CAPULET: A crutch, a crutch! why call you for a sword?
CAPULET: My sword, I say! Old Montague is come,
And flourishes his blade in spite of me.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 1. The elderly patriarch of the Capulets shows himself to be confrontational and ready for a fight when he calls for his long sword. Lady Capulet suggests that her husband is too old for fighting, being more in need of a crutch. Capulet retorts that "Old Montague" (Lord Montague) is flourishing his blade at him. There is a certain amount of sexual innuendo in the references "long sword" and "flourishes his blade."

Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,
Profaners of this neighbour-stained steel, –
Will they not hear? What, ho! you men, you beasts,
That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
With purple fountains issuing from your veins,
On pain of torture, from those bloody hands
Throw your mistemper’d weapons to the ground.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 1. Prince Escalus storms into the play’s first scene, as the ancient feud between the Capulets and Montagues flares up into a violent street brawl. Verona’s authority figure threatens the culprits with violent punishment if they don’t lay down their weapons. He uses a series of metaphors to compare the fighters to beasts who quench the fire of their hate by spilling fountains of blood. In "mistemper’d weapons" we also have an example of personification.

Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,
By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,
Have thrice disturb’d the quiet of our streets,
And made Verona’s ancient citizens
Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments,
To wield old partisans, in hands as old,
Canker’d with peace, to part your canker’d hate.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 1. Prince Escalus launches a tirade at the patriarchs of the feuding Capulets and Montagues for their families’ involvement in three disturbances on Verona’s streets. The angry city ruler says that Verona’s elderly citizens have been forced to take off their dress clothes and pick up rusty spears to break up the fights.

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.

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.

Sometime she driveth o’er a soldier’s neck,
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,
Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades,
Of healths five-fathom deep; and then anon
Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes,
And being thus frighted swears a prayer or two
And sleeps again.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 4. Queen Mab becomes a very dark figure here, as Mercutio explains how the dream-maker brings soldiers nightmares that give them urges for violence. This taste for violence is echoed in the play, with the young men of Verona all too ready and willing to fight and even kill.

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.

This, by his voice, should be a Montague.
Fetch me my rapier, boy. What dares the slave
Come hither, cover’d with an antic face.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5. Tybalt shows that he is an impulsive person ready to resort to violence without having to think about it. As soon as he hears Romeo’s voice at the Capulet ball he calls on his servant to fetch him his sword. He uses insulting language to describe Romeo a "slave" covered with an odd face mask. The aggressive Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, is the villain of the play and acts on emotions.

TYBALT: I’ll not endure him.
CAPULET: He shall be endured:
What, goodman boy! I say, he shall: go to;
Am I the master here, or you? go to.
You’ll not endure him! God shall mend my soul!
You’ll make a mutiny among my guests!

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5. The impulsive and aggressive Tybalt draws his sword to confront Romeo, engaged that he has gatecrashed the Capulet ball. But old Capulet reprimands him and instructs him to let Romeo go. Capulet doesn’t want Tybalt to cause a disturbance among his guests at the ball. This is an example of situational irony, since Capulet has every reason to kick out a hated Montague like Romeo from his party.

More than prince of cats, I can tell you. O, he is the courageous captain of compliments. He fights as you sing prick-song, keeps time, distance, and proportion; rests me his minim rest, one, two, and the third in your bosom: the very butcher of a silk button, a duellist, a duellist; a gentleman of the very first house, of the first and second cause: ah, the immortal passado! the punto reverso! the hai!

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 4. Mercutio, the joker in the play, makes fun of Tybalt’s fighting and fencing style. This passage is Mercutio’s reply, when Benvolio asks "what is Tybalt?" Tybalt has sent a letter to Romeo, which they believe must be a challenge and they are worried about lovesick Romeo taking up the challenge in his condition. Mercutio jokes that Tybalt is a masterful fencer who can "butcher…a silk button" and has taken lessons from the most famous fencing instructor – "of the first house." He mocks Tybalt when he lists his fencing moves, all known by pretentious foreign names, "the immortal passado! the punto reverso! the hai." But behind Mercutio’s mocking, he appears to admire Tybalt’s fighting skills and is concerned about Romeo fighting him.

These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which as they kiss consume.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 6. Friar Laurence uses a gunpowder simile and kiss metaphor to show how rash love and going too fast can be dangerous and lead to a destructive ending. He is warning Romeo about acting impulsively and advising him to cool his extreme passion. This is after Romeo dares "love-devouring death" to try to come between him and his love for Juliet. The Friar is worried that their hasty marriage could have violent and dangerous consequences. This is an example of foreshadowing, since the Friar’s fears become reality.

I pray thee, good Mercutio, let’s retire:
The day is hot, the Capulets abroad,
And, if we meet, we shall not scape a brawl;
For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 1. In the scene’s opening lines Benvolio tries to persuade Mercutio to go home with him in order to avoid running into the Capulets. If they meet a brawl is inevitable, he predicts – correctly, as it turns out. He uses the metaphor of "mad blood stirring" during the hot weather, to suggest the escalating tensions between the rival Capulets and Montagues. Benvolio’s words foreshadow the fights between Mercutio and Tybalt, and Romeo and Tybalt, resulting in the deaths of Tybalt and Mercutio.

TYBALT: Mercutio, thou consort’st with Romeo, –
MERCUTIO: Consort! what, dost thou make us minstrels? an thou make minstrels of us, look to hear nothing but discords: here’s my fiddlestick; here’s that shall make you dance. Zounds, consort!

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 1. Mercutio is just looking for an excuse to start a quarrel with Tybalt. When Tybalt mentions Mercutio consorting with Romeo, Mercutio interrupts him and puns on the other meaning of "consort" – an ensemble of musicians. He pretends to be insulted at being called a "minstrel" and points to his sword, calling it his "fiddlestick," whose music Tybalt will be made dance to. Tybalt’s simple inquiry about Romeo is turned by Mercutio into a manufactured insult and invitation to fight.

We talk here in the public haunt of men:
Either withdraw unto some private place,
And reason coldly of your grievances,
Or else depart; here all eyes gaze on us.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 1. Benvolio shows the peacemaker side of his character once again when he says this to Mercutio and Tybalt. In an attempt to lower the temperature and remove their quarrel from the public street, he asks them to take their grievances to a private place and discuss, or else go home. He is mindful of Prince Escalus’s warning that those involved in street brawls would be put to death.
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