Romeo
Defines these terms……
Romeo is one of our two protagonist in the play. At times, he directly acknowledges the power that ‘fate’ has over him. During other points in the play, Romeo demonstrates inability to control his emotions and this means he acts rashly we can argue that because he is an impulsive character, shakespeare is showing us that another power, like fate, directs his life + decisions.
- Protagonists – the leading character or one of the major characters in a play
- inability to control his emotions – this means he is unable to control his emotions.
- acts rashly – he doesn’t think before he acts just does it.
- impulsive – acted or done something without forethought.
Three quotations of romeo saying he is not in control.
- “O, I am fortunes fool!”
- “I am no pilot, yet wert thou as far as that vast shore wash’d with the farthest sea, I should adventure for such merchandise”.
- “I fear too early, for my mind misgives some consequence yet hanging in the stars shall bitterly begin his fearful date.
Explaining when romeo acted impulsivly
- Killing Tybalt – When Romeo kills Tybalt he does it impulsively because he is very angry that Tybalt has just killed his best friend so kills him.
- Drinking the poison – When Romeo hears that Juliet is dead he quickly reacts by getting the poison and drinking when he is lying next to her.
Juliet
Explain three moments in the text where Juliet has little control over her own fate. Use quotes to support your explanations of your chosen moments.
Three moments where Juliet has little control over her own fate.
When Juliet drank the potion she gave control or her fate to everyone else to help with her safety or help her getting with Romeo. A quotation that supports this is “I have a faint cold fear that thrills through my veins” this shows that she is worried about that when she is dead everyone will not be able to complete the task.
The next one was when the father was telling her she has to marry Paris and that there was no other choice. she wasn’t in control at this point because her father was instead. “Thursday is near, lay hand on heart, advise: And you be mine, I’ll give you to my friend; and you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets for, by my soul, I’ll never acknowledge thee” what Capulet is saying is that if she is not to marry his friend (Paris) that he would wipe her from his mind and not even acknowledge her even if she was to be hung or was to starve.
The third one is the fact that Juliet couldn’t actually leave her house without protection. This shows Juliet having little control over her own fate because she had to get the nurse to be her messenger and couldn’t control what the nurse did and say because he couldn’t leave the house without her parents knowing exactly what she and the nurse were going to do. An example of this is this “Nay, come, i pray thee, Good good nurse speak”.
Three moments where Juliet acknowledges the outcome of the play without actually knowing it.
“go ask his name.- If he be married, my grave is like to be my wedding bed” – Juliet is saying this because she means that if she cant marry romeo she will die an ironic anticipitation of events to come.
“delay this marriage for a month, a week or if you do not, make the bridal bed in the dim monument where Tybalt lies.” – Juliet is saying that if Capulet does not delay her marriage with Paris she will want to die which she is once again unconsciously anticipating her tragedy’s outcome.
“ill defying soul” – she had a bad feeling that something was going to wrong in the situation i.e death.