Stylistic features

Unheard, Romeo can only worship1 (‘'Tis not to me she speaks’); alone in Mantua he speaks to her again2 (‘I will lie with thee tonight’), so his love begins and ends in words Juliet cannot hear3.

1. 1“Unheard, Romeo can only worship”: how the line is delivered
2. 2“alone in Mantua he speaks to her again”: a second moment
3. 3“his love begins and ends in words Juliet cannot hear”: a judgement

Juliet fears ‘Perchance she cannot meet him’; we watched the Nurse meet Romeo in 2.41 and take his yes, so her difficulty is that others carry her future2: she is the last to hear her own good news.

1. 1“we watched the Nurse meet Romeo in 2.4”: a second moment
2. 2“others carry her future”: the question's word

Romeo first made Juliet the light1 (‘teach the torches to burn bright’); alone in 3.2 she makes him2 ‘day in night’, a light that needs the dark3, so her attitude to love is her own, and it has already chosen night.

1. 1“Romeo first made Juliet the light”: a contrast
2. 2“alone in 3.2 she makes him”: a second moment
3. 3“a light that needs the dark”: what the word pictures

Romeo's ‘Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire’ piles up oxymorons as a lover's game1; Juliet's ‘A damnèd saint, an honorable villain’ weighs her own husband on both sides, so her emotion is strong but not blind2: she is still judging him.

1. 1“piles up oxymorons as a lover's game”: a contrast
2. 2“her emotion is strong but not blind”: a judgement

On her wedding day Juliet would give her maidenhead to ‘death, not Romeo’; in 4.5 her father announces it done1 (‘Hath Death lain with thy wife’), wrong about whose wife she is2, but the tomb will prove his image true3.

1. 1“in 4.5 her father announces it done”: a second moment
2. 2“wrong about whose wife she is”: what is left out
3. 3“the tomb will prove his image true”: the whole play

Capulet asks about Juliet, not to her1 (‘Is she not proud?’); when she answers anyway, he turns her words into orders2 (‘Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds’), so the young person is talked about, then talked over3.

1. 1“asks about Juliet, not to her”: how the line is delivered
2. 2“he turns her words into orders”: a second moment
3. 3“the young person is talked about, then talked over”: the question's word

In the orchard Romeo would ‘tear the word’, as if a name were paper1; in 3.3 it lodges in his body2, a ‘hateful mansion’ he would sack, so he learns love cannot unwrite what the feud has written3.

1. 1“as if a name were paper”: what the word pictures
2. 2“in 3.3 it lodges in his body”: a second moment
3. 3“he learns love cannot unwrite what the feud has written”: a judgement

Juliet speaks the couplet's first line, setting its rhyme1 (‘grant for prayers' sake’), and Romeo can only complete it (‘my prayer's effect I take’): in a form male poets used to praise silent women2, the kiss waits on her word3.

1. 1“the couplet's first line, setting its rhyme”: the shape of the speech
2. 2“in a form male poets used to praise silent women”: context tied to a word
3. 3“the kiss waits on her word”: a judgement

The Chorus's sonnet opens on ‘Two households’; the Prince's closing rhymes end on1 ‘Juliet and her Romeo’: the frame passes the story from the houses to the lovers2, so fate fixes how it ends, not whose story it is3.

1. 1“the Prince's closing rhymes end on”: the whole play
2. 2“from the houses to the lovers”: a contrast
3. 3“fate fixes how it ends, not whose story it is”: a judgement

Romeo's ‘sudden haste’ and the Friar's ‘Wisely and slow’ share one couplet1, youth against age; by 3.4 it is Capulet who rushes a wedding2 (‘Do you like this haste?’), so haste belongs to age as much as to youth3.

1. 1“share one couplet”: the shape of the speech
2. 2“by 3.4 it is Capulet who rushes a wedding”: a second moment
3. 3“haste belongs to age as much as to youth”: the question's word

Before 3.1 Mercutio's insults are play1, Tybalt a ‘prince of cats’; wounded, he turns the same joke on his own death2 (‘a cat, to scratch a man to death’), so across the turn the feud's comedy becomes what kills him3.

1. 1“Before 3.1 Mercutio's insults are play”: what the play has made normal
2. 2“turns the same joke on his own death”: what the word pictures
3. 3“across the turn the feud's comedy becomes what kills him”: the whole play

Montague would ‘give cure’, so he steps aside to let his son talk to a friend1; Capulet faces his daughter but ends by swearing ‘I'll ne'er acknowledge thee’: as foils, both fathers withdraw, one to help, the other to punish2.

1. 1“he steps aside to let his son talk to a friend”: a second moment
2. 2“both fathers withdraw, one to help, the other to punish”: a contrast

Capulet rhymes the terms of the match1 (‘My will to her consent’) but not the child herself2 (‘all my hopes but she’): his love sounds unrehearsed, while his generosity is a formula he could drop3.

1. 1“rhymes the terms of the match”: the shape of the speech
2. 2“but not the child herself”: what is left out
3. 3“his generosity is a formula he could drop”: a judgement

Wounded, Mercutio curses the feud in verse (‘A plague o' both houses!’), then jokes in prose and curses again1 (‘A plague o' both your houses!’): the jester can switch voices2 but not escape the feud, so his wit ends as a verdict3.

1. 1“then jokes in prose and curses again”: a second moment
2. 2“can switch voices”: the shape of the speech
3. 3“his wit ends as a verdict”: a judgement