“But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she. . . .
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars
As daylight doth a lamp; her eye in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night.” (2.1.44–64)
Spoken by Romeo outside Juliet’s window, these are some of the most familiar lines in all of Shakespeare. This quotation contains the themes of light and dark in all of their complexity. Romeo’s unbounded love compels him to view Juliet as one who exceeds the stars and the heavens. The theme of passionate love is dramatized through this quotation. And the confusion of night and day, so crucial to the themes of the play, are fully articulated in the final line.
“O Romeo, Romeo,
wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name,
Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.” (2.1.74–78)
Again, one of the most well-known quotations in Shakespeare’s plays. These lines are spoken by Juliet during the balcony scene. In these lines we witness Juliet weighing her duty to her father and her family against her love of Romeo. This quotation dramatizes the themes of individual versus society, the individual against their own duty, and passionate love. All of these themes are the catalysts for romance and conflict.
“From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife. . . ”
Spoken by the chorus in the Prologue to the play, these lines describe the tension between fate and individual will. How much of the action is due to the personal agency of the characters, and how much is purely written in the stars?
