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Romeo and Juliet: quotations to learn
Twenty-nine quotations from the Prologue to the tomb, each with its speaker, its act and scene, and a plain explanation of what it shows.
You get one extract from Romeo and Juliet in the exam. Any other line you quote has to come from memory, because the exam is closed book: you cannot take your copy in.
These are the quotations to learn, grouped by character and theme. Learn the exact words, who says them, and the act and scene. Exact words are worth the effort, and a close reference counts too. AQA’s examiners wrote in their 2024 report on Paper 1 that “this exam is not a memory test” and “If you can’t remember the actual moment word for word, that doesn’t matter.” If a line will not come, describe the moment precisely in your own words and analyse that. A slash (/) shows where a new line of verse begins. Each line of Shakespeare’s verse starts with a capital letter, which is why some quotations have a capital in the middle.
We have copied the quotations from the Project Gutenberg text of the play. Editions differ a little in spelling and punctuation. Gutenberg prints “unadvis’d” with an apostrophe, and some editions print the full word, unadvised. Learn the version in your own copy.
Read the transcript
These are the key quotations from Romeo and Juliet, one from every lesson in our scheme that studies a moment closely. I’m Hannah, and I teach English. For each one we’ll do what the exam rewards: name the method, zoom in on one word, say what effect it has, and explain the writer’s purpose. Method, zoom in, effect, purpose. Try each one yourself before I explain it.
Pause the video when the quotation appears, and fill in the four boxes in your head or on paper. “A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life”. The Chorus, The Prologue. The method: A compound adjective in the sixth line of a sonnet. The Chorus tells the audience how the story ends before it begins.
Zoom in: “star-cross’d” means blocked by the stars. “take their life” has two meanings: the lovers are born from these families, and they will kill themselves. The effect: The audience watches every happy moment knowing it will end in death, so even the love scenes feel tense and sad. The context: Many Elizabethans believed the stars shaped a person’s life. Shakespeare makes the lovers seem doomed from the start, and leaves the audience asking how far the stars are to blame, and how far the people around them.
And why it matters for the exam: The stars are against the lovers before the play begins; the audience knows the ending. “I hate the word As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee”. Tybalt, Act 1 Scene 1. The method: A simile and a list. Tybalt compares his hatred of peace to his hatred of hell, then names everyone else he hates.
Zoom in: “the word” is peace. Tybalt hates the idea of peace itself, and his list narrows from a whole family, “all Montagues”, to one man, “thee”. The effect: The audience sees that Tybalt cannot be reasoned with. Benvolio has just said he only wants to keep the peace, and Tybalt answers with a sword. The purpose: Shakespeare makes Tybalt a man whose honour depends on hatred.
In a city where young men carried swords and answered insults, one such man is enough to start a war in the street. And why it matters for the exam: Tybalt hates peace itself; hatred is his whole identity. “My child is yet a stranger in the world”. Capulet, Act 1 Scene 2. The method: A metaphor.
Capulet describes his daughter as a newcomer who has only just arrived in the world. Zoom in: The noun “stranger” suggests someone who does not yet know the place or its ways. The adverb “yet” admits that this will change, and soon. The effect: The audience hears a protective father who thinks Juliet is too young to marry. It makes his rage in Act 3, when he orders her to marry Paris, more shocking.
The context: Fathers arranged their daughters’ marriages for money, land and status. Capulet sounds gentle, yet he is still discussing his daughter as a match, and the choice of when stays with him. And why it matters for the exam: Capulet seems protective of his young daughter, which makes his later rage more shocking. “O brawling love! O loving hate!”.
Romeo, Act 1 Scene 1. The method: Two oxymorons side by side, each an exclamation. Romeo joins the fight he has just seen to the love he feels. Zoom in: “brawling” is the noise of a street fight. Romeo gives love the violent adjective “brawling”, so his love feels like a battle.
The effect: The audience hears a young man more interested in clever words than in the blood on the street. His sighs sound rehearsed, even comic. The purpose: Shakespeare makes Romeo a Petrarchan lover, copying the sonnets of the 1590s. He also ties love and hate together in the first scene, as the Prologue promised. And why it matters for the exam: Oxymoron: Romeo’s love for Rosaline is borrowed from Petrarch’s sonnets, and love and hate are already joined.
“She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow Do I live dead”. The method: A paradox at the end of a speech in rhyming couplets. Romeo says Rosaline’s promise leaves him living and dead at once. Zoom in: “forsworn” is a past participle meaning promised never to do. Rosaline has made a vow, and the paradox “live dead” turns her choice into his suffering.
The effect: The audience may pity Romeo, yet his complaint is so dramatic that it is hard to take seriously. Benvolio’s plain reply, “forget to think of her”, makes him sound even more extreme. The purpose: Shakespeare makes Romeo a lover from a Petrarchan sonnet, sighing for a lady who will not have him. The audience sees how love looks before Juliet, so they can measure the change when he meets her. “O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!”.
Romeo, Act 1 Scene 5. The method: Light imagery in an exclamation. Romeo personifies the torches as pupils and makes Juliet their teacher. Zoom in: The verb “teach” makes Juliet brighter than light itself: the torches have to learn from her how to shine. The effect: The audience hears Romeo’s language change.
His words for Rosaline were puzzles; these are full of wonder and sound fresh. The purpose: Shakespeare starts a pattern of light against darkness that runs through the lovers’ story. Their love shines brightly and briefly, like the lightning Juliet will fear in Act 2. And why it matters for the exam: Light imagery: Juliet outshines the torches and puts Rosaline out of his mind. “My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand”.
Romeo, Act 1 Scene 5. The method: A metaphor inside a shared sonnet. Romeo turns his lips into pilgrims and Juliet’s hand into a shrine. Zoom in: The present participle “blushing” makes the lips red and shy at once. Romeo calls the touch of his hand a “gentle sin” and says a kiss will smooth it away.
The effect: The audience hears a first meeting that sounds like prayer. Juliet answers in the same form and teases him back, so they sound like equals. The purpose: Shakespeare uses the sonnet, the form of 1590s love poetry, and the language of worship to make this love seem holy. The Prologue was a sonnet too, so the form also reminds the audience that this love is “death-mark’d”. And why it matters for the exam: The shared sonnet: religious imagery makes their love sound sacred.
“What’s in a name?”. Juliet, Act 2 Scene 2. The method: A rhetorical question in a soliloquy. Juliet thinks she is alone, so the audience hears her private feelings. Zoom in: The common noun “name” carries the whole feud for the Capulets and Montagues.
Juliet asks what a word can matter, then answers with a rose. The effect: The audience wants her to be right. Yet they know from the Prologue that the name will kill them both. The context: In the 1590s a family name carried honour, land and inheritance from father to son. Juliet’s wish to throw it away is a wish to step outside her family, which no daughter could easily do.
And why it matters for the exam: Juliet wants to separate the man from the family name. “It is too rash, too unadvis’d, too sudden”. Juliet, Act 2 Scene 2. The method: A list of three built on repetition. Juliet repeats the adverb “too” to measure how fast things are moving.
Zoom in: “rash” is an adjective for a decision made without thinking. Juliet uses it about her own promises as well as Romeo’s. The effect: The audience sees a girl of thirteen who is wiser than her lover. Her words also sound like a warning the play will prove true. The purpose: Shakespeare makes Juliet the cautious one, then lets her love win anyway.
The haste she fears drives every disaster that follows, and the Friar will repeat her warning in Act 2 Scene 3. And why it matters for the exam: Juliet sees the danger of their speed, even as she gives her love. “These violent delights have violent ends”. Friar Lawrence, Act 2 Scene 6. The method: A warning that sounds like a proverb, built on repetition.
The Friar puts the adjective “violent” on both sides of the line. Zoom in: “delights” are pleasures; calling them “violent” makes joy itself dangerous. The plural noun “ends” means both conclusions and deaths. The effect: The audience hears the Prologue’s warning again, minutes before the wedding. Romeo has just dared “love-devouring death” to do what it likes, and the Friar answers him.
The purpose: Shakespeare uses the Friar to name the danger of haste, then has him go ahead anyway. The image of fire and powder that destroy each other as they kiss foreshadows the lovers’ deaths, each with a kiss, in the tomb. And why it matters for the exam: Foreshadowing: love this intense will burn out like gunpowder. “A plague o’ both your houses”. Mercutio, Act 3 Scene 1.
The method: A curse, repeated three times as Mercutio dies. Zoom in: The noun “plague” names a deadly disease that closed London’s theatres between 1592 and 1594. Mercutio wishes it on both families, the Montagues as well as the Capulets. The effect: The audience is shocked that Romeo’s friend curses Romeo’s own family. Mercutio belongs to neither house, yet the feud has killed him.
The purpose: Shakespeare uses the curse to turn the play from comedy to tragedy. From this moment the curse seems to work: every death that follows comes from the two houses. And why it matters for the exam: Repeated as he dies: a curse on both families, which the play then carries out. “Thy beauty hath made me effeminate”. Romeo, Act 3 Scene 1.
The method: An accusation spoken to Juliet, who is not there. Romeo turns from grief to blaming love. Zoom in: The adjective “effeminate” means soft and womanly. Romeo thinks love has taken away the courage a man needs. The effect: The audience sees Romeo throw away the peace he has just tried to keep.
His reason sounds like an excuse. The purpose: Shakespeare shows how the code of honour pushes young men into violence: to keep his name, Romeo must kill. In Verona, being a man means using the sword, and love is blamed for making a man gentle. And why it matters for the exam: Romeo blames love for making him less of a man, and turns to violence. “O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!”.
Juliet, Act 3 Scene 2. The method: Metaphor: Juliet pictures Romeo as a snake hiding under a beautiful face. It opens a run of oxymorons. Zoom in: “serpent” calls up the serpent in the Garden of Eden: evil hiding in paradise. Juliet fears she has been tempted and tricked.
The effect: The audience saw Romeo try to keep the peace, so they know she is wrong about him, and they feel the pain of hearing his wife call him a snake. The purpose: Shakespeare shows the feud splitting Juliet in two. Within twenty lines she turns back to Romeo, so the speech shows a choice being made in front of us. And why it matters for the exam: Oxymoron and Eden imagery: Juliet’s shock that Romeo has killed her cousin. “Hang thee young baggage, disobedient wretch!”.
Capulet, Act 3 Scene 5. The method: Imperative and insult: Capulet curses and commands in the same breath. Zoom in: “baggage” makes his daughter a worthless load to be got rid of. In Act 1 Scene 2 she was “the hopeful lady of my earth”. The effect: The audience is shocked by a father who came in joking about her tears a few lines earlier.
Even Lady Capulet cries “are you mad?” The purpose: Shakespeare shows how much power a father held over a daughter, and how quickly care turns into ownership when he is defied. And why it matters for the exam: Capulet’s rage when Juliet refuses Paris: a father’s power over a daughter. “My dismal scene I needs must act alone”. Juliet, Act 4 Scene 3. The method: Metaphor from the theatre: Juliet calls the next part of her life a scene she must perform.
Zoom in: “alone” is the last word of the line. The Nurse, her mother, her father and Romeo are all out of reach, and she knows it. The effect: The audience feels her isolation, and hears an actor on a stage call her own part a “dismal scene”: the play reminds them that it is a tragedy. The purpose: Shakespeare shows a girl of thirteen choosing courage with no one to help her. The daughter who obeyed so carefully in Act 1 now makes every choice herself.
And why it matters for the exam: Juliet alone with the potion: a theatre metaphor for her isolation. “Death lies on her like an untimely frost”. Capulet, Act 4 Scene 5. The method: Simile: Juliet is a flower killed by a frost that comes too early in the year. Zoom in: “untimely” means too soon.
Capulet means that she died young; the audience knows that this death is false, and that the real deaths will also come too soon. The effect: The audience is caught between pity for a father’s grief and the knowledge that she is alive. The beauty of the image makes the irony harder to bear. The purpose: Shakespeare uses dramatic irony to make the audience wait for the tragedy the Prologue promised. This rehearsal of grief prepares them for the real thing in Act 5.
And why it matters for the exam: Simile: dramatic irony, because the audience knows she is not dead. “Then I defy you, stars!”. Romeo, Act 5 Scene 1. The method: Apostrophe: Romeo speaks straight to the stars, as if fate were a person he could challenge. Zoom in: “defy” is a fighter’s verb.
Romeo turns his grief into a challenge in one short line, with no time to weep. The effect: The audience knows Juliet is alive, so they watch him race towards the death the Prologue promised. His defiance is the very thing that carries out the stars’ plan. The purpose: Shakespeare leaves the audience asking whether the lovers are destroyed by fate or by Romeo’s haste. He decides in a moment, without waiting for the Friar’s letter.
And why it matters for the exam: Romeo defies fate and in doing so fulfils it. “shake the yoke of inauspicious stars”. The method: Metaphor: the stars are a yoke, the wooden frame laid across the necks of oxen to make them work. Zoom in: “inauspicious” means unlucky, promising disaster. Romeo still blames the stars, as he did when he called himself “fortune’s fool”.
The effect: The audience sees a man who thinks death will set him free, while they know that Juliet is about to wake. The purpose: Shakespeare brings back the stars of the Prologue at the moment of death. Romeo thinks he is escaping fate; the audience watches him complete it. “See what a scourge is laid upon your hate”. The Prince, Act 5 Scene 3.
The method: Imperative and metaphor: the Prince orders the fathers to look, and calls the deaths a scourge, a whip. Zoom in: “hate” is the last word of the line: the punishment falls on the families’ hatred, the thing they chose. The effect: The fathers, and the audience, are made to look at the bodies. Nobody on stage can blame the stars now. The purpose: Shakespeare names the feud as the cause and heaven as the judge, which “finds means to kill your joys with love”.
The “civil blood” of the Prologue ends where it began, in the two houses. And why it matters for the exam: The Prince names the feud as the cause, and heaven as the punisher. “Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes”. Friar Lawrence, Act 2 Scene 3. The method: Antithesis and rhyme: the Friar sets hearts against eyes, and the rhyme of “lies” and “eyes” makes his judgement sound like a proverb.
Zoom in: “eyes” suggests that young men fall for looks. Romeo first loved Juliet for her beauty, at a glance across a crowded hall. The effect: The audience is made to doubt the love they have just watched in the balcony scene. Is Juliet another Rosaline? The purpose: Shakespeare uses the Friar to ask the question the whole play must answer: is this love true, or is it infatuation?
The ending, where each lover dies for the other, is his reply. And why it matters for the exam: The Friar doubts young men’s love, since Rosaline was forgotten so quickly. “Some consequence yet hanging in the stars”. Romeo, Act 1 Scene 4. The method: Foreshadowing: Romeo senses that tonight will start a chain of events that ends in his death.
Zoom in: “hanging” makes fate something already prepared and waiting to drop, like a sword over his head. The effect: The audience remembers the Prologue’s “star-cross’d lovers” and knows Romeo is right. Every step he takes towards the feast is a step towards the tomb. The purpose: Shakespeare gives Romeo a choice at the very moment he feels the stars against him: he goes in anyway, and hands his course to “he that hath the steerage”. The play asks whether that is fate or a decision.
And why it matters for the exam: A premonition that the feast will lead to his death. “Romeo’s a dishclout to him”. The method: Metaphor: the Nurse compares Romeo to a dishcloth beside Paris. Zoom in: “dishclout” is a kitchen word, a rag for wiping plates. The Nurse speaks the language of the house she works in, and it turns Juliet’s husband into something to throw away.
The effect: The audience hears the one person who has helped Juliet all along tell her to marry a second husband while the first is alive. Juliet’s single word, “Amen”, shows the bond breaking. The purpose: Shakespeare leaves Juliet with no adult to turn to. The Nurse’s practical advice is the last support to fall before the Friar and the potion. Pick the five you find hardest and write a What–How–Why paragraph on each this week: a point, the quotation with its method and one word zoomed in on, and the writer’s purpose.
Every quotation and explanation here comes from our Romeo and Juliet scheme of learning for schools. If you’re a teacher, Lesson 3 of every scheme is free at btl.education. If this helped, give the video a like and subscribe for more quotation videos and full revision guides. There’s another video on screen now to watch next. Thank you for watching.
Test yourself
29 quotations from this page. For each one, choose who says it and where it comes from. Ten at a time, in a new order every round.
Who says it, and where? Open each quotation to check your answer.
“A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life”
The Chorus, the Prologue
“Some consequence yet hanging in the stars”
Romeo, Act 1 Scene 4
“O, I am fortune’s fool!”
Romeo, Act 3 Scene 1
“Then I defy you, stars!”
Romeo, Act 5 Scene 1
“Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean”
The Chorus, the Prologue
“Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?”
Abram, Act 1 Scene 1
“I hate the word / As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee”
Tybalt, Act 1 Scene 1
“A plague o’ both your houses”
Mercutio, Act 3 Scene 1
“O brawling love! O loving hate!”
Romeo, Act 1 Scene 1
“O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!”
Romeo, Act 1 Scene 5
“My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand”
Romeo, Act 1 Scene 5
“It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!”
Romeo, Act 2 Scene 2
“Thy beauty hath made me effeminate”
Romeo, Act 3 Scene 1
“Thus with a kiss I die”
Romeo, Act 5 Scene 3
“My only love sprung from my only hate!”
Juliet, Act 1 Scene 5
“My grave is like to be my wedding bed”
Juliet, Act 1 Scene 5
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet”
Juliet, Act 2 Scene 2
“It is too rash, too unadvis’d, too sudden”
Juliet, Act 2 Scene 2
“O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!”
Juliet, Act 3 Scene 2
“If all else fail, myself have power to die”
Juliet, Act 3 Scene 5
“My dismal scene I needs must act alone”
Juliet, Act 4 Scene 3
“My child is yet a stranger in the world”
Capulet, Act 1 Scene 2
“Hang thee young baggage, disobedient wretch!”
Capulet, Act 3 Scene 5
“I think it best you married with the County”
The Nurse, Act 3 Scene 5
“Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes”
Friar Lawrence, Act 2 Scene 3
“Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast”
Friar Lawrence, Act 2 Scene 3
“These violent delights have violent ends”
Friar Lawrence, Act 2 Scene 6
“O calm, dishonourable, vile submission!”
Mercutio, Act 3 Scene 1
“See what a scourge is laid upon your hate”
The Prince, Act 5 Scene 3
Fate and the stars
- “A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life” (the Chorus, the Prologue). Star-crossed means the stars, or fate, are against them. The phrase “take their life” has two meanings: they are born, and they kill themselves. The audience knows the ending before the play starts.
- “Some consequence yet hanging in the stars” (Romeo, Act 1 Scene 4). On the way to the Capulet feast, Romeo fears that something written in the stars will begin that night and end in his death. This is foreshadowing, a hint of what is to come, and the audience knows he is right.
- “O, I am fortune’s fool!” (Romeo, Act 3 Scene 1). Romeo has just killed Tybalt. A fool here means a plaything: he says fortune is playing with him. He blames fate for a killing he chose to do.
- “Then I defy you, stars!” (Romeo, Act 5 Scene 1). Romeo hears that Juliet is dead and decides to die beside her. The verb “defy” means challenge. This is dramatic irony: by rushing to the tomb he does exactly what the Prologue said he would.
The feud
- “Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean” (the Chorus, the Prologue). The word “civil” is repeated with two meanings. It means citizens, and it means polite and peaceful. Citizens are killing citizens, and the city is stained with their blood.
- “Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?” (Abram, Act 1 Scene 1). Biting your thumb at someone was a rude gesture. The question starts a street fight between servants, which shows the feud runs right down to the servants of each house.
- “I hate the word / As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee” (Tybalt, Act 1 Scene 1). The word Tybalt hates is peace. He puts Montagues in the same list as hell, and repeats “hate”, so hatred seems to be his whole personality.
- “A plague o’ both your houses” (Mercutio, Act 3 Scene 1). Mercutio says this curse three times as he dies. A house here means a family. He is a friend of Romeo but not a Montague, so he dies for a feud that was never his. By the end of the play the curse has come true for both families.
Romeo in love
- “O brawling love! O loving hate!” (Romeo, Act 1 Scene 1). An oxymoron, which puts two opposite words together. Romeo is sighing over Rosaline in the style of Petrarch, an Italian poet who wrote about a lady he could never have. Love and hate are joined before he even meets Juliet.
- “O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!” (Romeo, Act 1 Scene 5). Romeo’s words when he first sees Juliet. Light imagery: she is brighter than the torches lighting the hall. The verb “teach” makes her the one in charge of the light, and Rosaline is forgotten.
- “My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand” (Romeo, Act 1 Scene 5). The first lines of the sonnet the lovers share when they meet. A pilgrim travels to a holy place, so his lips are worshippers and Juliet is a saint. The religious imagery makes their first kiss sound sacred.
- “It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!” (Romeo, Act 2 Scene 2). A metaphor: Juliet is the sun rising at her window. The sun is the centre of his world and the source of all light, so the image shows how completely she fills his thoughts.
- “Thy beauty hath made me effeminate” (Romeo, Act 3 Scene 1). After Mercutio dies, Romeo blames his love for Juliet. Effeminate means womanly, which in his world means weak. He turns from peace to violence and kills Tybalt.
- “Thus with a kiss I die” (Romeo, Act 5 Scene 3). His last words. The kiss echoes their first kiss in Act 1 Scene 5, so their love ends as it began. The short, calm line comes straight after he drinks the poison.
Juliet
- “My only love sprung from my only hate!” (Juliet, Act 1 Scene 5). Juliet has just learned that Romeo is a Montague. The repeated “only” puts love and hate side by side, which is called antithesis. The two feelings are tied together from the start.
- “My grave is like to be my wedding bed” (Juliet, Act 1 Scene 5). She means that if Romeo is married, she will die unmarried. It is also foreshadowing: as Romeo’s wife, she does die in the tomb.
- “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet” (Juliet, Act 2 Scene 2). A metaphor: a rose would still be a rose with a different name. Juliet argues that Romeo is not his family name. The feud says the opposite, and wins.
- “It is too rash, too unadvis’d, too sudden” (Juliet, Act 2 Scene 2). The repeated “too” shows that Juliet sees the danger in their speed, even as she gives her love. Her next line compares their love to lightning, which is gone almost before it is seen.
- “O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!” (Juliet, Act 3 Scene 2). She has just heard that Romeo killed her cousin Tybalt. The serpent recalls the Devil in the Garden of Eden, hiding behind a beautiful flower. Her oxymorons show her torn between love and grief.
- “If all else fail, myself have power to die” (Juliet, Act 3 Scene 5). Her father, mother and Nurse have all turned against her. The word “power” matters: death is the one choice still left to her. This is the first time she talks of killing herself.
- “My dismal scene I needs must act alone” (Juliet, Act 4 Scene 3). Alone with the potion, Juliet uses a metaphor from the theatre: she is an actor who must play her part with no help. She has just sent away her mother and the Nurse, and she is completely alone.
Parents and the Nurse
- “My child is yet a stranger in the world” (Capulet, Act 1 Scene 2). Capulet tells Paris that Juliet, not yet fourteen, is too young to marry. The metaphor of a stranger makes him sound gentle and protective, which makes his rage in Act 3 more shocking.
- “Hang thee young baggage, disobedient wretch!” (Capulet, Act 3 Scene 5). Juliet has refused to marry Paris. Baggage and wretch are insults, and “Hang thee” is a curse. The protective father of Act 1 now treats her as property that must obey.
- “I think it best you married with the County” (the Nurse, Act 3 Scene 5). The County is Paris, who is a count. The Nurse gives practical advice: forget Romeo and marry Paris. To Juliet it is a betrayal, and from here on she trusts nobody in the house.
Friar Lawrence
- “Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes” (Friar Lawrence, Act 2 Scene 3). The Friar is amazed that Romeo has forgotten Rosaline overnight. He says young men love with their eyes, by looks alone. It rhymes with the line before, which makes it sound like a wise saying.
- “Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast” (Friar Lawrence, Act 2 Scene 3). His advice to Romeo, in mostly short words that slow the line down. The verb “stumble” warns that haste leads to a fall. Almost everyone in the play, the Friar included, ignores it.
- “These violent delights have violent ends” (Friar Lawrence, Act 2 Scene 6). Spoken just before the wedding. The repeated “violent” links the lovers’ joy to their deaths. He goes on to compare their love to fire and gunpowder, which destroy each other as they meet.
Mercutio and honour
- “O calm, dishonourable, vile submission!” (Mercutio, Act 3 Scene 1). Romeo has refused to fight Tybalt. To Mercutio, giving way to an insult is shameful. The word “submission” means giving in, so he draws his sword and fights for Romeo, and dies for it.
The ending
- “See what a scourge is laid upon your hate” (the Prince, Act 5 Scene 3). A scourge is a whip used to punish. The Prince tells the two fathers that heaven has punished their hate by killing their children. The feud, more than fate, is named as the cause.
Using them in the exam
Learn each quotation with its speaker and its act, so you can place it in the story. Then learn some in pairs that show change across the play. “My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand” in Act 1 and “Thus with a kiss I die” in Act 5 show the lovers’ first kiss and their last. “My child is yet a stranger in the world” in Act 1 and “Hang thee young baggage, disobedient wretch!” in Act 3 show how far Capulet changes. “A plague o’ both your houses” in Act 3 and “See what a scourge is laid upon your hate” in Act 5 show a curse coming true. For a question on fate, follow the stars from the Prologue to “Then I defy you, stars!”
You can use part of a longer quotation, as long as every word you use is exact. For a way to make them stick, see How to learn quotations so they stay learned. For the whole plot, read Romeo and Juliet: the story, act by act, and to use the quotations well, see How to answer the extract question.
Frequently asked questions
How many Romeo and Juliet quotations do I need to learn?
There is no set number, and AQA’s examiners say the exam is not a memory test. Short quotations from every act, with who says them and where, will cover most questions. The quotations on this page cover all five acts and the main characters and themes.
Do I lose marks if I misquote Shakespeare?
AQA’s examiners say that if you cannot remember a moment word for word, that does not matter. Describe the moment precisely in your own words and analyse it. Exact words are still worth learning, because they let you zoom in on a single word.
What does “wherefore art thou Romeo” mean?
Wherefore means why. In Act 2 Scene 2 Juliet asks why Romeo has to be Romeo, a Montague, the son of her family’s enemy. She is not asking where he is.
What are the best Romeo and Juliet quotations about fate?
Start with “A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life” from the Prologue. Then learn Romeo’s “Some consequence yet hanging in the stars” in Act 1, “O, I am fortune’s fool!” in Act 3 and “Then I defy you, stars!” in Act 5. Together they let you trace fate through the whole play.
Who says “A plague o’ both your houses”?
Mercutio says it in Act 3 Scene 1, after Tybalt has stabbed him under Romeo’s arm. He curses both the Montagues and the Capulets, and by the end of the play the curse has come true.
Sources
- Project Gutenberg, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (ebook 1513)
- Folger Shakespeare Library, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet: the entire play
- AQA, GCSE English Literature 8702 specification
- AQA, Report on the examination: Paper 1, June 2024