Summary Gcse English Literature, Romeo and Juliet summarised
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Course
English
Institution
GCSE
A grade 9 student on English Literature (GCSES), English Literature Romeo and Juliet summary including quotes, language devices and explanation along with the story context, theories, etc…
GCSE English Literature
Romeo and Juliet
February 2023
1 Tragedy
1.1 Fate
“my mind misgives some consequences yet hanging in the stars”
1. Hubris
• Romeo ignores fate’s (‘the stars’) warning against going to the mas-
querade ball, leading to his meeting with Juliet and ultimately
both their deaths.
2. Alliteration
• The alliteration of ‘m’ emphasises the significance of the mistake
Romeo is making.
3. Metaphor
• The consequences ‘hanging in the stars’ suggests that they were not
yet determined, but Romeo’s own action sealed his fate;
• The imagery of death by the verb ‘hanging’ hints as Romeo’s even-
tual suicide.
−→ Shakespeare foreshadows the events to come in the play, and suggests
that Romeo is to blame by ‘rushing’ to his fate.
“A plague o’ both your houses. They have made worms’ meat of
me”
1. Irony
• Mercutio blames the two houses (their feuds) for his death - he
takes a passive role in the quote and sees himself as a victim;
• This is ironic, as the audience had just witnessed Mercutio chal-
lenging Tybalt for a duel himself, out of his obsession for violence.
2. Agent of fate
1
, • Mercutio curses a ‘plague’ on both the feuding families as a result
of his death;
• A ‘plague’ could be a metaphor for disaster (e.g. Romeo/Juliet’s
suicides), but also literal, as it is a plague that interrupts Romeo’s
letter to Juliet, ultimately leading to tragedy.
−→ Shakespeare presents Mercutio’s toxic masculinity and male pride as the
main driver of fate by:
• starting a duel, which leads to his death;
• brings a plague upon Verona as a result;
While the play is constructed as a classic Greek tragedy, Shakespeare
hints that the real tragedy is caused by flawed social constructs instead
of merely fate or misfortune.
−→ Mercutio’s material view of death, that corpses are just ‘meat’, is coun-
terpoint to Romeo’s, which is much more romantic: Shakespeare may
have used this to highlight the pointlessness and impulsiveness of his
suicide.
“O, I am fortune’s fool”
1. Irresponsibility
• Romeo blames his impulsive murder of Tybalt on the mythological
‘fortune’ (three entities that shape the destiny of every man) - he is
merely their ‘fool’ without any control;
• However, the audience understands that it is Romeo’s excessive
masculinity that led to his actions from his earlier soliloquy.
2. Alliteration
• The repetition of the fricative ‘f’ suggests aggression and frustra-
tion;
• Shakespeare hints that what Romeo blames on fate is actually his
own doing.
−→ Shakespeare exposes Romeo’s shortcomings of irresponsibility to the
audience by having him blame his own actions on fate while making it
clear that it is his fault.
“One writ with me in sour misfortune’s book”
1. Metaphor
• Romeo depicts him and Paris’s names as being ‘writ in sour misfor-
tune’s book’:
2
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