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Summary ROMEO AND JULIET REVISION NOTES - GCSE
Contains analysed quotes with different audience interpretations and context - Level 9 notes
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GCSE ROMEO + JULIET - GRADE 9- Quotes
- Different audience interpretations
- Context
- Theme + characters
1) Sampson claims his "naked weapon is out" - implies nudity
male bravado
instills fear in audience and foreshadows future violence - the play begins with violent imagery said
by a servant in prose suggesting no matter your status, men are always above women
- light hearted and funny to a shakespearean audience but shocking and derogatory for modern-
setting a sinister undertone that's felt throughout
2) Juliet's beauty " hath made me effeminate" - Romeo - Conflict of masculinity which leads to
death
in Elizabethan society there were 2 ways to show masculinity - by fighting or by having self control
and finding a wife
the men face a constant battle as to which one they are.
- romeo refuses to fight due to his loyalty to Juliet but ends up killing Tybalt later in the same scene
derogatory use of the adjective "effeminate" suggests an inability to make decisions and a certain
femininity he's gained because he's "too in love", something that was not admired.
- for men it was so important to uphold a certain image that they to the ways of masculinity to the
extremes, often resulting in aggression
- true love can't exist because of the great chain of being and if it does death will reach you in the
end
3) "Young baggage" and a "disobedient wretch" - what Capulet calls Juliet - Psychological
aggression in an attempt to degrade Juliet and get her to conform - marry Paris
To an elizabethan audience, this language may have been acceptable as it was their duty to uphold
the family honour by marrying a chosen man
To a modern audience this would be shocking and emotional abuse that shows Capulet to be weak
because of his lack of self-control.
The adjective "wreck" suggests something is troubled. Capulet believes Juliet is troubled as she can't
see how supposedly lucky she is.
, For a modern audience this is ironic. Similarly, he refers to her using the metaphor of "baggage",
something he repeats. This is manipulative as it implies she's a burden and let down
To a modern audience, Juliet's fight against conformity would be admirable but we'd also fear the
effect of the verbal abuse on her future decisions. we could question whether had she not been
made to feel so worthless and isolated from her family, she would have killed herself
4) "bounty as boundless as the sea" - simile
mirrors her love as water is never ending and clear and transparent as the sea, highlighting her
honesty
irony in "boundless" because we know that they die and the fact that she mentions the sea which is
a great power of nature could suggest that subconsciously. she knows that something greater has
control
true, innocent love
uses feminine and imaginative comparisons such as water which is often associated with tenderness
whereas Romeo attempts love from what he's learnt;
uses language of accepted truths and from cliched love poetry such as the fact that the sun rotates
around earth so we have night and day and the almost supernatural view on dreams - images people
didn't doubt in Elizabethan England
To a modern audience Juliet's love is admirable as it seems honest but they may feel skepticism
towards romeo as they seem to have different understandings of love
so audiences are made to feel fear for Juliet as she enters a relationship with different expectations.
Shakespeare may be criticising the common belief in fate as he suggests nature has the most control.
As we see Juliet as honest and pure, this may have made a shakespearean audience question their
beliefs and morals so they possibly feel more guilt when they die as there's a sense of responsibility
5) " o brawling love, o loving hate" - debilitating effect of unrequited, courtly love
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