freytag’s pyramid
romeo and juliet follows freytag’s pyramid, in a five act structure
act 1 – introduction
contains the setup for the story, including exposition (setting, characters) and the complication
act 2 – rising movement (not rising action)
continued movement towards climax (sets it up). scenes here must be interesting, both deepening
the complications and enlarging the plot
act 3 – climax
considered to be a reflection point – if things have gone well for the protagonist, at the climax they
start to fall apart tragically. the energy, values and themes show in the first half are reversed and
undone in the second half
act 4 – falling action
all the scenes between the climax and the final act (catastrophe). in a tragedy, everything starts to
go badly for protagonist, the force of the final suspense, occurring just before the catastrophe, is
meant to give the audience a final moment of hope
act 5 – catastrophe
final pay off of the plot, where all the things that have been building finally occur all at once. it’s the
tragedy, where everyone dies. it is also referred to as the resolution, or the denouement – which
means ‘tying loose ends’
characters
romeo
ardent, loving, romantic, petrarchan lover , prophetic, infatuated, poetic, impulsive, impetuous
“O me, what fray was here? Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all. Here’s much to do with hate, but
more with love.” - Romeo makes his first appearance a few moments after the Prince has ended a
fight between montagues and capulets. these lines establish that Romeo is tired of the fued
between the two families. He compares the family’s hatred to his own love for rosaline, which
establishes the close connection between love and violence running throughout the play
“for my mind misgives, some consequence yet hanging in the stars, shall bitterly begin his fearful
date, with this nights revels and expire the term, of a despised life closed in my breast, By some vile
forfeit of untimely death.” - Romeo agrees to attend the Capulets’ ball even though he has a
premonition. Throughout the play we get a strong sense that Romeo and Juliet cannot escape their
fates. When Romeo says that the consequences of his decision are “hanging in the stars,” he
reminds the audience that the “star-crossed” lovers of the Prologue are doomed to die.
“alas, that love, whose view is muffled still, should without eyes see pathways to his will” – romeo
says this when he’s in love with rosaline. his language in the opening scenes shows us that his first
love is less mature than the love he will develop for juliet. shakespeare combines 2 cliché ideas
during his time: love is blind and love will find a way. he is comparing love to cupid, who, although is
always blindfolded, still manages to make people fall in love
, “O she doth teach the torches to burn bright. It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night As a rich
jewel in an Ethiope’s ear.” - These lines express Romeo’s first impression of Juliet. In discussing his
love for Rosaline, Romeo uses stale clichés drawn from the Petrarchan love poetry that was popular
in Shakespeare’s day. As soon as he sees Juliet, Romeo’s language takes on a striking and original
quality, which suggests that his passion for her is authentic.
“with love’s light wings did i o’erperch these walls, for stony limits cannot hold love out” – for
romeo, true love is a liberating force. r answers j’s serious question with a romantic fantasy,
representing how juliet is more grounded than romeo throughout the play (conventional imagery of
elizabethan love poetry). for juliet, love brings the freedom to have sex and to leave her parents
house. Juliet asks Romeo how he has managed to reach her bedroom, and this is his reply. These
lines show that for Romeo, love is freedom. As a lover, he can ignore the boundaries set by the feud
between Montagues and Capulets. Yet Romeo’s words also suggest that he retains a primarily
abstract and poetic understanding of love, more fantasy than reality.
“o brawling love, o loving hate, o anything of nothing first create” – anaphora, rhyming, oxymorons /
antithesis. conflicting feelings he doesn’t understand
“my lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand” – juliet is a saint, romeo is a pilgrim. can convey
innocence and purity, but by flippantly casting juliet as a religious idol, they are being somewhat
blasphemous. sonnect structure – 14 lines ABAB CDCD EFEFGG rhyme scheme (typical love poem)
“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…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.” - As Romeo approaches Juliet’s bedroom, he describes her in language drawn from
astrology, such as suns, moons, and stars. This grandiose imagery suggests that Romeo believes his
love for Juliet is not earthbound, but transcendent. Juliet herself is a force as powerful as the sun,
the literal centre of the universe. However, astrological imagery also reminds the audience that
Romeo and Juliet are “star-crossed”—in other words, fated to die. The following lines read “arise,
fair sun, and kill the envious moon,” suggesting that Romeo’s love for Juliet has supplanted his
previous, weaker infatuation with Rosaline. Though it is late at night, Juliet’s surpassing beauty
makes Romeo imagine that she is the sun, transforming the darkness into daylight. Romeo likewise
personifies the moon, calling it “sick and pale with grief” at the fact that Juliet, the sun, is far brighter
and more beautiful. Romeo then compares Juliet to the stars, claiming that she eclipses the stars as
daylight overpowers a lamp—her eyes alone shine so bright that they will convince the birds to sing
at night as if it were day.
“O sweet Juliet, Thy beauty hath made me effeminate, And in my temper softened valor’s steel!” -
When Tybalt kills Mercutio, Romeo regrets not fighting Tybalt himself. This is a turning point in
Romeo’s story. Up until now, Romeo has been trying to free himself from the feud between
Montagues and Capulets as well as the masculine code of honor that keeps the feud going. When he
blames Juliet for making him “effeminate,” he is embracing the masculine code once more.
“Is it even so? Then, I defy you, stars!” - Romeo refuses to accept Juliet’s death. He decides to return
to Verona, but his attempt to defy the “stars” only succeeds in bringing about his tragic fate, which
emphasizes that the lovers’ destiny is inescapable. Because the Prologue references the lovers’
“star-crossed” fate, every subsequent reference to the stars, or to the heavens in general, reminds
the audience of the sad fate awaiting the lovers, and their inability to avoid it, try though they might.
