Romeo and Juliet
par Meaghan Alle
1. Main Characters
1.1. Romeo: Son of heir of Montague and Lady Montague. A young, handsome, intelligent and sensitive man.
1.2. Juliet: The daughter of Capulet and Lady Capulet. A young, beautiful, naive but courageous girl.
1.3. Tybalt: A Capulet, Juliet's cousin on her mother's side. He is vain, fashionable and becomes violent later on in the story.
1.4. Capulet: The patriarch of the Capulet family who is the father of Juliet. He loves his daughter but does not always listen to her.
1.5. Lady Capulet: Juliet's mother. She wants Juliet to marry Paris.
1.6. Montague: Romeo's father, the patriarch of the Montague clan and enemy of Capulet.
1.7. Lady Montague: Romeo's mother. She dies when she finds out Romeo is exiled from Verona
1.8. Paris: A kinsman of the Prince who is promised by Capulet that he can marry Juliet.
2. Symbols
2.1. Poison: A natural substance by nature, but made deadly and destructive by humans.
2.1.1. Symbolizes the harmful tendencies of human nature
2.2. Thumb-biting: Violence
2.3. Queen Mab: Symbolizes dreams and the power of desire.
3. Climax
3.1. The death of Romeo and Juliet in the Capulet tomb
4. Setting
4.1. Renaissance (fourteenth or fifteenth century)
4.2. Verona and Mantua (cities in Italy)
5. Themes
5.1. The individual versus society
5.2. The power of love
5.3. The inevitability of fate
6. Motifs
6.1. The contrast between light and dark
6.1.1. Used to describe opposed alternatives
6.1.2. Juliet is described as the sun
6.1.3. "More light and light, more dark and dark our woes"
6.2. Opposing views
6.2.1. The noble's world versus the servant's world
6.2.2. The servant's world consists of simple needs, while the noble's world is full of "grand tragic gestures"