Romeo

Play

Romeo and Juliet

Summary

A young Montague who at the play's opening is pining extravagantly for Rosaline and by its end has died for Juliet — the speed of his transformation from literary infatuation to absolute love is itself a measure of what Juliet does to him. He is passionate, eloquent, and reckless: his killing of Tybalt, though provoked by Mercutio's death, turns the comedy's first half into tragedy. His suicide in the tomb, believing Juliet dead, is one of the most agonizing misses in all literature — he dies seconds before she wakes.

Notable Quotations

"But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? / It is the East, and Juliet is the sun." *(II.ii)*

"O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!" *(I.v)*

"Then I defy you, stars!" *(V.i)*

"Thus with a kiss I die." *(V.iii)*

Cross-references

• Romeo and Juliet — the play
• Tragedies
• character_juliet — the love for whom he dies
• character_mercutio — his brilliant, doomed friend
• character_friar_lawrence — whose plan he follows to catastrophe
• character_benvolio — his peaceable cousin