You are viewing a free preview of this lesson.
Subscribe to unlock all 10 lessons in this course and every other course on LearningBro.
Romeo is one of the two protagonists. Understanding his character arc — from lovesick young man to tragic hero — is essential for any whole-play question on the Edexcel Shakespeare paper.
ACT 1: Lovesick and melancholy (Rosaline)
↓
ACT 1.5: Passionate and impulsive (meets Juliet)
↓
ACT 2: Romantic idealist (balcony scene, marriage)
↓
ACT 3: Vengeful and banished (slays Tybalt)
↓
ACT 5: Desperate and resolute (the tomb)
| Trait | Evidence |
|---|---|
| Impulsive | Falls in love instantly; marries within 24 hours; slays Tybalt in a moment of rage |
| Passionate | Uses intense, poetic language; feels everything deeply |
| Idealistic | Believes love can transcend the feud; sees Juliet in cosmic terms ("the sun") |
| Loyal | Avenges Mercutio despite knowing the consequences |
| Reckless | Breaks into the Capulet orchard; buys poison immediately on hearing bad news |
| Quote | Act/Scene | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| "Did my heart love till now?" | 1.5 | Abandons Rosaline instantly — love at first sight, but also impulsiveness |
| "But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? / It is the east, and Juliet is the sun." | 2.2 | Cosmic imagery elevates Juliet; Romeo sees her as a life-giving force |
| "O, I am fortune's fool!" | 3.1 | Acknowledges fate's control; recognises his own recklessness |
| "Then I defy you, stars!" | 5.1 | Challenges fate itself — both heroic and futile |
| "Here's to my love!" | 5.3 | Final act of devotion and desperation |
| With Rosaline | With Juliet |
|---|---|
| Uses conventional Petrarchan language (oxymorons, clichés) | Uses original, spontaneous imagery |
| Love is unrequited — he performs sadness | Love is reciprocal — she responds and challenges him |
| Static and self-indulgent | Dynamic and willing to act |
| "O brawling love, O loving hate" — generic | "It is the east, and Juliet is the sun" — specific and vivid |
Examiner's tip: The contrast between Romeo's feelings for Rosaline and for Juliet is a favourite question target. His love for Rosaline is performative (he enjoys being sad); his love for Juliet is transformative (it drives him to action). However, both are characterised by impulsiveness — Shakespeare may be questioning whether Romeo truly matures. Offering this kind of evaluative reading lifts you into the top Edexcel band for AO1 ("perceptive, critical and evaluative personal response").
Romeo's language evolves across the play:
| Stage | Language Features | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Act 1 (Rosaline) | Petrarchan sonneteering; oxymorons | "O brawling love, O loving hate" |
| Act 1.5–2 (Juliet) | Light/celestial imagery; shared sonnet | "Juliet is the sun"; the shared sonnet at 1.5 |
| Act 3 (After Tybalt) | Violent, desperate | "Fire-eyed fury be my conduct now" |
| Act 5 (The tomb) | Darkly determined; beauty-in-gloom imagery | "Her beauty makes / This vault a feasting presence full of light" |
| Classical Tragic Feature | How Romeo Fits |
|---|---|
| Noble birth | Son of Montague, a wealthy family |
| Hamartia | Impulsiveness and haste |
| Peripeteia (reversal) | From secretly married husband to banished fugitive in one scene |
| Anagnorisis (recognition) | "O, I am fortune's fool!" — but the recognition comes too late |
| Catastrophe | His rash actions lead to his demise and Juliet's |
Point: Shakespeare presents Romeo as dangerously impulsive, suggesting that unchecked passion leads to destruction. Evidence: After hearing of Juliet's apparent passing, Romeo immediately declares "Then I defy you, stars!" and rides to Verona with poison. Analysis: The exclamatory sentence and the verb "defy" present Romeo as heroic — he challenges fate itself. However, the dramatic irony is devastating: the audience knows Juliet is alive. Romeo's impulsiveness, the same trait that made him fall in love so quickly, now drives him towards catastrophe. Shakespeare may be suggesting that the same passion that creates intense love also creates intense destruction. Link: An Elizabethan audience would have seen Romeo's defiance of the stars as both admirable and hubristic — challenging divine order, much like the tragic heroes of classical drama. This contextual layer enriches the personal reading rather than replacing it.
It is worth mapping Romeo's feelings carefully, because the question that examiners most often set is some version of "How does Shakespeare present Romeo's love?" — and a sophisticated answer needs to distinguish stages.
Stage 1 — Petrarchan melancholy (1.1). Romeo opens the play suffering over Rosaline in the most conventional possible register. His oxymorons ("O brawling love, O loving hate") are borrowed. His rhymes are end-stopped. His self-image is that of a sad lover: he enjoys the role. Benvolio has to drag him into the action. Shakespeare is signalling that this is not real feeling — it is love as performance.
Stage 2 — Instant transformation (1.5). The moment Romeo sees Juliet, his register changes. The oxymorons stop. In their place comes original figurative language: "She doth teach the torches to burn bright." The simile invents itself. The iambic pentameter becomes fluid, enjambed, generative. Shakespeare measures transformation through prosody — the rhythm itself changes.
Stage 3 — Impassioned husband (2.2–2.6). In the balcony scene Romeo talks himself into new registers: cosmic imagery ("Juliet is the sun"), religious imagery ("Call me but love, and I'll be new baptised"), extravagant vows. He is still partly performing, but the performance is reaching for something real.
Stage 4 — Exile (3.3). Banishment reduces Romeo to a child on the floor of the Friar's cell. He threatens to take his own life; the Friar rebukes him. Shakespeare uses this scene to show the flip-side of passion: the capacity for self-destruction is built into the same temperament that loved so quickly.
Stage 5 — Tragic resolve (5.1–5.3). On hearing that Juliet has died, Romeo does not mourn — he acts. "Then I defy you, stars! / Thou know'st my lodging. Get me ink and paper, / And hire post-horses." The verse is decisive, planner-like, almost prose-like in its practicality. In the tomb his final speech turns beautifully lyrical once more: "Her beauty makes / This vault a feasting presence full of light." He dies inside the imagery he has used all along. There is a case to be made that Romeo does not change at all — that he is always passionate, always impulsive, always poetic — and that the play simply shows what this temperament does when pressed by circumstance.
Subscribe to continue reading
Get full access to this lesson and all 10 lessons in this course.