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Shakespeare's verse appears in Valentine's cards.

Romeo and Juliet - Language

Explore how Shakespeare’s language in Romeo and Juliet uses rhythm, imagery and contrast to reveal character, build tension and turn a simple love story into powerful tragedy.

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Fascinating Fact:

Iambic pentameter gives many speeches a steady rhythm, helping passionate dialogue between Romeo and Juliet sound controlled and lyrical.

In GCSE English Literature, you explore how Shakespeare shapes meaning through language in Romeo and Juliet. Features such as iambic pentameter, sonnet form, vivid imagery and contrast help present love, conflict and fate in powerful, memorable ways that you can analyse in detail in your exam responses.

Key Terms

Iambic pentameter: A line with ten syllables in a da-DUM rhythm, often used for important speeches in the play.
Imagery: Descriptive language, such as light and dark images, that helps the audience picture emotions or scenes.
Oxymoron: Two opposite words placed together, like “brawling love”, to show inner conflict or confusion.

Frequently Asked Questions (Click to see answers)

How is iambic pentameter used in Romeo and Juliet?

Shakespeare gives many of Romeo and Juliet’s key speeches an iambic pentameter rhythm. This steady beat makes their passionate feelings sound controlled, musical and suitable for high-status characters.

What language techniques show Romeo and Juliet’s emotions?

Shakespeare uses oxymorons, strong metaphors and religious imagery to show intense emotion. For example, Romeo’s “holy shrine” language and Juliet’s “bright angel” image suggest love that feels sacred and overwhelming.

How can I analyse Shakespeare’s language in my GCSE answers?

Choose short quotations, then zoom in on key words and techniques. For instance, you might explain how Mercutio’s wordplay or Tybalt’s insults reveal attitude, mood and themes such as honour or conflict.

Try These Related Quizzes

1 .

"O sweet Juliet, / Thy beauty hath made me effeminate, / And in my temper softened valour's steel." What does Romeo imply here?

Romeo's reflexes have been dulled and he is not capable of fighting Tybalt

Juliet's beauty is not as great as that of a good swordfighter

Loving Juliet has made Romeo less of a fighter

All of the above

Romeo contrasts the hardened steel of valour with the softness caused, he believes, by spending time with a woman. He feels responsible for Mercutio's death because he had been swayed by love of Juliet into not responding to Tybalt's taunts

2 .

"Call me but love and I'll be new baptized. / Henceforth I never will be Romeo." What does Romeo mean by being "new baptized" here?

He will become a Christian

He will take a new name

He promises to be a good man if Juliet overlooks his hateful name

He hints that he wishes to get married as quickly as possible

Juliet has asked rhetorically that Romeo, who is perfection to her, could do without the name which makes him an enemy of her family. Overhearing her, he responds that he would happily take on a new name (given at baptism), if only she will call him "love". Being newly baptised also implies beginning anew

3 .

"A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life, / Whose misadventured piteous overthrows / Doth with their death bury their parents' strife." How is the word "bury" used here?

To refer to their buried love

To refer to the lovers' ill fate

As a simile

Metaphorically

Death buries the feud, which is abstract and, unlike Romeo and Juliet's bodies, cannot literally be buried

4 .

Hearing that Tybalt has been killed by Romeo, Juliet laments, "Was ever book containing such vile matter / So fairly bound?" Which of the following lines does NOT express the same sentiment?

"Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st —"

"Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?"

"O that deceit should dwell / In such a gorgeous palace!"

"Thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend / In mortal paradise of such sweet flesh?"

Juliet is torn by grief and at first passionately denounces Romeo for not being what he appears to be (using the metaphor of the book and the cover, as her mother does in the first act)

5 .

"If I profane with my unworthiest hand / This holy shrine..." - Romeo. Which of the following is true?

Romeo compares himself to a pilgrim and the Capulet home to a shrine

Romeo compares Juliet to a pilgrim and himself to a saint

Romeo compares himself and Juliet to pilgrims

Romeo compares himself to a pilgrim and Juliet to a saint

Romeo honours Juliet with the reverence of a pilgrim for a saint. He also wishes to touch and to kiss her as pilgrims would in reverence at a saint's shrine. Juliet's body is the shrine and herself the saint

6 .

"O brother Montague, give me thy hand. / This is my daughter's jointure, for no more / Can I demand." Which words indicate Capulet's change of heart?

Brother, thy, hand

Montague, daughter, demand

Hand, daughter, more

Daughter, jointure, demand

Capulet symbolically refers to Montague as "brother", using the familiar pronoun "thy" (the pronoun used with family) and asking for his hand in a gesture of reconciliation

7 .

"I would have thee gone — / And yet no farther than a wanton's bird, / That lets it hop a little from his hand." Juliet compares Romeo to which of the following?

A free bird of prey

A farmyard animal

A bird intended for roasting

A captive bird

Juliet deals with conflicting desires. She wants Romeo to be safely away and wishes to keep him near. She perceives that love can be a restraint

8 .

"Within the infant rind of this weak flower / Poison hath residence, and medicine power." Why are these lines spoken by Friar Laurence significant?

Love, like the medicinal flower, can also be deadly

The small and the weak can also be powerful, as the younger members of the feuding families reveal themselves to be

Friar Laurence foreshadows the later use of the potion which feigns death and the actual poison used by Romeo

All of the above

Poison and power are key themes in Romeo and Juliet.

9 .

"Why, is not this better now than groaning for love? Now art thou sociable, now art thou Romeo, now art thou what thou art by art as well as by nature." Mercutio's words relate most closely to which of the following lines?

"His name is Romeo, and a Montague, / The only son of your great enemy"

"Why, Romeo, art thou mad?"

"O Romeo, Romeo, / wherefore art thou Romeo?"

"'Tis he, that villain Romeo"

Romeo's identity is problematic. Juliet asks what virtue is in a name and Mercutio insists that Romeo is only truly himself when he is engaged in bawdy joking with the lads

10 .

CAPULET'S WIFE: So shall you share all that he doth possess
By having him, making yourself no less.
NURSE: No less, nay, bigger. Women grow by men.
To what does Nurse refer?

Pregnancy

Increased wealth

Increased love and affection

Illness

Nurse continuously twists the meaning of Juliet's mother's words, turning them into crude jokes

You can find more about this topic by visiting BBC Bitesize - Form, structure and language

Author: Sheri Smith (PhD English Literature, English Teacher & Quiz Writer)