More log-looking shows me that Romeoās actually the most popular character to ask about. Which I suppose is only logical, as heās most likely to be on a high school homework assignment. Since Google tells me that āWhy does Romeo ā¦ā is the most popularly phrased question I thought Iād kill many birds with one stone and make a quick reference.
(For the record, these answers are all off the top of my head so please forgive any misquotes. My point isnāt to write a Wikipedia article, itās to show that the play can in fact reside in your brain in a perfectly logical way such that you still understand and appreciate the story as a whole and not a connected series of well known quotations.)
Why does Romeo go to the Capulet party?
Put in the simplest of terms, Romeoās just been shunned/dumped/ignored by the girl he thinks heās in love with, and his friends Benvolio and Mercutio try to cheer him up by telling him that thereāll be plenty of other girls at the Capulet party. Thereās nothing special or tricky about their motivation. They tell Romeo, āLook, we think there are better girls out there than Rosaline, you obviously donāt, so why not come to the party and see for yourself? Rosaline will be there anyway, so youāll get to check her out compared to some of the other girls and then you can decide.ā (For his part, Romeo is humoring his friends while really thinking āYay Iāll get a chance to see Rosaline again.ā He truly has no interest in looking at other girls.)
Why does Romeo hide from Benvolio and Mercutio?
Romeoās friends have already mocked him once for thinking he was so head-over-heels in love with Rosaline. Well, now Romeoās in love again ā for real this time! ā with Juliet. Real love at first sight stuff. And Romeo just knows that Benvolio and Mercutio arenāt going to understand (āThey jest at scars that never felt a wound,ā he says), he can tell just by the way theyāre acting. Theyāll no doubt tell him that heās crazy for falling in love with a Capulet (sworn enemy of the Montague family, by the way), and try to drag him home before he does something stupid. So rather than deal with them at all, he avoids them completely and sets about trying to see Juliet again.
Why does Romeo compare Juliet to the sun?
Iām not about to go into a high school essay type of answer on all of the poetry in the play, Iād be here all day. Iāll just say this ā Shakespeare played with opposites to make his point. A lot. As in, all the time, you canāt swing a dead Ophelia without hitting an example of it: āso fair and foul a day I have not seenā, āto be or not to beā, āmore light and light, more dark and dark our woesā. (That last oneās actually from Romeo and Juliet, by the way.)
Romeoās descriptions of Juliet start the minute he sees her — āa rich jewel in an Ethiopās earā is another image, once you realize that by āEthiopā Shakespeare is really referring to an African person, i.e. someone with dark skin, and the jewel he’s thinking of is a pearl – you know, the white one. He keeps trying to paint that āworld is dark, she is lightā image. He goes on to talk about āsnowy dovesā hanging out with crows (which are black ā you see where heās going with this?)
Later in the garden, when Romeo is down on the ground looking up at Juliet against the night sky, he starts by comparing her to the moon but decides thatās not good enough. Sure it makes a nice āwhite spot against a black backgroundā image like heās already made a few times, but it doesnāt really hit it out of the park like heās trying to express. The moon only does a partial job of lighting up the night sky, after all. Whatās the real opposite of night time? What *does* have the radiance to banish the darkness? Why, the sun of course. Thatās what my man Romeo is talking about. Arise fair Sun and kill the envious Moon. Julietās beauty doesnāt just light up the night sky, Julietās like the sun, making you forget that itās even night to begin with.
Whatās interesting, in case you donāt get to make this connection, is that Juliet returns the favor for Romeo later in the play during her famous āGallop apace you fiery footed steeds, toward Phoebusā lodgingā speech. In it she says, āWhen he shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars and he will make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun.ā Itās cool because of the obvious parallel, while at the same time being the exact opposite ā Romeo paints the picture of Juliet as daytime, while she paints the image of him as glorious night.
Why does Romeo refuse to fight Tybalt?
Short answer? Romeo and Juliet have gotten married, but nobody knows it. Since Tybalt is Julietās cousin, that technically means that Romeo is now also family with Tybalt. He has united the Montague and Capulet clans. Heās also downright giddy with excitement about how great life is going, and heās having one of those days where you can walk up to your sworn enemy, give him a big hug and tell him āNo hard feelings,ā and seriously mean it because the world is just that great of a place for you right now.
The problem, of course, is that nobody understands Romeoās real motivation, and everybody interprets differently. Tybalt thinks that Romeo is mocking him, and it only makes him angrier. Mercutio, on the other hand, thinks that Romeo is chickening out of the fight, and that makes Mercutio mad. This does not end well.
Why does Romeo kill Tybalt?
Unable to watch his friendās honor go down the drain, Mercutio takes up the challenge to duel Tybalt instead. Is Mercutio a bit of a hothead? Thereās huge amounts of interpretation to go along with this scene. Was it a bunch of kids fooling around and things got out of hand? Or did they really mean to do each other harm? In a post called Empathy for Tybalt we examined the interpretation of this scene from both the 1968 Zeffirelli version, as well as the modern Leonardo DiCaprio version.
Either way, Mercutio ends up dead and itās pretty clearly Romeoās fault. Romeo is trying to break up the fight so nobody ā friend or āformerā enemy alike – gets hurt. And all he ends up doing is holding Mercutio down, allowing Tybalt to deal the killing blow (whether it was intentional or not).
Howās this got to make Romeo feel? Mercutio was fighting in the first place to defend Romeoās honor, though technically the roots of the battle were nothing ā the āancient grudgeā between the families. They started dueling for no other reason than being Capulets and Montagues. But Romeo basically wiped that slate clean when he married a Capulet. He doesnāt fight Tybalt now just because of his name, he fights for revenge. Mercutio was wrongly killed, and Romeo takes it upon himself to deliver justice. One of my favorite, spine-tingling quotes in the whole play comes when Romeo says, pardon the misquote, āMercutioās soul is just a bit above our heads, and you, or I, or both must go with him.ā That is seriously bad-ass. You killed my friend, and either you die now or youāre gonna have to kill me too. If Tybalt never meant to kill Mercutio, thatās certainly going to give him cause to worry. Heās not playing around with schoolyard taunting anymore, heās facing an enemy who, man-to-man, wants him dead and is willing to die to do it. En guard.
Why does Romeo buy the poison?
Itās the ultimate in melodramatic to say, āWhat will I do without my love? I canāt live without you!ā Well, thatās kind of the whole point of the story, Romeo is the king of the melodramatic. Cliches have to start somewhere, and Shakespeareās audience would have been on the edge of their seats at what these days many of us cynically think of as “Look how stupid these kids were.ā
As far as Romeo knows, Juliet is dead. The touching thing about this whole scene is that his response is *instant*. Balthasar, his servant, has mistakenly delivered the news. Romeo asks him several times, āAre you sure? You donāt have any letters from Friar Laurence or anything?ā and then dismisses him. His first line when he is alone? āWell, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight.ā He then starts thinking out loud about the best way to do it, and thatās where the poison comes in.
Iām old enough at this point to realize that killing yourself is pretty stupid, but Iām not cold-hearted enough not to see the romance in that. He doesnāt hesitate. He doesnāt say āWhatever shall I do?ā Thereās been many double-suicide pacts over the years that have gone wrong when someone thinks better of it at the last minute. The fascinating thing about Romeo here (and please remember, kids, he is a fictional character, donāt try this at home!) is that he is single-minded in his determination. This is not going to be easy. Itās illegal to buy poison, first of all. Second of all, heās a criminal in Verona, so itās not like he can just walk back into town. The DiCaprio version of the story here is pretty awesome, turning it into an actual police chase as they race him to the tomb where Juliet has been placed.
Why does Romeo kill Paris?
āTempt not a desperate man!ā DiCaprioās gun-wielding Romeo screams at the cops in his version, and it sums up the situation. He is a desperate man. Heās known only one thing since finding out that Juliet is dead ā that he will be with her. āCome Hell or highwaterā is an expression maybe youāve heard? Yeah. That.
Poor Paris gets the short end of the deal in this play. Juliet never really cared about him one way or the other, but no one else did, either. He was never a threat to Romeo, at least not physically. Itās not like he was all about the duel, like Tybalt.
So poor Paris really was in love with Juliet (or at least, what he thought love was, not like Romeo), and has come to her grave to mourn. He thinks that Romeo has come to desecrate (that is, vandalize) the site, and tries to apprehend him. Good old Paris.
Did I mention that Paris was no threat to Romeo? The whole desperate man thing? Romeo actually has a moment of calm here, and tells Paris, āLook. Leave. Live to fight another day.ā If Paris was a bit smarter he might have understood what Romeo was up to, as Romeo clearly says āI have come armād against myself ā¦ hereafter say a madmanās mercy bade thee run away.ā If Paris had in fact run away, he could have gone screaming to the nearest authorities āRomeoās going to kill himself! Heās gone crazy!ā
But no, Paris doesnāt get it.
Up until this point, Romeo doesnāt even know who this is, nor does he care. Dudeās in the way. Romeoās given him a chance to leave, he didnāt take it, so he has to die. It is only after killing him that Romeo has a moment of clarity, recognizes Paris and thinks, āWait, didnāt somebody say something about Juliet was supposed to marry this guy? Is that why he was here at her grave? Oops.ā (Ok, he doesnāt say oops, but he canāt feel good about himself. )
Ok, thatās one of the longest posts Iāve done in a while, hope you all enjoyed it. I like doing stream of consciousness like that sometimes, I actually stumbled over some ideas Iād never had before (like Romeo wiping the Montague/Capulet slate clean, and being the only person in the play to actually fight for a real reason).
Iām not talking about actors who memorize as part of their job, or geeks who memorize just by experiencing the same passages over and over again.Ā Iām talking about the legions of school-age children who stop by, having been tasked with memorizing the balcony scene or a sonnet or even a passage of their choice, just for the sake of memorizing it.