Should he listen for more? Or is this the best time to speak? She’s an angel! Then she says one of Shakespeare’s most famous lines: ‘ O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?’ It means why are you Romeo? ‘ See how she leans her cheek upon her hand! He watches her, and then comes one of the most sensual images in all of Shakespeare: Even then, ‘ the brightness of her cheek would shame those stars.’ It was as though two of the brightest stars in heaven, having some business elsewhere, had begged her eyes to take their place. His thoughts return to the moment of first seeing her – to her eyes. If she says anything he is going to answer her, but he can’t believe that it will be about him if she does speak. Oh, it is my love!’ She is standing there, gazing out on the shadowy orchard. Perhaps it is Juliet! Yes, it is, he can see that now. He sees a light come on at a window and he says ‘ But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?’ He wishes that it were Juliet’s candle: ‘ It is the east, and Juliet is the sun,’ he says, wishing.Ī door opens on to a balcony and someone holding a candle comes out on to it. Irritated by their mockery he gives them the slip and climbs over the wall of one of Capulet’s orchards – the one that adjoins the Capulet house. Romeo has been smitten by Juliet after gatecrashing her father’s party. It is the poetry that makes this scene so special. The appealing thing about the balcony scene is that we are eavesdropping on the most intense of adolescent emotions and raging teenage hormones, all packaged in some of Shakespeare’s most beautiful poetry. We are still with them, forgetting that this girl is only fourteen and in the care of an irresponsible governess who is not going to jerk her into a sense of reality but, instead, connive with her in a dangerous plan that will lead to disaster. We watch as they go too far and plan to marry. While watching the balcony scene we are caught up in the touching spectacle of these two beautiful young people and their intense feelings. But halfway through the drama, on the very next day, in fact, the play turns sour and the romantic element disappears in the face of the horror show that the story becomes.
The play certainly starts out like that, with the two lovers falling in love at first sight, then talking love-talk in a moonlit garden, and running off the next day to get married. The Romeo & Juliet balcony scene is a romantic one, reflecting the general notion that Romeo and Juliet is a romantic play. Each Shakespeare’s play name links to a range of resources about each play: Character summaries, plot outlines, example essays and famous quotes, soliloquies and monologues: All’s Well That Ends Well Antony and Cleopatra As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Coriolanus Cymbeline Hamlet Henry IV Part 1 Henry IV Part 2 Henry VIII Henry VI Part 1 Henry VI Part 2 Henry VI Part 3 Henry V Julius Caesar King John King Lear Loves Labour’s Lost Macbeth Measure for Measure The Merchant of Venice The Merry Wives of Windsor A Midsummer Night’s Dream Much Ado About Nothing Othello Pericles Richard II Richard III Romeo & Juliet The Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Timon of Athens Titus Andronicus Troilus & Cressida Twelfth Night The Two Gentlemen of Verona The Winter’s Tale
This list of Shakespeare plays brings together all 38 plays in alphabetical order. Plays It is believed that Shakespeare wrote 38 plays in total between 15.
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