Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

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Quote Interpretation
1. In Act One Scene Four, Mercutio delivered his famous.He is trying to convince Romeo to put aside his love over Rosaline and come to the Capulet feast. Romeo says that he is saddened from a dream. Mercutio responds by giving speech about Queen Mab. Queen Mab is the fairy who delivers dreams to sleeping humans. The main point of the speech is that the visions that Queen Mab delivers are directly related to the person that she delivers to dream to.For example, a lover would dream of love, a barber would dream of hair, a soldier would dream of war, inventor would dream of new an amazing gadgets. The other part of the speech talks about virginity. “Maids lie on their back” refers to maids having sex. “Presses them and learns them first to bear” is maids getting pregnant. This speech shows that Mercutio is very fun loving and joking. Reproduction is part of the human condition and it ties in with the theme of love. (168)
2. “Then, I defy you stars!” is an example of free will versus fate portrayed by Romeo in Act Five Scene One. The quote is an allusion to a quote in the Shakespeare’s same work in the prologue. Romeo is crushed by the latest news from Balthasar that his love, Juliet, is dead. Fate is not at all sympathetic towards free will. Romeo is signifying that he is in charge of his own life, and not ruled by some preset order of events. Ironically, Romeo tried to change his fate, however, he killed himself before the Friar could stop him or Juliet woke up. This highlights and emphasizes the love that Romeo has for Juliet. The characterization adds to the theme of young love. Love is one of the most basic principles and characteristics of the human condition. The stars can be defied. We are not ruled by ...

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...th Romeo and Juliet were looking for love because this was such a weird and stressed time. A lot of people look for mates with similar traits, but because Romeo and Juliet came from completely different house, they were opposites. The opposite poles are attracted to each other. I am not saying that Romeo and Juliet were bipolar, but they were aggressive towards other people.
Romeo and Juliet is probably Shakespeare's most famous work. I believe that a major part of this fame i caused by the severity of the consequences of this work. No one wants to read a book without an antagonist and struggle. The magnitude is what has drawn millions of readers. Almost no love story ends with what we consider the ultimate sacrifice. Their suicide seals the fate of both Romeo and Juliet as a true love at first sight, even though their magical time together only lasted a week. (542)

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