Romeo and Juliet Hate Quotes

What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word,
As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee:
Have at thee, coward!

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 1. Juliet’s short-tempered and impetuous young cousin Tybalt calls Benvolio a coward when he tries to keep the peace between the Capulets and Montagues – "I do but keep the peace: put up thy sword, Or manage it to part these men with me." Fiery Tybalt expresses total hatred for all Montagues, illustrating the extent of the bad blood between the two houses. His rash and impulsive behavior helps stir up a big brawl on the streets, causing damage and disturbances and angering Verona’s ruling Prince.

Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,
By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,
Have thrice disturb’d the quiet of our streets,
And made Verona’s ancient citizens
Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments,
To wield old partisans, in hands as old,
Canker’d with peace, to part your canker’d hate.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 1. Prince Escalus launches a tirade at the patriarchs of the feuding Capulets and Montagues for their families’ involvement in three disturbances on Verona’s streets. The angry city ruler says that Verona’s elderly citizens have been forced to take off their dress clothes and pick up rusty spears to break up the fights.

Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O any thing, of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 1. Romeo is full of conflicted emotions because of his unrequited love for Rosaline. To express this he uses oxymorons, a figure of speech in which what seem contradictory terms appear in conjunction. This passage blurs the lines between love and hate and reflects the themes of the play, in which love and hate are intricately bound up in one another. When he speaks of "brawling," "hate" and "chaos," Romeo is not only lamenting Rosaline not returning his love, but also the feud raging between his family, the Montagues, and the Capulets.

My only love sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
That I must love a loathed enemy.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5. Juliet says this when she finds out Romeo is a Montague. She is fated to love a "loathed enemy" of her family, the Capulets. "Too early seen unknown, and known too late" suggests that had Juliet known he was a Montague she wouldn’t have fallen in love with him, but now that she has there is no going back. With Juliet, as with Romeo, love is an irresistible force that a person cannot control.

Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye
Than twenty of their swords: look thou but sweet,
And I am proof against their enmity.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2. In the famed balcony scene, Romeo responds to Juliet’s warning that he will die if any of her kinsmen find him in the Capulets’ garden. He reassures her and dismisses the danger, saying that if she looks at him with love that will protect him from their hate. This is an example of dramatic irony since the audience knows that the two lovers are doomed to die.

Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford
No better term than this: thou art a villain.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 1. Tybalt voices his hatred for Romeo when he meets him on the streets of Verona. The Montague-Capulet feud bubbles to the surface, as Tybalt insults Romeo by calling him a "villain." This has a certain irony because Romeo and Tybalt’s cousin Juliet have been secretly wed, so Romeo is now Tybalt’s kinsman and relation through marriage. Tybalt is a hot-headed and aggressive person who acts on impulse.

He shall not make me there a joyful bride.
I wonder at this haste; that I must wed
Ere he, that should be husband, comes to woo.
I pray you, tell my lord and father, madam,
I will not marry yet; and, when I do, I swear,
It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate,
Rather than Paris.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5. Juliet reveals her love for Romeo in this speech to Lady Capulet. She says that she will not marry Paris and would rather marry Romeo, the man from the hated Montague family who killed her cousin. She is being ironic when she tells her mother that Romeo is the man "whom you know I hate," since she strongly does not hate Romeo and has secretly married him. Juliet’s mother thinks what she is saying is that she so dislikes her parents’ plan for her to marry Paris she would rather marry Romeo. Lady Capulet is not aware that she has actually married him. The double meaning in Juliet’s words emphasizes the theme of appearance vs reality, a theme found throughout the play.

Thank me no thankings, nor, proud me no prouds,
But fettle your fine joints ‘gainst Thursday next,
To go with Paris to Saint Peter’s Church,
Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.
Out, you green-sickness carrion! out, you baggage!
You tallow-face!

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5. An impatient Capulet shows his disgust and anger at his daughter Juliet for her refusal to marry Paris. Hurling insults, he uses an unpleasant metaphor comparing his teenage daughter to a rotting carcass. He threatens to drag her to church to get married.

Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient wretch!
I tell thee what: get thee to church o’ Thursday,
Or never after look me in the face:
Speak not, reply not, do not answer me;
My fingers itch.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5. Capulet directs vicious insults at Juliet after she refuses to marry Paris, a match that he has arranged for her. He believes that her refusal displays a lack of appreciation and gratitude towards him. Verbally abusive, he threatens to disown her if she disobeys him. He becomes so angry that he wants to hit her – "My fingers itch."

See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.
And I for winking at your discords too
Have lost a brace of kinsmen: all are punish’d.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 5, Scene 3. Prince Escalus chastises Capulet and Montague and holds them responsible for Romeo and Juliet’s double suicide. He tells them that the evil feud and hate between the families led to the loss of their children. He also blames himself for losing two of his own family by turning a blind eye to the feud. As a result all of them have been punished. Escalus says, with irony, that heaven found a way of killing Capulet and Montague’s joys – their children – with the love they had for one another. He also personifies heaven, giving it the human ability to kill.
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