Romeo and Juliet Irony Quotes

Civil blood makes civil hands unclean quote Romeo and Juliet

Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Prologue. The opening lines of Shakespeare’s tragic love story introduces us to the ancient feud between two great houses in Verona, the Capulets and Montagues. There is irony in the repeated use of the word "civil" in the Chorus’s introductory words. While Verona’s citizens ought to be civil, we learn that their hands are metaphorically stained ("unclean") with the blood of the victims of their civil war. There is also irony in the description of the warring families being "alike in dignity," since we later learn that they are alike in their undignified behavior.

A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents’ strife.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Prologue. There is a great deal of foreshadowing in opening Prologue to history’s greatest love story. We learn from the Chorus that the young lovers are fated to bring their feuding families together by the tragic taking of their own lives. This passage speaks to the intensity of the teenage couple’s love. "Star-cross’d" is a metaphor for the higher power of fate that controls human destiny. Shakespeare creates dramatic irony here by telling the audience what will happen to the characters before they know it themselves.

One fire burns out another’s burning,
One pain is lessen’d by another’s anguish.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 2. Benvolio is trying to get the lovesick Romeo to forget about Rosaline, by encouraging him to look at another girl. He uses the image of quenching one metaphorical love fire by starting another. There is irony and foreshadowing here, since Romeo will be replacing his heartbreak pain over the loss of Rosaline by another pain – his doomed love for Juliet.

O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear;
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,
As yonder lady o’er her fellows shows.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5. These lines tell us how Romeo is smitten by Juliet when he first lays eyes on her at the Capulets’ ball. In the first line Romeo uses a metaphor to compare Juliet to a torch lighting up the room. Then in a simile he compares her shining beauty against the night to an jeweled earring sparkling on the ear of an Ethiopian. Another metaphor likens Juliet to a magnificent "snowy dove" in a room full of "crows." Romeo uses the imagery of light against the dark to describe the radiance of Juliet’s loveliness. His speech indicates a love-at-first-sight moment for the young man. But Romeo’s ominous statement that Juliet has "beauty too rich to use, for earth too dear" is foreshadowing of how she will be laid out in the tomb too early and of the tragic events that follow. We also see here an example of Romeo’s impetuous and impulsive behavior. From being depressed before this over his unrequited love for Rosaline, he instantly falls for Juliet the moment he sets eyes on her. This is a case of situational irony, since Romeo came to the Capulet party hoping to see Rosaline, so one wouldn’t expect him to instantly fall in love with another girl.

Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!
For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5. There are two kinds of irony here in Romeo’s soliloquy, as the young Montague meets Juliet for the first time and is immediately smitten. He instantaneously and unexpectedly forgets his love for Rosaline and falls hopelessly and completely for Juliet. This is an example of situational irony. There is also dramatic irony, because what he doesn’t know and the audience does is that Juliet is a Capulet, making their love impossible because of the long-standing feud between the two families. This quote also provides evidence of Romeo’s immaturity and impulsivity.

Content thee, gentle coz, let him alone;
He bears him like a portly gentleman;
And, to say truth, Verona brags of him
To be a virtuous and well-govern’d youth:
I would not for the wealth of all the town
Here in my house do him disparagement.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5. When Tybalt threatens to attack the "villain" Romeo, old Capulet surprisingly leaps to the defense of his Montague enemy. He urges Tybalt to leave Romeo alone and speaks of the well-mannered Romeo having a good reputation throughout Verona. Lord Capulet clearly does not want any trouble or fighting at his ball. This is situational irony, since Capulet would be expected to at least eject the uninvited Romeo Montague.

TYBALT: I’ll not endure him.
CAPULET: He shall be endured:
What, goodman boy! I say, he shall: go to;
Am I the master here, or you? go to.
You’ll not endure him! God shall mend my soul!
You’ll make a mutiny among my guests!

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5. The impulsive and aggressive Tybalt draws his sword to confront Romeo, engaged that he has gatecrashed the Capulet ball. But old Capulet reprimands him and instructs him to let Romeo go. Capulet doesn’t want Tybalt to cause a disturbance among his guests at the ball. This is an example of situational irony, since Capulet has every reason to kick out a hated Montague like Romeo from his party.

Go ask his name: if he be married.
My grave is like to be my wedding bed.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5. Juliet tells the Nurse to ask Romeo’s name, dramatically declaring that she will die if he turns out to be married. This shows how much in love Juliet is with Romeo. The image of her grave being her wedding bed makes for a grim metaphor. It is also ironic, since no one would expect a person’s wedding bed, normally representing the happiest time of their life, to be their grave. Juliet is also unknowingly foreshadowing her own tragic fate soon after she marries Romeo. Juliet’s grave will become her wedding bed, when she and romeo lie together in her grave in the Capulets’ tomb.

I conjure thee by Rosaline’s bright eyes,
By her high forehead and her scarlet lip,
By her fine foot, straight leg and quivering thigh
And the demesnes that there adjacent lie,
That in thy likeness thou appear to us!

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 1. Mercutio calls out for Romeo, who has disappeared into the Capulet’s orchard in a mission to find Juliet. But Mercutio thinks that Romeo is still pining for Rosaline, not realizing that he is over her and in love with Juliet. Since the audience knows this, this is an example of dramatic irony. Since he is something of a joker Mercutio summons up the "dead" Romeo by Rosaline’s beauty and physical appeal. He uses sexual innuendo to talk about her trembling thighs and the parts that lie next to them.

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2. The first line is one of the most recognizable and famous in the play. In the balcony scene Juliet asks why Romeo is Romeo, a member of the Montagues who are the greatest enemies of the Capulets. She asks him to deny his family for the sake of their love, and if he does not she will give up her family name. She is on her bedroom balcony as she speaks these words, unaware that Romeo is standing below in the garden listening. This is an example of dramatic irony, since the audience knows that Romeo is there and she does not.

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.

Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 3. After Romeo rushes to Friar Laurence to ask him to marry his new-found love Juliet, the friar advises him to slow down and not rush into marriage. The wise friar cautions that those who rush into things tend to stumble and fall. This is foreshadowing of the couple’s tragic fate. The Friar’s words are also ironic, because he doesn’t follow his own advice when he presides over the couple’s quick and hasty marriage.

Alas poor Romeo! he is already dead; stabbed with a white wench’s black eye; shot through the ear with a love-song.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 4. Mercutio says this about the lovesick Romeo, thinking that he is pining away for the "wench" Rosaline. What he doesn’t know, but the audience does, is that Romeo affections have switched from Rosaline to Juliet, whom he has fallen head over heels in love with. This is an example of dramatic irony, a literary and theatrical device much loved by Shakespeare and used throughout the play. Mercutio’s joke about Romeo being dead for love is tragically foreshadowing of how Romeo will die from his love of a woman – Juliet! We see also the juxtaposition of light and dark in this passage – "a white wench’s black eye." These two contrasting motifs are used throughout the play and represent the conflicting powers of good and evil.

Without his roe, like a dried herring: O flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified! Now is he for the numbers that Petrarch flowed in: Laura to his lady was but a kitchen-wench; marry, she had a better love to be-rhyme her; Dido a dowdy; Cleopatra a gipsy; Helen and Hero hildings and harlots; Thisbe a grey eye or so, but not to the purpose. Signior Romeo, bon jour! there’s a French salutation to your French slop. You gave us the counterfeit fairly last night.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 4. It is the morning after the Capulets’ party. Mercutio makes some bawdy and sexually suggestive comments, as he teases Romeo about what he was up to the previous night. Using a simile, he likens him to a dried up herring that has spawned. Mercutio is suggesting that Romeo looks worn out from having sex with Rosaline. This is dramatic irony, because the audience knows that Romeo’s new object of desire is Juliet and she has replaced Rosaline in his affections. Mercutio mocks Romeo idea of romantic love by saying that he is about to break into love poetry like Petrarch. He suggests that Petrarch’s muse Laura is a "kitchen-wench" compared to Rosaline. He lists off other famous beauties from history and classical literature who were a "gipsy" or "harlot" compared to Rosaline. Mercutio is being verbally ironic when he describes these women thus. There is also foreshadowing of Romeo and Juliet’s fate, as these famous women were involved in tragic love stories which ended in death.

A bawd, a bawd, a bawd! so ho!

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 4. When Benvolio says that Juliet’s Nurse is inviting Romeo to supper, Mercutio makes fun of her by crying this out. A "bawd" is a word that hunters use for a hare or rabbit and "so ho" is a hunter’s call on spotting a hare. But "bawd is also a pimp or a madam, someone who gets clients for prostitutes. There is irony here in that the Nurse is a kind of go between, facilitating a meeting between two young lovers which will end up in sex and marriage. Mercutio’s crude and nasty remark also displays his sexism and a certain level of misogyny.

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.

Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee
Doth much excuse the appertaining rage
To such a greeting: villain am I none;
Therefore farewell; I see thou know’st me not.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 1. When Tybalt confronts Romeo and insults him by branding him a "villain," Romeo refuses Tybalt’s challenge to fight. He claims that Tybalt doesn’t know him. He says that he has a reason to love Tybalt which allows him to overlook his insult. Romeo is hinting that they are now family because of his secret marriage to Juliet. This is dramatic irony because the audience knows this and Tybalt doesn’t.

I do protest, I never injured thee,
But love thee better than thou canst devise,
Till thou shalt know the reason of my love:
And so, good Capulet, – which name I tender
As dearly as my own, – be satisfied.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 1. Romeo’s response to Tybalt shows dramatic irony and the themes of family and love. Tybalt has just insulted Romeo by calling him a "villain" and challenged to draw his sword. But Romeo refuses to accept the insult and take up the challenge. He declares that he loves Tybalt and the Capulet name more than Tybalt can realize. Here Romeo is alluding to his secret wedding to Tybalt’s cousin Juliet, which makes the two men part of the same family by marriage. Of course Tybalt knows nothing of this and will not back down.

O calm, dishonourable, vile submission!
Alla stoccata carries it away.
Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you walk?

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 1. Mercutio mocks Romeo for being cowardly for not accepting Tybalt’s challenge to fight. So Mercutio draws his sword to fight in Romeo’s place and defend his honor. He uses a metaphorical insult comparing Tybalt to a "rat-catcher." What Mercutio doesn’t know is that Romeo’s reluctance to fight a Capulet is because he is secretly married to one – Juliet. This an example of dramatic irony since the audience already knows this.

ROMEO: Courage, man; the hurt cannot be much.
MERCUTIO: No, ’tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door; but ’tis enough, ’twill serve: ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 1. After being stabbed by Tybalt in his fight with him, Mercutio uses similes to downplay the seriousness of his wound to Romeo. Ever the lover of wit and wordplay even when dying, Mercutio uses a joke and pun to say that he will be a "grave man" tomorrow. He is playing on the double meaning of "grave," which can mean serious or a man in his grave. Mercutio’s dark pun is filled with bitter and tragic irony. It is foreshadowing not only his own death but also that of his best friend Romeo, senseless casualties of the bitter fuel between the warring Montagues and Capulets.

A plague o’ both your houses!
They have made worms’ meat of me.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 1. The fatally injured Mercutio curses both Montague and Capulet families for his senseless death. Even as he is dying, he is able to apply his cynical wit to expose the pointlessness of the bloody quarrel between the two houses. In the second line he uses a dramatic metaphor to compare himself to a meal for worms. He becomes the first casualty of the feud, which marks a turning point in a play that witnesses a great deal further violence and death. There is irony here in that Mercutio doesn’t belong to either of the feuding house. He therefore had no reason to become involved in the fight, except for his own hot-headedness.

Ah, well-a-day! he’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead!
We are undone, lady, we are undone!
Alack the day! he’s gone, he’s kill’d, he’s dead!

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 2. When the Nurse arrives in Capulet’s orchard where Juliet is waiting for Romeo, she is in a distressed state and delivers the shocking news: "he’s dead." She is lamenting Tybalt’s killing by Romeo, but she doesn’t mention him by name. This leads Juliet to think that it is Romeo who is dead. The audience knows that Romeo is very much alive, so making this an example of dramatic irony.

Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender
Of my child’s love: I think she will be ruled
In all respects by me; nay, more, I doubt it not.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 4. Lord Capulet, addressing his chosen son-in-law Paris, speaks about daughter Juliet as if she were a hired servant. Obviously used to people doing what he says, he is convinced that she will do what he bids and marry Paris. There is dramatic irony here, since the audience knows that Juliet is already married to Romeo and cannot marry Paris.

Let me be ta’en, let me be put to death;
I am content, so thou wilt have it so.
…I have more care to stay than will to go:
Come, death, and welcome! Juliet wills it so.
How is ‘t, my soul? let’s talk; it is not day.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5. As Romeo and Juliet face their moment of final separation following their wedding night, Romeo offers to stay with his beloved Juliet and die. They are both aware that the Prince has banished him from Verona and to be caught there is a death sentence. There is dramatic irony and foreshadowing in Romeo’s words, since the audience is aware that both of them will tragically die later in the play.
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