O brawling love . . . fiend angelical!
TA
SK
SH
EE
T
Act 1 Scene 1, lines 166–173 and Act 3 Scene 2, lines 73–79
Oxymorons
These speeches are together online because they are full of oxymorons and paradoxes. Familiarity with
these ideas will help you in your study not only of Romeo and Juliet but also of A Midsummer Night’s
Dream. If you have already studied Macbeth, you might have concluded already that it is one huge
paradox: ‘Fair is foul and foul is fair . . .’
1 Find oxymorons elsewhere in this play. One possibility near the beginning of the play sums
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up the plot. And another, near the end of 2.2, has become something people say when parting
from a friend.
Make a list of your own oxymorons. The two conflicting, contradicting, opposite words
should appear together: examples are ‘low height’ and ‘mad wisdom’.
Then make a list of your own paradoxes. The words are separated. An example is ‘You have
come far in wisdom, but it has made you stupid’. Look now at Friar Lawrence’s speech at the
beginning of Act 2 Scene 3, and make a note of his several oppositions.
Practise ways of acting, first for a radio play, and then for the stage, these two speeches of
Romeo and Juliet. For the stage, ask questions of each other: How does Romeo move as he
says these lines? Where does Juliet look as she says hers? Is she still, sitting on her bed? Does
she move around the set? Both actors have to express frustration.
The sound ‘I’ in 3.2, lines 45–52: Shakespeare loves puns and wordplay. We mostly think of
puns as light-hearted word games – see the pun in the first four lines of the play, which you
can sum up like this: ‘coals’ . . . ‘colliers’ (coal-miners) . . . ‘choler’ (temper) . . . ‘collar’. Later,
watch out for Mercutio’s puns.
Now look at lines spoken by the Nurse and Juliet, immediately after the Nurse has told Juliet
about Tybalt’s death (3.2.45–52). Their situation couldn’t be worse – but the puns come thick
and fast. Working as individuals, find the most common vowel sound in these lines. Write
down every appearance of that sound. Share your findings with a partner. Note that ‘ay’ was
pronounced like our ‘eye’. Read the lines again, emphasising that sound. Note that two words
that are not part of the pun sequence also emphasise the main vowel sound.
Look at Romeo’s lines in 1.1. Who is he in love with here? He doesn’t name the girl: find out
who it is by reading carefully all his conversations with Benvolio in this scene and in 1.2. Then
find the moment at the Capulets’ party when he stops being in love with that person.
Sir John Suckling (1609–1642) wrote:
Out upon it, I have loved
Three whole days together;
And am like to love three more,
If it prove fair weather . . .
Romeo’s first love doesn’t last long. Write a poem that begins: ‘Lovers will love so short a time
. . .’
http://education.sedgwick.continuumbooks.com
© Fred Sedgwick, (2011) Resources for Teaching Shakespeare: 11–16. London: Continuum.
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