What line is Deny thy father and refuse thy name or if thou wilt not be but sworn my love and Ill no longer be a Capulet?

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is the most famous love story in the English literary tradition. Millions of people all around the world know how powerful of a theme love is when dealing with these two young heart throbs. The poem focuses on an intense romantic love between Romeo and Juliet. Their love is a violent, ecstatic, overpowering force that supersedes all other values, loyalties, and emotions. At one-point Juliet asks: “Deny thy father and refuse thy name, or if thou wilt not, be a Capulet.” At times their love is defined by magic: “Alike bewitched by the charm of looks.” Sometimes as we all mention what love is (we just can’t define it) Juliet says: “But my true love is grown to such excess/ I cannot sum up some of half my…show more content…
There is not a better line that conveys this sentiment then when Juliet asks: “Deny thy father and refuse thy name, Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn by love,/ And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.” Juliet is willing to give up her whole life as she knows it to be with a man that she knows is not wanted or even liked by her family. We must understand have grave of a decision that is for a woman in those times; woman were mere objects and were by culture and nurture supposed to adhere to the demands of the father and the hierarchy of the family. To shame one’s family was equal to social suicide, yet for a young woman to stand bold and make these sorts of claims just explains to us how emotionally involved she must be to this…show more content…
At times love is described in terms of religion, faith or magic as Juliet states “Alike bewitched by the charm of looks.” Without magic in love we could not extricate ourselves from the reality of war, or man’s inhumanity to each other; the magic in love is a fantasy that saves us from sinking into devastation and despair. We are born to bond, wired for love, that is the reason the unexplainable feelings are so welcome as magical when one feels and unmentionable feeling towards another. The fortunate people to find love will no doubt have the illusion and fantasize a dream partner so when love walks in the door they will be emotionally open and available.
Sometimes as we all mention what love is (we just can’t define it) Juliet says: “But my true love is grown to such excess/ I cannot sum up some of half my wealth.” Love resists any single metaphor because it is not easily understood and too magnificent to define. Many show love in the ways we hope to receive love but that assumes your partner defines love the same way you do. Like music, love’s essence isn’t captured by focusing on what it is but on what it does to people. Love has no labels; there may be different kinds of it, but they don’t have titles and they aren’t

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Meaning of Wherefore Art Thou Romeo
Usage of Wherefore Art Thou Romeo
Literary Source of Wherefore Art Thou Romeo
Literary Analysis of Wherefore Art Thou Romeo
Literary Devices

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.

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We hear these words at the beginning of the scene on the balcony in Act 2 Scene 2, when Romeo still didn’t reveal himself. Juliet laments the rivalry between their families and is ready to deny her family name and all the previous life if only Romeo does the same, so they can be together.

This soliloquy gives Romeo the courage to step out of the garden and talk to his beloved. He expresses his devotion in equally passionate words. He and Juliet persuade each other that they love not the name or the status, but each other as persons. The comparisons and metaphors used in their conversation are overly romantic and sweet - perfectly expressing the innocence and passion of the teenager love, even when they both are in danger because of the family feud.

This words of Juliet also foreshadow the future events in a way. Romeo indeed will have to flee Verona because of the accusations of Juliet’s family. He stays the same Romeo but has to conceal his identity. Juliet also ceases to be a Capulet by becoming Romeo’s wife and technically belonging to Montague family.

This phrase is filled with the emotional agony of the speaker, Juliet, in William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. Juliet says:

“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou RomeoDeny thy father and refuse thy nameOr if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.”

(Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene II, Lines 33–36).

It implies Juliet’s fear that their love would eventually end in failure, as Romeo is a Montague, and she a Capulet (two tribes terribly hostile to each other).

Meaning of Wherefore Art Thou Romeo

The phrase, “O Romeo! Why are you Romeo?” is the opening sentence of a romantically philosophic speech by the character Juliet. Its literal meaning is that Juliet is agonized to think that Romeo is a Montague, and painfully wishes him to have been from some other tribe. Figuratively speaking, the phrase addresses one of the most sensitive and unsolved questions of philosophy: man’s habit of attributing names to forms. Where the purpose of names is solely to recognize things, however, gradually they become more important than the forms they refer to.

Usage of Wherefore Art Thou Romeo

The purpose of this phrase is to criticize procedures that involve unnecessary complication. In general terms, people use it to criticize excessive terms and conditions for doing something (like getting loans or insurance papers signed). We find its usage in various areas of life like when courts, visa offices, or government institutions reject someone’s case over documental flaws; the victims often utter the same phrase. Besides that, lovers use this when they anticipate their eventual failure in love.

Literary Source of Wherefore Art Thou Romeo

This phrase is uttered when Juliet stands on her balcony looking out to the garden, and Romeo waits in the shadows. She sorrowfully murmurs her feelings for the man she has chosen, who is from an opposing tribe. She wishes Romeo were not Romeo, but someone else from a different tribe.

In this speech, Juliet resents the human habit of preferring words to forms. She rightfully thinks that articulatory symbols should not regulate human existence and will. Romeo, Montague, Couplet, Rose, Juliet—all are substantial forms and changing their ‘names’ will not change their identity.

Literary Analysis of Wherefore Art Thou Romeo

In this phrase, Shakespeare takes pity on people for the regulated-world of love against the norm-regulated world of society. To Juliet, their love is impossible due to their family names. Hence, she asks Romeo to change his name, or else she would change hers. In Juliet’s view calling a ‘Rose’ by any other word will not make it smell bad—making clear the importance of form and characteristics over names when she says, “What’s in a name?”

Literary Devices

Apostrophe: The phrase addresses someone, who is absent or dead.
Soliloquy: Juliet shows her inner struggle as she speaks to herself.

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JULIET
Thou knowest the mask of night is on my face, 90Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheekFor that which thou hast heard me speak tonight.Fain would I dwell on form; fain, fain denyWhat I have spoke. But farewell compliment.

Dost thou love me? I know thou wilt say “Ay,” 95

And I will take thy word. Yet, if thou swear’st,Thou mayst prove false. At lovers’ perjuries,They say, Jove laughs. O gentle Romeo,If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully.

Or, if thou thinkest I am too quickly won, 100

I’ll frown and be perverse and say thee nay,So thou wilt woo, but else not for the world.In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond,And therefore thou mayst think my havior light.

But trust me, gentleman, I’ll prove more true 105

Than those that have more coying to be strange.I should have been more strange, I must confess,But that thou overheard’st ere I was wareMy true-love passion. Therefore pardon me,

And not impute this yielding to light love, 110

Which the dark night hath so discoverèd.

Juliet is glad it's night so Romeo can't see how embarrassed she is that he overheard her gushing about him. Awkward! Part of her feels like she should put on an act and pretend she's not interested in him, because that's the way girls in her social class are supposed to act. But it's kind of too late for that, and she doesn't want to play games. She wants Romeo to know her love is real, and she wants to know if he feels the same way.

Page 2

Enter Friar Lawrence alone with a basket.

FRIAR LAWRENCEThe gray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night,Check’ring the eastern clouds with streaks of light,And fleckled darkness like a drunkard reelsFrom forth day’s path and Titan’s fiery wheels.

Now, ere the sun advance his burning eye, 5

The day to cheer and night’s dank dew to dry,I must upfill this osier cage of oursWith baleful weeds and precious-juicèd flowers.The Earth that’s nature’s mother is her tomb;

What is her burying grave, that is her womb; 10

And from her womb children of divers kindWe sucking on her natural bosom find,Many for many virtues excellent,None but for some, and yet all different.

O, mickle is the powerful grace that lies 15

In plants, herbs, stones, and their true qualities.For naught so vile that on the Earth doth liveBut to the Earth some special good doth give;Nor aught so good but, strained from that fair use,

Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse. 20

Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied,

And vice sometime by action dignified.

Enter Romeo.

Within the infant rind of this weak flowerPoison hath residence and medicine power:

For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each 25

part;Being tasted, stays all senses with the heart.Two such opposèd kings encamp them stillIn man as well as herbs—grace and rude will;

And where the worser is predominant, 30

Full soon the canker death eats up that plant.

Friar Lawrence is out foraging for medicinal plants and herbs for one of his concoctions...and talking to himself about their uses. He delivers a lengthy speech about how herbs and plants have the potential to be healing and medicinal, but if they're misused, they can be deadly poison. (Get your highlighters out, because this is important. Check out "Symbols" if you want to know more.)

Page 3

ROMEO
And stay, good nurse, behind the abbey wall. 190Within this hour my man shall be with theeAnd bring thee cords made like a tackled stair,Which to the high topgallant of my joyMust be my convoy in the secret night.

Farewell. Be trusty, and I’ll quit thy pains. 195

Farewell. Commend me to thy mistress.

NURSE
Now, God in heaven bless thee! Hark you, sir.

ROMEO What sayst thou, my dear nurse?

NURSEIs your man secret? Did you ne’er hear say

“Two may keep counsel, putting one away”? 200

ROMEO
Warrant thee, my man’s as true as steel.

NURSE Well, sir, my mistress is the sweetest lady. Lord,Lord, when ’twas a little prating thing—O, there isa nobleman in town, one Paris, that would fain lay

knife aboard, but she, good soul, had as lief see a 205

toad, a very toad, as see him. I anger her sometimesand tell her that Paris is the properer man, but I’llwarrant you, when I say so, she looks as pale as anyclout in the versal world. Doth not rosemary and

Romeo begin both with a letter? 210

ROMEO Ay, nurse, what of that? Both with an R.

NURSE Ah, mocker, that’s the dog’s name. R is forthe—No, I know it begins with some other letter,and she hath the prettiest sententious of it, of you

and rosemary, that it would do you good to hear it. 215

ROMEO Commend me to thy lady.

NURSE Ay, a thousand times.—Peter.

PETER Anon.

NURSE Before and apace.

They exit.

Romeo tells the Nurse he'll have someone meet her behind the abbey in an hour and give her a rope ladder that he can use to climb over the orchard wall to visit Juliet in secret. When the Nurse questions the wisdom of bringing another person into this plot (the guy delivering the ladder), Romeo assures her that the guy is trustworthy and he'll keep things quiet. Then the Nurse, babbling about how sweetly Juliet talks of Romeo, reveals her illiteracy. She asks what letter Romeo and rosemary starts with. When he tells her "R," she says that can't be it because that's the noise a dog makes.

Page 4

NURSE Peter, stay at the gate. Peter exits. 20

JULIETNow, good sweet nurse—O Lord, why lookest thousad?Though news be sad, yet tell them merrily.If good, thou shamest the music of sweet news

By playing it to me with so sour a face. 25

NURSEI am aweary. Give me leave awhile.

Fie, how my bones ache! What a jaunt have I!

JULIETI would thou hadst my bones, and I thy news.Nay, come, I pray thee, speak. Good, good nurse,

speak. 30

NURSEJesu, what haste! Can you not stay awhile?

Do you not see that I am out of breath?

JULIETHow art thou out of breath, when thou hast breathTo say to me that thou art out of breath?

The excuse that thou dost make in this delay 35

Is longer than the tale thou dost excuse.Is thy news good or bad? Answer to that.Say either, and I’ll stay the circumstance.

Let me be satisfied; is ’t good or bad?

NURSE Well, you have made a simple choice. You know 40not how to choose a man. Romeo? No, not he.Though his face be better than any man’s, yet his legexcels all men’s, and for a hand and a foot and abody, though they be not to be talked on, yet they

are past compare. He is not the flower of courtesy, 45

but I’ll warrant him as gentle as a lamb. Go thyways, wench. Serve God. What, have you dined at

home?

JULIETNo, no. But all this did I know before.

What says he of our marriage? What of that? 50

NURSELord, how my head aches! What a head have I!It beats as it would fall in twenty pieces.My back o’ t’ other side! Ah, my back, my back!Beshrew your heart for sending me about

To catch my death with jaunting up and down. 55

JULIETI’ faith, I am sorry that thou art not well.Sweet, sweet, sweet nurse, tell me, what says my

love?

When the Nurse comes back, she plays a little game by refusing to tell Juliet anything and complaining about her aching back. It's actually not clear if the Nurse is toying with Juliet or if she's really too daft to understand how important this news is for her young lady. We lean toward the "daft" explanation.

Page 5


Source: Folger Shakespeare Library
Enter Friar Lawrence and Romeo. FRIAR LAWRENCESo smile the heavens upon this holy act That after-hours with sorrow chide us not. ROMEOAmen, amen. But come what sorrow can,It cannot countervail the exchange of joy That one short minute gives me in her sight. 5 Do thou but close our hands with holy words,Then love-devouring death do what he dare, It is enough I may but call her mine. FRIAR LAWRENCEThese violent delights have violent ends And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, 10 Which, as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honeyIs loathsome in his own deliciousnessAnd in the taste confounds the appetite.Therefore love moderately. Long love doth so. Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow. 15 Enter Juliet. Here comes the lady. O, so light a footWill ne’er wear out the everlasting flint.A lover may bestride the gossamersThat idles in the wanton summer air, And yet not fall, so light is vanity. 20	Back at Friar Lawrence's place, the priest tries to convince Romeo to calm down a little. Marriage is for the long term, you see. "These violent delights have violent ends," he warns. Brain Snack: If you're a Twilight fan, you might recognize that quote. Stephenie Meyer uses it as an epigraph for the novel New Moon. It's also a repeated and pivotal line for Dolores in HBO's Westworld, a show where moneyed visitors can live out their fantasies without consequence at a theme park.
JULIET Good even to my ghostly confessor. FRIAR LAWRENCE Romeo shall thank thee, daughter, for us both. JULIET As much to him, else is his thanks too much. ROMEOAh, Juliet, if the measure of thy joy Be heaped like mine, and that thy skill be more 25 To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breathThis neighbor air, and let rich music’s tongueUnfold the imagined happiness that both Receive in either by this dear encounter. JULIET Conceit, more rich in matter than in words, 30Brags of his substance, not of ornament.They are but beggars that can count their worth,But my true love is grown to such excess I cannot sum up sum of half my wealth.	Juliet runs in. The room's hormone level skyrockets. Romeo and Juliet can barely keep their hands off each other, even in the presence of a priest.
FRIAR LAWRENCE Come, come with me, and we will make short work, 35For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone Till Holy Church incorporate two in one. They exit.	Friar Lawrence takes them off to marry them so they can move on to the highly anticipated honeymoon phase.