ACT 2, SC 2 ROMEO AND JULIET ESSAY SPRING 2025

Excerpt from Act II, Scene II

JULIET: 

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore1 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.

ROMEO:

[Aside] Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?2

JULIET:

’Tis but thy name that is my enemy;

Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.          

What’s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,        

Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part

Belonging to a man. O! be some other name:

What’s in a name? that which we call a rose      

By any other name would smell as sweet;          

So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,    

Retain that dear perfection which he owes

Without that title. Romeo, doff3 thy name;        

And for that name, which is no part of thee,

Take all myself.

ROMEO:

       I take thee at thy word.

       Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptiz’d;

       Henceforth I never will be Romeo.        

JULIET:

What man art thou, that, thus be-screen’d in night,4

So stumblest on my counsel?

ROMEO:

By a name

I know not how to tell thee who I am:

My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself,          

Because it is an enemy to thee:

Had I it written, I would tear the word.

JULIET:

My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words  

Of that tongue’s uttering, yet I know the sound:

Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?

ROMEO:

Neither, fair maid, if either thee dislike.

  

JULIET:

How cam’st thou hither, tell me, and wherefore?          

The orchard walls are high and hard to climb,    

And the place death, considering who thou art,      

If any of my kinsmen5 find thee here.

 

ROMEO:

With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls;        

For stony limits cannot hold love out,  

And what love can do that dares love attempt;

Therefore thy kinsmen are no stop to me.

"Excerpts from Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare (1593) is in the public domain.

Notes-Footnotes

1. “Wherefore” means “why.”
2. Romeo says this line as an aside, or spoken dialogue that is heard by the audience but not by the other characters in the play. Romeo says this line as an aside because Juliet is not aware that he is listening.
3. Doff (verb) : to remove or rid of
4. hidden or shrouded in darkness
5. family member; relative