In Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet,” Juliet did not give Romeo a ring. The iconic exchange between the two star-crossed lovers involves Juliet giving Romeo a kiss, not a ring. The ring is not a significant plot point in the play. The central narrative focuses on the forbidden love between Romeo and Juliet, the conflict between their feuding families, and the tragic consequences that ultimately lead to their untimely deaths. The play is a classic Shakespearean tragedy that explores themes of love, fate, and the destructive power of family rivalries.
The passage from Act IV, Scene i reveals that it is the Nurse, not Juliet, who is tasked with delivering a message to Romeo. Specifically, the Nurse says, “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.” This shows that the Nurse, not Juliet, is the one communicating with Romeo and conveying Juliet’s wishes. Nowhere in the text is there any mention of Juliet giving Romeo a ring. The play’s focus remains squarely on the tragic love story between the two young protagonists, rather than on the symbolic exchange of a ring.
In this passage, Juliet is speaking to her Nurse, asking her to find Romeo and give him a ring as she wants to say a final farewell to him before she goes to her chamber. The Nurse agrees to find Romeo and gives Juliet reassurance that he will come at night.
NURSE.
Hie to your chamber. I’ll find Romeo
To comfort you. I wot well where he is.
Hark ye, your Romeo will be here at night.
I’ll to him, he is hid at Lawrence’ cell.
JULIET.
O find him, give this ring to my true knight,
And bid him come to take his last farewell.
In this passage from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Romeo stands outside Juliet’s window and admires her beauty, wishing he could touch her cheek. Juliet appears and speaks to herself about her love for Romeo, unaware that he is listening. Romeo then speaks and reveals himself, and Juliet asks him to deny his family name and be with her.
Enter Romeo. .
ROMEO.
He jests at scars that never felt a wound.
Juliet. appears above at a window.
But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!
Arise fair sun and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou her maid art far more fair than she.
Be not her maid since she is envious;
Her vestal livery is but sick and green,
And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.
It is my lady, O it is my love!
O, that she knew she were!
She speaks, yet she says nothing. What of that?
Her eye discourses, I will answer it.
I am too bold, ’tis not to me she speaks.
Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,
As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night.
See how she leans her cheek upon her hand.
O that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek.
JULIET.
Ay me.
ROMEO.
She speaks.
O speak again bright angel, for thou art
As glorious to this night, being o’er my head,
As is a winged messenger of heaven
Unto the white-upturned wondering eyes
Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him
When he bestrides the lazy-puffing clouds
And sails upon the bosom of the air.
JULIET.
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.
ROMEO.
[[Aside.] ] Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?
The Nurse advises Juliet to marry Paris, calling him a better match than Romeo. Juliet is upset and decides to seek help from Friar Lawrence, and if that fails, she will take matters into her own hands by potentially ending her own life.
NURSE.
Faith, here it is.
Romeo is banished; and all the world to nothing
That he dares ne’er come back to challenge you.
Or if he do, it needs must be by stealth.
Then, since the case so stands as now it doth,
I think it best you married with the County.
O, he’s a lovely gentleman.
Romeo’s a dishclout to him. An eagle, madam,
Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye
As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart,
I think you are happy in this second match,
For it excels your first: or if it did not,
Your first is dead, or ’twere as good he were,
As living here and you no use of him.
JULIET.
Speakest thou from thy heart?
NURSE.
And from my soul too,
Or else beshrew them both.
JULIET.
Amen.
NURSE.
What?
JULIET.
Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous much.
Go in, and tell my lady I am gone,
Having displeas’d my father, to Lawrence’ cell,
To make confession and to be absolv’d.
NURSE.
Marry, I will; and this is wisely done.
[[Exit.] ]
JULIET.
Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend!
Is it more sin to wish me thus forsworn,
Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue
Which she hath prais’d him with above compare
So many thousand times? Go, counsellor.
Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain.
I’ll to the Friar to know his remedy.
If all else fail, myself have power to die.
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