What does romeo mean when he tells Juliet O sweet Juliet Thy beauty hath made you effeminate And in your temper softened valor's steel?

Answer 1

The quotation comes from Act III, Scene 1. It has been misquoted slightly in the question: the true quotation is "O sweet Juliet! Thy beauty hath made me effeminate And in your temper soft'ned valour's steel." Although you would think so, Romeo does not say this line to Juliet; he is alone on the stage when he says it. He is using a rhetorical device called apostrophe where the speaker addresses someone or something that is not present. It is important that the line is "thy beauty hath made me effeminate" and not "thy beauty hath made you effeminate" Juliet is already plenty effeminate and why not? She's a girl. However, Romeo does not want to be girl-like and fears that that is what is happening to him. There is a pun here on "temper"--it is both Juliet's mild and loving disposition and the process by which steel is hardened. Romeo is afraid that Juliet's temper has softened rather than hardening the steel of his courage. Why does he say this? Because Mercutio has just blamed him for trying to stop the fight between Mercutio and Tybalt, as a result of which Mercutio has just been fatally wounded. Romeo's motive for trying to break up the fight was that Mercutio was his friend and Tybalt his wife's cousin, and he didn't want either of them to be hurt. With Mercutio's rebuke "Why did you come between us?" ringing in his ears, Romeo thinks that if only he had been more manly the trouble wouldn't have happened. It's nonsense but it's going to lead him to do something he will really regret--killing Tybalt.