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Romeo and Juliet Study Guide
Essential Questions to Consider:
1. How do the events of our time shape who we are?
2. How did history impact the author, William Shakespeare?
3. How does history impact the actions of the characters in the text?
4. How do past events affect the present and potentially the future?
5. Are those who ignore history doomed to repeat it?
6. Can one truly separate oneself from the events of the world?
7. How does oppression limit progress (as individuals and as a society)?
Act I
1. What facts do we learn in the prologue?
2. How is the feud portrayed in the first scene?
3. How many levels of Verona’s society are affected by the hatred? Use à
4. What does the first scene of the play reveal about Romeo?
5. What contrasting concepts of love are presented in Scene 1? Differentiate between the way the servants talk and the way Romeo and Benvolio discuss love.
Gregory and Sampson / Romeo and Benvolio6. What is learned about the Capulets' father-daughter relationship in Scene 2?
7. What two complications of plot arise in Scene 2?
8. What concepts of love are presented by the female characters in Scene 3?
9. Characterize Mercutio as he appears in Scene 4.
10. In what ways does Capulet prove himself a good host?
11. Describe Romeo and Juliet’s discoveries of each other’s identity.
Act II
12. What is significant about Mercutio’s remarks to Romeo in Scene 1 and Romeo’s response in Scene 2?
13. What images of light and fire does Juliet inspire in Romeo?
14. What concerns does Juliet express in Act II, Scene 2?
15. Locate examples of dramatic irony in Act II, Scene 2. Remember, dramatic irony is when the audience knows facts that the characters don’t know.
16. What philosophical observations does Friar Laurence make in Act II, Scene 3?
17. What is Friar Laurence’s reaction to Romeo’s request in Act II, Scene 3?
18. Characterize Mercutio as he appears in Act II, Scene 4.
19. Describe the interview between the nurse and Romeo in Act II, Scene 4.
20. How does the nurse inform Juliet of Romeo’s plans?
21. What elements in Scene 6 foreshadow the fatality of Romeo and Juliet’s love?
ACT III
22. Structurally, how does Act III, Scene 1 resemble Act I, Scene I?
23. Analyze Mercutio’s dying remarks in Scene I.
24. What purposes are served by Benvolio’s summary of events in Scene I?
25. Compare Juliet’s soliloquy in Act II, Scene 5 with her soliloquy in Act III, Scene 2.
26. How does the nurse reveal the details of Romeo’s banishment in Scene 2? What is Juliet’s reaction?
27. Describe Romeo’s reaction to banishment in Scene 3.
28. What admonition does Friar Laurence give Romeo in Scene 3?
29. Discuss the rash offer which Capulet makes Paris in Scene 4.
30. Compare the parting of the lovers in Act II, Scene 2 with their farewells in Act III, Scene 5.
31. What occurs in Scene 5 to alienate Juliet from her family?
ACT IV
32. What plan does Friar Laurence propose to Juliet?
33. What concerns does Juliet express in Scene 3? How does she assuage (calm) each concern?
34. Describe the reactions to Juliet’s apparent death in Scene 5.
ACT V
35. What preparations does Romeo make in Scene 1 when he learns of Juliet’s death?
36. Examine Paris’s function in Scene 3.
37. Examine Romeo’s last soliloquy in Scene 3.
38. Describe Juliet’s awakening and death.
39. How does the Prince investigate the death? What role does society/culture play in it?
40. How does the Prince punish the guilty?
41. What memorial will be built for Romeo and Juliet?