Romeo and Juliet: Questions Scene-by-scene
Preliminary material
1 List the main characters and introduce the relationships between them. Organise them in symmetrical pairs. Identify character types. Which of the main characters die/ survive? (Come back to this question later.)
2 Who speak(s) the prologue? What’s the form / metre / versification? What is the prologue about? What does it foreshadow? Find similarities with A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
I.1
1 Identify the setting and the conflict, list the characters. Identify sources of humour.
2 How’s Tybalt’s character introduced?
3 What’s the Prince’s judgment?
4 How’s Romeo’s character introduced? What do we learn about him? Characterise his style, esp. between ll. 170-80.
I.2
1 What do we learn about the relationship between parents and children from Capulet’s words?
2 Identify and explain sources of comedy.
I.3
1 What information do we get about Juliet from the dialogue between the Nurse and Lady Capulet?
2 What’s the role of the Nurse in the family?
3 What’s the conflict between Lady Capulet and Juliet?
I.4
1 Identify the setting and the conflict, list the characters.
2 Analyse Mercutio’s Queen Mab soliloquy. What does he say about dreams? What type of character is he? Find similar characters in other Shakespeare plays. What does his name suggest / signify?
I.5
1 What do Romeo and Juliet say respectively about love and hate?
2nd Prologue
1 Why is it included here? What’s the form / metre / versification? What is it about?
II.2
1 Analyse the metaphors used by Romeo in his opening speech.
2 What does Juliet mean when she says ‘O Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo?’ What does she say about names / self / identity in her next speech ff. l. 38?
3 What’s their arrangement?
II.3
1 Summarise Friar Lawrence’s soliloquy. What’s his general advice to Romeo?
II. 6
1 What’s Friar Lawrence’s warning to Romeo?
III.1
1 What’s the setting, who are the characters, what’s the conflict? What’s the conflict between Tybalt and Romeo? What’s Romeo’s role in this brawl?
2 What’s Mercutio’s curse?
3 Compare Romeo’s behaviour with that of Hamlet. How does Romeo describe himself when Tybalt falls? What does it mean?
4 What comes out of a series of revenge? How does the Prince resolve the situation?
III.2
1 What figures of speech does Juliet use when she’s told by the Nurse about Tybalt’s death? What do these figures signify?
2 What’s Juliet’s plan with the ropes?
3 What’s the Nurse’s practical role at this stage?
III.3
1 What’s the setting?
2 What news does the Friar bring to Romeo and how does he take it? What parallels does he draw between death and banishment?
3 What does the Friar mean when he tells Romeo “Run to my study”?
4 What’s Romeo’s imminent intention when the Nurse brings news of Juliet’s despair?
5 What’s the Friar’s advice to Romeo?
III.4
1 What’s Capulet’s plan?
III.5
1 What’s the subject matter of Juliet and Romeo’s dialogue?
2 What lyrical genre is contained in their dialogue?
3 What’s Juliet’s presentiment when she sees Romeo descend?
4 What rhetorical device does Juliet use in her dialogue with her mother?
5 What’s the relationship between parents and children? What does Capulet threaten Julit with?
6 What’s the Nurse’s advice to Juliet and why?
IV.1
1 What’s the Friar’s plot?
IV.3
1 What’s Juliet apprehensive of before she takes the drink?
V.1
1 What’s Romeo’s premonition?
2 What news does he receive?
3 What’s his plan?
V.3
1 What’s Romeo up to?
2 What’s the action in this scene?
3 List the characters who die in this scene.
4 What’s the resolution?
5 Who speaks the epilogue and what is contained in it?