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Name:_________________________
Date:__________
Romeo and Juliet Study Guide
Folger Shakespeare Library Edition
Act One
English 1H
Act I Prologue
1. This sonnet, spoken by one actor and serving as an introduction to—and
summary of—the play, may seem to us nowadays a rather artificial
convention. Why do you think Shakespeare bothered to include it?
2. What are the key words?
3. By examining the language, consider what impact the speech was meant to
have?
4. What atmosphere does it try to establish?
5. What would be (a) the advantages and (b) the disadvantages of omitting the
prologue altogether?
Act I Scene 1
1. Lines 1-35 are filled with countless puns. Do you think punning is
dramatically effective? Would an Elizabethan audience have followed it?
Can a modern audience do so?
2. Lines 1-35. The scene opens with a typical piece of punning, or word play,
which now strikes us as tedious and contrived but delighted Shakespeare’s
audience. We should not, however, dismiss such a conversation as being
merely clever and of no dramatic significance. What impression do we form
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of Sampson and Gregory, particularly as their language becomes more
obscenely suggestive? Why do you think Shakespeare begins the scene with
these lower members of the Capulet household?
3. Lines 36-64. In what ways may it be visually established that Abram and the
Montague servant are of an opposing faction?
4. Lines 65-66. Although Benvolio plays a small part in this scene, Shakes
establishes something about him. What?
5. Lines 60-105. The dialogue between the servants has been in prose. When
Benvolio and Tybalt enter, they immediately speak in blank (non-rhyming)
verse that consists of ten syllables to the line, with (normally) five stresses in
each line or iambic pentameter meter. What is the effect of this change from
prose to poetry?
6. Lines 59-60. How does Gregory’s attitude change when he sees Benvolio?
What does that say about Gregory?
7. Lines 67-73. What are our first impressions of Tybalt?
8. Lines 74-75. What conclusions can we draw from the citizen’s cries? How is
this borne out by what the Prince says in lines 83-105?
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9. The reactions of Capulet and Montague to the brawl seem almost identical,
but there appears to be some difference in the reaction of their wives. What
impression, however sketchy, can we form of Lady Capulet and Lady
Montague from lines 77 and 82 respectively?
10. Lines 83-90. What do the opening lines of the Prince’s speech tell us about
the brawler’s reaction to his entry?
11. Lines 120-133. At line 120 Shakespeare moves into the style of courtly love
poetry. Why? What effect might this have on the audience?
12. Lines 106-163. The lines between the departure of the Prince and the entry
of Romeo act as a bridge between the events. What is Shakespeare trying to
do before introducing Romeo? What atmosphere does he want to establish?
What do we learn about Romeo in these lines? How does this relate to what
has happened up to now?
13. Lines 163-173. What effect do you think Shakespeare is trying to achieve by
breaking up into short sentences the opening of this exchange between
Benvolio and Romeo? How do you think actors might deliver them?
14. Lines 176-188. Romeo’s speech is full of confusion and contradictory
expressions, or oxymorons, e.g. loving hate, heavy lightness, cold fire. What
does this tell us about his state of mind? Do you think he is in earnest, or
merely playing at being in love?
15. Lines 210-232. Why do you think Shakespeare shows Romeo in love with
Rosaline at the beginning of the play?
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16. Lines 216-224. What indications are in this passage to suggest that it is not
love but sex that Romeo requires from Rosaline?
17. Lines 159-247. Throughout his conversation with Benvolio, Romeo plays with
words (e.g. sadness, love, fair) and much of his speech is in rhyming
couplets. Find examples of such word play and write the line numbers.
What does this combination of factors suggest about his attitude to love and
to his particular situation? In what ways does provide a contrast?
Act I Scene 2
1. Lines 1-3. How does Capulet’s words to Paris demonstrate that Shakespeare
is concerned with the difference between youth and age?
2. Line 7. How does Shakespeare suggest that Capulet and Paris are already in
conversation at the opening of Scene 2?
3. Lines 13-19. In light of the fact that arranged marriages were common for the
age, Capulet expresses an uncommon desire for Juliet’s agreement before
accepting Paris’ request to marry her. What has happened to Capulet’s other
children, and speculate on how this has affected his relationship with Juliet.
4. Lines 39-46. Peter the servingman plays the role of clown here. He is trying
to say that a man should stick to what he knows but—deliberately or through
ignorance—he muddles the proverb. What is the servant’s problem? How
does Romeo help out the servant?
5. Lines 47-60. Comment on the imagery of injury in Benvolio’s lines.
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6. Line 75. How do you imagine Romeo reacts to the first mention of the name
of Rosaline in this list? If you were directing the play, how would you instruct
the actor playing Romeo to communicate this reaction to the audience?
7. Lines 85-108. What is the effect of the contrast between the language and
behavior of Peter (the servingman) and Benvolio, on the one hand, and
Romeo on the other?
8. In what kind of mood is Romeo at the end of Scene 2? As a director, how
would you suggest Romeo behaves as he makes his exit with Benvolio?
Act I Scene 3
1. Lines 18-52. What evidence is there in the Nurse’s speech that the old
remember details from days gone by yet cannot remember recent facts?
2. Line 60. Up to this point, the Nurse has dominated the scene. By looking
carefully at what she says and how she says it, what impressions of the
Nurse’s personality do you think the audience is meant to form? What do you
imagine her physical appearance would be? If you were casting the play,
what sort of actress would you choose to play the part?
3. Line 71. Comment on the tone of Juliet’s reaction to her mother. Is she
enthusiastic? Or merely tactful and essentially unenthusiastic?
4. Lines 72-73. Comment on the Nurse’s reaction.
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5. Line 77-79. If we may believe Lady Capulet, what approximate age is she?
6. Lines 85-100. Comment in as much detail as you can on the extended
metaphor. Is it artificial and evidence of lack of real feeling on Lady Capulet’s
part?
7. Lines 104-105. Note that these lines are ironic in view of what happens later
in the play.
8. Lines 106-110. What is the effect of Peter the servingman’s urgent prose
after the brittle artificiality of Lady Capulet’s verse?
9. Line 113. Why does Shakespeare give the Nurse the last line of this scene?
What is the effect of the contrast between her remark and Lady Capulet’s
description of Paris and her implied attitude toward marriage?
Act I Scene 4
1. Lines 11-24. Make lists of images of lightness and heaviness.
2. Line 13 on. Mercutio is introduced here as a foil to Romeo. What should be
the audience’s first impression of Mercutio? What suggestions would you, as
a director, make to an actor playing the part?
3. Lines 13-110. What kind of relationship exists between Romeo and Mercutio?
Quote evidence from the text to support your predictions?
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4. Lines 44-47. How does Shakespeare convey the time of day for an audience
who would have watched the play in broad daylight?
5. Lines 44-58. Consider the effect of the rhyming couplets which develop on
this page.
6. Lines 58-100. Comment on the language used and the poetic effects in the
Queen Mab speech.
7. Lines 58-100. What is the dramatic effect of the speech at this juncture of the
play?
8. Lines 58-100. What does the speech tell us about the character of Mercutio?
Write appropriate director’s notes for the actor who is to play Mercutio—and
you must make detailed textual reference to the text of the speech in your
advice.
9. Lines 58-100. Mercutio’s speech begins in a kind of light-hearted vein, but it
gradually becomes increasingly fantastic and dreamlike itself. What are the
characteristics of Queen Mab that emerge in this speech, and what do
Mercutio’s words tell us about her?
10. Line 100. Does Mercutio change his mood after Romeo’s interruption?
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11. Lines 113-120. Romeo’s closing words are very ominous. What provokes
him to speak like this, and what is the likely effect of his words on the
audience? What do the last two lines of his speech tell you about him?
12. In previous scenes and ongoing, find and list the other references in the play
which suggest that man’s fortunes are predestined by the stars or similar
ideas.
Act I Scene 5
1. Lines 18-20. What is the effect of Lord Capulet’s remark?
2. Lines 35-45. Why do you think that Shakespeare places such emphasis on
Capulet’s age?
3. Lines 51-60. Rosaline is utterly forgotten as Romeo instantly falls in love with
Juliet. (Note that Shakespeare does not indicate which of the ladies is
Rosaline, and so we can make no comparison for ourselves.) What
differences do you notice between his reaction here to Juliet and his
description of his love for Rosaline in Act I, Scenes 1, 2, and 4?
4. Lines 51-60. What is the effect of the contrast between Romeo’s language
and the conversation between Capulet and his cousin which immediately
precedes it?
5. Lines 76-77. What is general impression in Verona about Romeo? As you
read on, in what ways is the later tragedy heightened by the testament of
these lines?
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6. Lines 74-83. Comment on Capulet’s attitude.
7. Lines 63-103. What is the dramatic effect of the argument between Capulet
and Tybalt? What does it reveal about the two men? What is the dramatic
impact of Tybalt’s parting couplet (lines 102-103)? To whom does it apply?
8. Lines 104-117. The first meeting between Romeo and Juliet takes the form of
a sonnet, shared between them. What is the effect of this unusual device?
Look at the imagery used in their conversation. How does it enhance the
subject matter? What is the attitude of each to the other? How does this
compare with Romeo’s professed earlier attitude to Rosaline?
9. Lines 125-130. What is the effect of the contrast between the way the Nurse
talks and the earlier conversation between Romeo and Juliet?
10. Lines 142-155. Why does Juliet not directly ask about Romeo?
11. In this scene we see Romeo and Juliet falling deeply in love at their first
meeting. What is the dramatic impact of this on the audience, and how does
Shakespeare achieve his particular effects in this scene? What contrasts are
drawn? Is the scene optimistic or pessimistic or a mixture of the two? What
thoughts are we left with at the end of Act I?
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LITERARY TERMS:
Directions: Define each of the literary terms below. Use the internet. Then, for
each term, provide one example of it from the play, Romeo and Juliet.
1. juxtaposition:
2. exposition:
3. inciting incident:
4. rising action:
5. climax:
6. falling action:
7. resolution/denouement:
8. foil:
9. soliloquy
10. monologue