Act I
 scene i
“Romeo and Juliet” – Act I highlights
**This is not a complete transcript of classroom discussion. Other items may
be on the quiz that did not make it into these notes or into your study guide.
This is meant to assist you in studying; however, it does not replace rereading
the text.**
 setting – a public square in Verona
 pun—Sampson and Gregory
o collier – coal dealer
o choler – angry
o collar – refers to a hangman’s noose
 Sampson and Gregory (Capulet servants) are looking for a fight with
Montagues
 Abram and Balthasar (Montague servants) come onstage
 aside – a dramatic device in which the character speaks his or her thoughts
aloud, in words meant to be heard by the audience and not other
characters on stage
 conflict – a struggle between two forces (Capulet vs. Montague)
 fight begins
 Benvolio (Montague cousin) tries to break the fight up
 Tybalt (Capulet cousin) starts the fight back up
 officers break up the fight
 citizens show displeasure and the Capulets and Montagues
 Lord Capulet wants to fight but his wife tells him not to (she makes an old
age joke)
 Lord Montague wants to fight but his wife tells him not to (she tells him to
stay)
 Prince Escalus tells of three, recent, bloody fights between the Capulets
and the Montagues
 Prince decrees the death penalty shall be used on any participants in
further fighting—“If ever you disturb our streets again,/ Your lives shall pay
the forfeit of the peace.”
 Capulet leaves with Prince
 Montague to come talk later
 Montague asks Benvolio what happened—“Who set this ancient quarrel
new abroach? Speak, nephew, were you by when it began?”
 Benvolio recaps action
 Romeo has been wandering around outside all night crying and then
shutting himself up in his room at night
 Lord and Lady Montague are worried and want to help Romeo
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 scene ii
 metaphor – Lord Montague (Act I, scene i, line 159-161) “As is the bud
bit with an envious worm/ Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the
air/ O dedicate his beauty to the sun.” – Romeo is a beautiful young
man who has been scarred emotionally like the bud is scarred
physically by the bite of a worm
Benvolio offers to find out what is wrong and help Romeo feel better—“See,
where he comes: so please you step aside;/I’ll know his grievance or be
much denied.”
Benvolio makes an allusion in lines 181 and 182 – “Alas that love, so gentle
in his view,/ Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!” (Cupid is the god
of love and has wings, a bow, and arrows. Once shot with Cupid’s arrow a
person fell in love instantly.)
Romeo makes oxymorons in lines188-194 – “brawling love”, “loving hate”,
“heavy lightness”, “misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms”, “feather of
lead”, “bright smoke”, “cold fire”, “sick health”, “still-waking sleep” (trying to
explain the pain of unrequited love)
Romeo uses a metaphor to describe love in lines 205-209 – “Love is a
smoke raised with the fume of sighs;/ Being purged, a fire sparkling in
lovers’ eyes;/ Being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers’ tears.” (falling in
love is like being on fire and losing it is like drowning)
Romeo is in love with Rosaline but his love is unrequited because she has
taken a vow of chastity—“Well, in that hit you miss. She will not be hit with
Cupid’s arrow.”
Benvolio vows to help Romeo get over Rosaline
characterization – the methods an author uses to reveal character
 through a character’s actions
 through a character’s speech
 through a character’s thoughts
 through a character’s physical appearance
 through the reactions of other characters to the character
 through narration
 through setting
blank verse – unrhymed poetry written in iambic pentameter
iambic pentameter – consisting of five, metrical feet composed of an
unstressed and then stressed syllable
 setting – a street near the Capulet house
 Lord Capulet thinks it will be easy to follow the Prince’s orders because
Lord Montague and he are old men
 Paris (kinsman of the Prince) thinks it is sad that the Lords Capulet and
Montague could not be friends because they are both honorable men
 Lord Capulet thinks his daughter Juliet (almost 14) is too young to marry
 Paris reminds Lord Capulet the younger women are already married with
children
 Lord Capulet reveals that all his other children are dead
 Lord Capulet will not force Juliet to marry someone (she must consent to it)
 Lord Capulet holds a yearly masquerade party – he invites Paris to the
party tonight so that Paris can compare Juliet’s beauty to that of other girls
 Lord Capulet send his servant off with a guest list
 the servant cannot read – goes in search of someone who can
 Benvolio is still trying to cheer Romeo up
 the servant asks Romeo to read the guest list
 Romeo notices Rosaline will be attending the Capulet party
 Benvolio decides the party would be the perfect place to show Romeo that
there are other girls prettier than Rosaline
 Romeo agrees to go so that he can stare at Rosaline
 scene iii
 setting – Capulet’s house
 Lady Capulet is looking for Juliet
 Nurse tells of a time when Juliet fell down while learning to walk – she is so
amused she has a hard time stopping even when Juliet becomes
embarrassed (Nurse has a crude sense of humor)
 Nurse would like to see Juliet happily married—“God mark thee to his
grace!/ Thou wast the prettiest babe that e’er I nursed.”
 Lady Capulet remembers why she wants to talk to Juliet – asks her if she
has thought about marriage –“Well, think of marriage now; younger than
you/ Here in Verona, ladies of esteem,/ Are made already mother.”
 Juliet reveals the although marriage is honorable she has not considered it
yet
 Lady Capulet reminds Juliet that girls younger than herself are already
married with children – She suggest Paris
 Lady Capulet and Nurse talk about how handsome, honorable, and wealthy
Paris is
 Lady Capulet tells Juliet to check Paris out at the party tonight
 metaphor – “Read o’er the volume of young Paris’ face,/ And
find delight writ there with beauty’s pen;” (lines 90 and 91)
 Juliet agrees to consider Paris—“I’ll look to like, if looking liking move.”
 the ladies leave for the party
 scene iv  setting – street near Capulet house
 Romeo has a bad feeling about attending the party because he has had a
bad dream
 Mercutio and Benvolio joke about all the girls they will dance with
 Mercutio tries to get Romeo to lighten up and not take things so seriously
(especially dreams)
 Queen Mab speech lines 58-100 – fairy queen who brings
nonsense dreams – message is dreams are not reality
 Romeo foreshadows his death in lines 114-119
 “I fear, too early; for my mind misgives/ Some consequence,
yet hanging in the stars,/ Shall bitterly begin his fearful date/
With this night’s revels and expire the term/ Of a despised life,
closed in my breast./ By some vile forfeit of untimely death.”
 scene v
 setting – party in hall in Capulet’s house
 comic relief – servants refer to Potpan (ludicrous name for another servant),
say jokes about unwashed hands, bustle around in confusion preparing
(relieves tension from Romeo’s gloomy speech)
 Lord Capulet welcomes guests
 Romeo sees Juliet on the dance floor – love at first sight
 Tybalt recognizes Romeo’s voice—“This by his voice, should be a
Montague./ Fetch me my rapier, boy. What dares/the slave come hither,
covered with an antic face,/ to fleer and scorn at our solemnity.”
 Lord Capulet tells him to leave Romeo alone
 Romeo is a well-mannered boy
 Prince demanded peace
 does not want party ruined
 Tybalt vows to get revenge later and storms out
 Romeo and Juliet meet and fall in love
 Romeo finds out Juliet’s identity
 lines 131 and 132 – “Is she a Capulet?/ O dear account! my life
is my foe’s debt.”
 Party ends and guest go home
 Juliet wonders about Romeo’s identity
 lines 150 and 151 “…If he be married,/ My grave is like to be
my wedding bed.” (If he is married, my life might as well be
over) – foreshadowing – her life will be over when he is married
because they will commit suicide
 Juliet finds out Romeo’s identity
 lines 154-157 – “My love sprung from my only hate!/ Too early
seen unknown, and know too late!/ Prodigious birth of love it is
to me/ That I must love a loathed enemy.” (she fell in love with
Romeo before she found out he was her enemy – know it is too
late to stop her love)
vocabulary 
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alliteration
allusion
aside
assonance
blank verse
characterization
comic relief
conflict
consonance
couplet
foreshadowing
iambic pentameter (be able to mark the meter)
metaphor
oxymoron
prologue
pun
setting
simile