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‘The Prologue’
Chorus
1 Two households, both alike in dignity,
2 In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
3 From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
4 Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
5 From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
6 A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
7 Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
8 Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
9 The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
10 And the continuance of their parents' rage,
11 Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
12 Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
13 The which if you with patient ears attend,
14 What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
Answer the following questions:
1. What is the purpose of the Prologue?
2. Why would the audience be told the whole story at the beginning of the play?
3. What are some possible themes of the play that are introduced?
4. Annotate the rhyme scheme and count the number of syllables per line. What is the
form of this type of poem and why do you think Shakespeare has chosen to begin the
play with this form?
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‘Romeo and Juliet’ Context Research
Answer the following questions:
1)
Where did Shakespeare get the ideas for this play and what were his sources?
2) List some examples of different versions of the play that have been produced – think film,
dance, opera, musicals, novels, songs.
3) When did Shakespeare write his play?
4) When and where is the play set?
5) What was upper class Italian society like at this time? Find out something about families/
power/ marriages/ money.
6) What was the role of women in Italy at this time? Look at roles of upper-class mothers/
nurses (look up ‘wet nurse’)/ upper-class daughters’ duties.
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Test your knowledge. Take the quiz, then check your answers on pg 20, and see how
you scored.
1: When the play begins, Juliet is how old?
a. 21
b. 18
c. 16
d. 13
2: What disturbance prompts the Prince to threaten the feuding Capulets and Montagues?
a. The killing of Lord Montague’s nephew
b. The theft of land from the Montagues
c. Romeo sneaking around the Capulet orchard
d. The servants of the feuding families engage in a brawl.
3: Why does the Friar agree to marry Romeo and Juliet?
a. He hopes that the marriage will help end the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets.
b. He believes that Romeo and Juliet are deeply in love.
c. He’s afraid of offending Romeo’s father.
d. He looks forward to the extra income.
4: Friar Laurence’s message doesn't reach Romeo in Mantua because
a. Romeo has moved
b. b. a civil war in Italy has blocked all roads to Mantua
c. Friar John can’t get to Mantua because of a plague outbreak
d. Lady Montague interferes with the delivery
5: The only characters who know of Romeo and Juliet's wedding are
a. The Nurse and Friar Laurence
b. Mercutio and Paris
c. Friar John and Friar Laurence
d. Tybalt and Friar Tuck
6: What is the name of the Nurse’s servant?
a. Samuel
b. Abram
c. Peter
d. Balthasar
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7: What is Mercutio’s nickname for Tybalt?
a. Tricky Ty
b. Brawling Boy
c. Prince of Cats
d. King of Compliments
8: How much time elapses in the play?
a. A little over four days
b. About one week
c. Three weeks
d. No way to determine
9: Whose body is in the tomb with Juliet when she is under the spell of the potion?
a. Mercutio’s
b. Lord Capulet’s
c. Benvolio’s
d. Tybalt’s
10: What does Juliet place by her bedside as she takes the sleeping potion?
a. A prayer book
b. Romeo's picture
c. A dagger
d. The antidote
11: Mercutio explains the reason why people dream by describing the actions of which mythical
character?
a. Diane
b. Cupid
c. Queen Mab
d. Venus
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12: After the deaths of Mercutio and Tybalt, Benvolio acts as a
a. Fool
b. Chorus
c. Messenger
d. Pallbearer
13: Who said the following: “No, ‘tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door; but ‘tis
enough, ‘twill serve. Ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man. I am peppered, I
warrant, for this world. A plague o’ both your houses!”
a. Mercutio
b. Romeo
c. Juliet
d. Lord Capulet
14: Who said the following: “Like violent delights have violent ends / And in their triumph die, like
fire and powder, / Which, as they kiss, consume."
a. Romeo
b. Friar Laurence
c. Mercutio
d. Lord Capulet
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Technique
Use of prose
Act 3, scene 1 – language analysis
Quote
Simile
Effect
‘as hot a Jack in thy mood as any in Italy’
Jumpy, unpredictable
From lines 15 - 30
Metaphor
His sword – a toy - humour
‘King of Cats’
‘as deep as a well’
‘You shall find me a grave man.’
‘soften’d valour’s steel’
Rhyme
___________
_____/______
‘fire-eyed fury’
Personification
References to light/
dark; day/night
References to death
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Act 3, scene 1 – Historical/ Social Context
Historical/ social contextual
Point
Duelling/ challenge to manhood
Quote
Significance
“Boy”
"A plague on both your houses,"
Revenge
Fate
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Character Study: Tybalt



Label the picture below with characteristics of Tybalt
Use quotations from the scene from Tybalt or other characters about him
Complete the thought and speech bubbles using either Shakespeare’s words
or our own, modern equivalent
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Character Study: Romeo



Label the picture below with characteristics of Romeo in this scene
Use quotations from the scene from Romeo or other characters about him
Complete the thought and speech bubbles using either Shakespeare’s words
or our own, modern equivalent
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Act 3, scene 5 Language Analysis
Language Point
Use of metaphors
Quote
Effect on audience
alliteration
Use of personification
Rhyming couplets
References to death
Dramatic Irony
Use of Double Meanings/
ambiguity (Juliet)
Use of antithesis (Lady C)
Use of extended metaphor (Lord
C)
References to light/ dark
Day/night
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Act 3 scene 5 Key Word Match
Envious streaks do lace the severing clouds
in yonder east
Night’s candles
jocund
Morning’s eye
Cynthia’s Brow
conduit
bark
minion
hilding
puling
mammet
beshrew
stars
whining
fountain
boat
The sun is rising
Contemptible person
puppet
The moon
curse
The sun
cheerful
Lower person/ servant
Character Study: Juliet
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

Label the picture below with characteristics of Juliet in this scene
Use quotations from the scene from Juliet or other characters about her
Complete the thought and speech bubbles using either Shakespeare’s words
or our own, modern equivalent
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Character Study: Lord and Lady Capulet
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

Label the picture below with characteristics of Juliet’s parents in this scene
Use quotations from the scene from them or Juliet
Complete the thought and speech bubbles using either Shakespeare’s words
or our own, modern equivalent
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Historical Background of Marriage Customs
Age of Consent
“At the seventh year of her age, her father shall have aid of his tenants to marry her.
At nine years of age, she is able to deserve and have dower. At twelve years to consent
to marriage. At fourteen to be hors du guard [outside wardship]. At sixteen to be past
the Lord’s tender of a husband. At twenty one to be able to make a feoffement [land
grant]. And per Ingelton therein the end of the case. A woman married at twelve cannot
disagree afterward. But if she be married younger, she may dissent till she be
fourteen.” (Law’s 33)
Dating
“ . . . it becometh not a maid to talk where her father and mother be in communication
about her marriage, but leave all that care and charge wholly unto them which love her
as well as her self doth. And let her think that her father and mother will provide no
less diligently for her than she wolde for herself, but much better, by the season they
have more experience and wisdom.”
(Vives XVI)
Dowry
“Though matrimony do always proceed dower, yet doth not dower always follow
matrimony. For first, where the husband has no land, the wife can have no dower by the
common law.” (Law’s 43)
Engagement
“The first promising and inception of marriage is in two parts. . . . The first is when a
man and a woman bind themselves simply by their word only to contract matrimony
hereafter. The second, when there is an oath made or somewhat taken as an earnest of
pledge betwixt them on both parts or on one part to be married hereafter.” (Law’s 34)
“Those spousals which are made when a man is without witness, solus com sola [he alone
with her], are called secret promising or desponsation, which though it be tolerated
when by liquid and plain probation it may appear to a judge, and there is not any lawful
impediment to hinder the contract, yet it is so little esteemed of (unless it be very
manifest) that another promise public made after it shall be preferred and prevail
against it.” (Law’s 35)
Marriage Ceremony
“Marriage is defined to be a conjunction of man and woman, containing an inseparable
connection and union of life.” (Law’s 34)
Worthiness
“ . . . first let her understand the chastity is the principal virtue of a woman, and
couterpeiseth with all the rest. If she have that, no man will look for any other; and if
she lack that, no man will regard other.” (Vives XI)
“Hippomenes, a great man of Athens, when he knew his daughter desoiled of one, he shut
her up in a stable with a wild horse, kept meatless. For the horse, when he had suffered
great hunger long and because he was of nature fierce, we waxed mad and all to-tare the
young woman to feed himself with . . .” (Vives VII)
© Folger Shakespeare Library 2007
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“In Spain by our father’s days in Tarraco, two brethren that thought their sister had
been a maid, when they saw her great with child, they dissembled their anger so long as
she was with child. But as soon as she was delivered of her child, they thrust swords into
her belly and slew her, the midwife looking on.” (Vives VII)

What do you think Lord Capulet would think about the document, based upon his
behaviour in the play?

find the relevant details in the document that relate to his ideas about marriage.
Excerpt from Robert Cleaver's 1603 A Godly Form of Household Government.
Use this historical context to analyse the relationship between Juliet, her parents and
her Nurse in ‘Romeo and Juliet’:
Answer the following questions:
1. How does Juliet disrupt societal norms?
2. How does the Nurse in the play assist her in her decision?
3. How does Juliet respond to the Nurse?
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4. If the characters had followed Cleaver’s injunctions, what would they have done
differently?
5. How do modern ideas of society’s roles for women compare or contrast to the roles
presented by Cleaver?
Complete the grid below:
Historical/ social contextual
Point
Juliet’s attitude to her
mother –
Quote
Significance
Capulet’s attitude towards
Juliet –
Juliet’s attitude towards the
Nurse –
Juliet’s comments about
fortune
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ROMEO AND JULIET – the text message version
Read the following and complete Act 3
Act 1
Login: Romeo : R u awake? Want 2 chat?
Juliet: O Rom. Where4 art thou?
Romeo: Outside yr window.
Juliet: Stalker!
Romeo: Had 2 come. feeling jiggy.
Juliet: B careful. My family h8 u.
Romeo: Tell me about it. What about u?
Juliet: 'm up for marriage f u are.. Is tht a bit fwd?
Romeo: No. Yes. No. Oh, dsnt mat-r, 2moro @ 9?
Juliet: Luv U xxxx
Romeo: CU then xxxx
Act 2
Friar: Do u?
Juliet: I do
Romeo: I do
Act 3
Juliet: Come bck 2 bed. __________________________
Romeo: _______
Juliet: _______________________________________
Romeo: ______________________________________
Juliet: __________________
Romeo: _______________________________.
Juliet: ___________
Act 4
Nurse: Yr mum says u have 2 marry Paris!!
Juliet: No way. Yuk yuk yuk. n-e-way, am mard 2 Rom.
Act 5
Friar: Really? O no. U wl have 2 take potion that makes u look ded.
Juliet: Gr8
Act 6
Romeo: J-why r u not returning my texts?
Romeo: RUOK? Am abroad but phone still works.
Romeo: TEXT ME!
Batty: Bad news. J dead. Sorry l8
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Act 7
Romeo: J-wish u wr able 2 read this...am now poisoning & and climbing in yr grave. LUV U
Ju xxxx
Act 8
Juliet: R-got yr text! Am alive! Ws faking it! Whr RU? Oh...
Friar: Vry bad situation.
Juliet: Nightmare. LUVU2. Always. Dagger. Ow!!! Logout
by cartoonist Roz Chast, first published in the New Yorker
Essay Question:
How does Shakespeare entertain his audience through his use of character, language and
drama?
Essay Plan
Paragraph 1 - Introduction:
Background info. to play:
 What were Shakespeare’s sources for the play?
 Comment on the play’s popularity through time –film versions, musicals (give e.g.s
if you know any).
 Explain that you will be analysing two different entertaining scenes – Act 3,
scene 1 (and why) and Act 3 , scene 5 which follows soon afterwards (and why).
Paragraph 2 - Setting/atmosphere and structure:
Act 3 Scene 1
 What is the atmosphere like at the beginning of this scene?
 What is the purpose of the humour at the beginning of the scene?
 Comment about where this scene comes in relation to rest of play – why? How
would the audience react to the fight scene?
Paragraph 3 - Setting/atmosphere and structure:
Act 3, scene 5
 Why is this scene placed immediately after the scene where Capulet and Paris
arrange Paris’ s marriage to Juliet? Comment on the atmosphere and setting
 How does the scene end?
Paragraph 4 – character
Act 3 Scene 1
 What kind of character is Tybalt?
 Historical context – why does he want revenge on Romeo
 How does Romeo act at the beginning of this scene? – quote – why does he not
want to fight Tybalt? What does the audience know that Tybalt doesn’t?
 Comment on the change in Romeo after Mercutio’s death.
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Paragraph 5 – character
Act 3, scene 5
 How does Juliet act in this scene towards Romeo?
 How does she act when Romeo has gone?
 Comment on Juliet’s attitude towards her parents, especially her mother?
(historical context)
 Comment on Juliet’s attitude towards nurse? (historical context)
 Compare with relationship with mother (historical context)
 Can you find any examples of dramatic irony in this scene?
 How does Lord Capulet behave towards Juliet? (Historical context) audience
reaction then and now?
Paragraph 6 – language
Act 3, scene 1
 Comment on Mercutio’s use of puns
 What does Romeo say about the future when Benvolio tells him Mercutio is
dead? How does this link to the information in the Prologue?
 What language technique is Romeo using when he says he is “Fortune’s fool” ?
what does he mean? Do you think it is fate or is it his fault? What would
audiences at the time have believed?
Paragraph 7 - Language
Act 3, scene 5
 Comment on Romeo’s use of metaphors and alliteration
 How does this link to themes of the play? Compare with a similar comment in Act
3 scene 1.
 Comment on the use of rhyming couplets towards the beginning of this scene
 Comment on Juliet’s use of similes
 Comment on Juliet’s use of ambiguity
 Comment on her Personification of Fortune. How does this link to Romeo’s
comments about fortune above? What does this suggest to the audience?
Paragraph 8 - Conclusion
Refer back to essay question. Summarise why these two scenes are so effective. Give
your opinion of the play and why you think it has been so successful over the centuries
since it was written. What do you think Shakespeare was trying to say about honour/
revenge/love/ marriage/ fate?
You’ve finished! Well done!
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Success Criteria
To get a 85-95% or above you must analyse the effect of:





To get



characters, structure and themes
Shakespeare’s use of language (metaphors, similes etc)
Shakespeare’s use of dramatic devices to create audience response (how the use
of fights/ romantic moments/ humour etc make the audience feel)
contemporary relevance (why audiences today can relate to ideas)
historical/ social context (why characters acted in the way they did at that
point in history)
a 95-100%
analyse alternative interpretations
make comparisons to events/ language elsewhere in the play
evaluate the moral/ philosophical content
Lastly…have you…
 used quotations?
 analysed the effect of language on the audience?
 analysed the social/ historical context?
 analysed the dramatic effects when the play was written and today?
Answers to quiz
1d
2d
13a
3a
14b
4c
5a
6c
7c
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8a
9d
10c
11c
12b