Study Questions: Act 3
Number and type up your responses to the questions below. Successful answers will quote
the text directly and use specifics, showing a careful reading of the play.
1.
What does Mercutio mean when he tells Benvolio, “thou art as hot a jack in thy mood as any in
Italy”? What does Romeo mean when he tells Tybalt, “I see thou knowest me not”?
2.
What literary device is being used when Mercutio tells Romeo, “Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall
find me a grave man”? How does this moment fit Mercutio’s character?
3.
How does Juliet’s soliloquy pick up on an allusion used by the Friar in Act 2? Explain how this
reference is meaningful here.
4.
In Scene 2, the Nurse brings Juliet news for the second time in the play. What is the message this
time? How is this scene parallel to Act 2, Scene 5?
5.
Juliet’s language echoes Romeo’s when she says, “Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical!/ Dovefeathered raven, wolvish-ravening lamb!/ Despised substance of divinest show!” (3.2.81-83). How
would you describe this language? When does Romeo sound like this?
6.
What shocking thing does Juliet say she would prefer to Romeo’s banishment in Scene 2?
7.
What three reasons does the Friar give that Romeo should be happy? (Act 3, Scene 3)
8.
When does the Friar speak of fire and powder? Quote and explain.
9.
Why does Capulet suddenly decide to accept Paris’s offer? Describe how and why this character
seems so different in Act 3. How might Shakespeare have prepared us for Capulet’s behavior
here?
10. Juliet cannot reveal her feelings about Romeo to her mother in Scene 5. Where does she say one
thing and mean another, hiding her feelings but expressing them at the same time?
11. How has the imagery of darkness and light continued to be important in this act, especially in
Scene 5?
12. What is the Nurse’s advice to Juliet? Why do you suppose Juliet pretends to be comforted by the
Nurse? What has this character realized by the end of Act 3?