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THE BIG IDEA - WHY DOES THIS TEXT EXIST?

(you can use this to create your thesis statements and build your essay arguments)

Romeo and Juliet is about how strong emotions have tragic consequences.

1. Shakespeare explores how strong, uncontrollable anger and violence can lead to conflict.
2. Shakespeare could be suggesting that, if strong feelings of love are ignored by families who force their children into arranged marriages, there can be tragic consequences.
3. Shakespeare could be suggesting that strong feelings of honour, tied to traditional views around masculinity and patriarchy, can have tragic consequences.

PLOT

1. The Prince of Verona breaks up a fight between members of the Montague and Capulet family.
2. Romeo confesses that he is lovesick over Rosaline. .
3. Romeo meets Juliet at the Capulet ball and they fall in love. Tybalt vows revenge on Romeo.
4. Romeo meets Juliet again by hiding in the Capulet orchard and they agree to marry.
5. Friar Laurence agrees to marry them in secret.
6. Tybalt challenges Romeo to a fight. Romeo refuses but Mercutio accepts and is killed by Tybalt. Romeo kills Tybalt and is banished from Verona.
7. Lord Capulet insists that Juliet must marry Paris.
8. Friar Laurence gives Juliet a potion that means she’ll appear dead and sends a letter to Romeo that never arrives.
9. Romeo hears that Juliet is dead, buys poison and takes it at her tomb. Juliet wakes, sees Romeo dead and stabs herself.
10. The Montagues and the Capulets find their children dead and agree to end the feud.

ESSAY QUESTIONS

1. Explore how Shakespeare presents Romeo in Romeo and Juliet.
2. Explore how Shakespeare presents Juliet in Romeo and Juliet.
3. Explain how Shakespeare presents the relationship between Romeo and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet.
4. Explain how far you think Shakespeare presents Tybalt as an aggressive and violent character.
5. Explain how Shakespeare presents Mercutio.
6. Explain how far you think Shakespeare presents Lord Capulet as a good father.
7. Explain how far you think Shakespeare presents Lady Capulet as a good mother in Romeo and Juliet..
8. Explain how Shakespeare presents the character of Friar Lawrence.
9. Explain how Shakespeare presents attitudes towards love in Romeo and Juliet
10. Explore how Shakespeare presents the tragedy of love in Romeo and Juliet.
11. Explain how far you think Shakespeare presents conflict as a key theme in the play.
12. Explain how far Shakespeare presents family allegiance as the cause of conflict in Romeo and Juliet..
13. Explore how Shakespeare presents father daughter relationships in Romeo and Juliet.
14. Explore how Shakespeare presents fate versus free will in Romeo and Juliet.

Romeo (impulsive and passionate)

‘pricks like thorn’

1. Romeo is madly and obsessively in love with Rosaline, who does not return his love.
2. Imagery of rose with sharp thorns. Indicates the pain Romeo feels.
3. Stretch: subverts the typical image of love by contrasting love (rose) and pain (thorn)

‘Did my heart love till now?’

1. Romeo immediately forgets Rosaline when he first meets Juliet.
2. Romeo asks when he first meets Juliet, suggesting that he has never loved before
3. He previously stated passionately that he loved Rosaline. Impulsive.

‘sun’ (compares Juliet to the sun)

1. Imagery of light and warmth
2. Suggests Juliet brings light and warmth to Romeo & his world revolves around her.
3. Stretch: typical imagery used by the courtly lover (hyperbolic)

‘fire-eyed fury’

1. Metaphor. He impulsively follows the ‘fury’ (anger) he feels and kills Tybalt.
2. Romeo’s inability to control his impulsive anger leads to tragedy.

‘I am fortune’s fool’

1. Romeo blames fate, not seeing that his own impulsivity has contributed to the tragic events of the play.
2. Not being able to see this, and blaming fate, is part of his downfall.

Juliet (brave and rebellious)

‘Madam’ ‘consent’

1. Formal and obedient way of speaking to Lady Capulet.
2. J agrees to seek LC’s consent early in the play before taking action with Paris.
3. Indicative of the normal mother-child relationship in wealthy families in Elizabethan era and 14th century.

‘god of my idolatry’

1. Juliet worships Romeo as a ‘god’ in the way that religious people worship the god in their religion
2. religious imagery, which would have been surprising to a religious Elizabethan audience.

‘I’ll no longer be a Capulet’

1. Juliet is rebellious. Her love for Romeo has overpowered her love for her family
2. Juliet goes against expected behaviour of young Elizabethan girl.

‘Hang, beg, starve, die in the streets’ (Lord Capulet says this)

1. Juliet is courageous. Her love for R has overpowered other loyalties and propelled her against her family.
2. Goes against expected behaviour of a young girl in a patriarchal society.

‘mangled tybalt’

1. Juliet imagines waking in the tomb after taking the potion and seeing Tybalt’s dead body.
2. Violent imagery that helps us to imagine Juliet lying next to Tybalt’s mutilated, disfigured body.
3. Demonstrates (1) courage (2) how powerful her love is for Romeo.
4. Stretch: these words are spoken in Juliet’s final soliloquy. Shakespeare contrasts Juliet’s emotions in this soliloquy with her earlier soliloquy, when she was awaiting Romeo’s arrival on the night of their wedding.

Mercutio (witty and loyal)

‘prick love for pricking’

1. Turns Romeo’s words love ‘pricks like thorn’ into a sexual innuendo, advising R to have sex to get over Rosaline
2. Prick is an innuendo for penis / pricking is an innuendo for having sex
3. Innuendo (1) creates comic relief and (2) demonsrtates that M is more intersted in sex than love.
4. M proves masculinity - part of what contributes to his downfall.

‘vile submission’

1. Vile = disgusting. Submission = giving in
2. Mercutio thinks it is disgusting and dishonourable that Romeo is giving in and not fighting Tybalt back.
3. Linked to traditional Elizabethan views about honour: fight to defend family name and prove masculinity.

‘A plague o' both your houses’

1. Mercutio curses the Montague and Capulet households for causing his death
2. Shakespeare’s repetition of this phrase emphasises Mercutio’s anger and bitterness

Tybalt (aggressive and violent)

‘Peace, I hate the word as I hate hell, all Montagues and thee’

1. Tybalt does not want to seek peace. He wants to fight.
2. Repetition of ‘hate’ emphasises the strong hate he feels for the Montagues.
3. T is traditional Elizabethan male, believing he must fight to defend family honour.

‘honour of my kin’

1. Tybalt states that he will fight/kill Romeo at the Capulet ball in order to defend his family honour
2. Linked to traditional Elizabethan views about honour: fight to defend family name and prove masculinity.

‘Villain’ ‘boy’

1. Words Tybalt uses to refer to Romeo just before the fight to try and put him down and convey his hatred
2. ‘Villain’ = Tybalt believes in the feud so strongly that he sees Romeo as a villain (someone who deliberately harms others) even though Romeo has done nothing wrong
3. ‘Boy’ - Tybalt tries to mock and put down Romeo to provoke him. T is aggressive and provocative.
4. In this scene, Romeo tries to tell Tybalt he loves him. Tybalt is unwilling to listen.
5. Stretch: Shakespeare contrasts R’s love with T’s hate in this scene. R is blind to the feud, stating that he ‘loves’ T, which only provokes T more. R’s love and T’s anger - both very strong emotions that they struggle to control - lead to misunderstanding and conflict, resulting in the tragic deaths of two characters.

Lord Capulet (authoritative and patriarchal)

Lord Capulet tries to join in the fight on the streets of Verona in the opening scene.

1. Emphasises that even the older characters behave irresponsibly, acting upon their anger and hatred.
2. Emphasises how important Capulet honour is to Lord Capulet, explaining why he places this honour over Juliet’s feelings later in the play.

‘stranger to the world’

1. LC encourages Paris to wait two more years before marry Juliet.
2. ‘Stranger’ indicates that LC recognises Juliet is very young and inexperienced.
3. Surprising to Elizabethan audience, given how normal it was for girls as young as Juliet to be married, emphasising how protective LC seems at this early stage in the play.

‘Hang! Beg! Starve! Die in the streets’

1. List of violent, cruel actions, contrasting with how protective Lord Capulet was earlier in the play.
2. LC cares most about the Capulet honour and finding Juliet a suitable husband.
3. LC’s anger reflects the patriarchal attitudes of the time.

Lord Capulet offers to build a golden statue of Romeo in the final scene.

1. LC is willing to publicly recognise Romeo and Juliet’s love and marriage.
2. LC wants to end the feud.
3. Demonstrates that LC did love Juliet.
4. Shakespeare offers hope through the fact that LC has learned; other parents can learn and avoid the same mistakes made by LC.

Lady Capulet (cold and distant)

‘daughter’

1. Formal way of speaking to Juliet, contrasting the nurse’s affectionate nicknames.
2. Distant relationship was normal in wealthy families in Elizabethan era and 14th century.
3. Their distance contributes to Juliet’s tragic death.

‘For blood of ours, shed blood of Montague’

1. Lady Capulet is distraught that Tybalt has been killed and demands for Romeo to be killed’
2. Lady Capulet, like Lord Capulet, cares about honour and family reputation.
3. Older characters are as much to blame as the younger characters for continuing the feud.

‘I have done with thee’

1. Very cold and harsh language as Lady Capulet disowns Juliet when Juliet refuses to marry Paris
2. Lady Capulet supports Lord Capulet and does not try to understand her daughter
3. Reflects patriarchal attitudes at the time. (Highly unusual for a lady to disobey her husband.)

Benvolio (sensible and peaceful)

‘Part, fools!’

1. Benviolo demands that the servants of the Montague and Capulet families don’t fight.
2. ‘Fools’ - indicates that Benvolio thinks fighting is foolish. Benvolio is sensible.
3. Indicates that some younger characters are able to see sense, contrasting with the older Montagues and Capulets, who enter and try to join the fight.

‘examine other beauties’

1. Benvolio is a good friend to Romeo, advising R to consider other women in order to get over Rosaline
2. B is sensible, recognising that Romeo is irrationally in love with one woman and must consider others.
3. Contrast between B and R emphasises R’s tragic flaw.

‘we shall not escape a brawl’

1. Benvolio recognises that the weather is hot and that the Capulets are looking for a fight.
2. Benvolio encourages Mercutio to go home with him to try to avoid a fight.
3. Benvolio is sensible. He predicts that a fight will happen, which it does. He prefers to keep peace.

Friar Laurence (kind but naive)

‘They stumble that run fast’

1. advises Romeo not to rush into his marriage with Juliet because something may go wrong.
2. Shakespeare foreshadows tragic events; it is their impulsive actions that contribute to their tragic deaths.
3. Friar Laurence cares about R; wants to stop him from making foolish decisions.
4. Through FL’s words, Shakespeare warns against strong, passionate love, which can lead to violent acts.

‘Turn the households’ rancour to pure love’

1. marries Romeo and Juliet because he believes it will end the feud and years of fighting in Verona.
2. Dramatic irony: audience has learned in the prologue that the feud only ends when Romeo and Juliet die.
3. Dramatic irony makes the Friar seem naive in thinking that the marriage in itself will end the feud.
4. His actions (marrying R&J in secret) would have been surprising to a religious Elizabethan audience, and may lead them to distrust his decisions.

‘dear mercy’

1. Tries to persuade Romeo to see that Prince Escalus has shown him kindness in banishing him.
2. It is clear that FL & R are close because R listens to FL’s advice. R does not go to his parents for advice.
3. Shakespeare contrasts R (always impulsive & emotional) with FL (able to think clearly & carefully).

Nurse (well-meaning and witty)

‘lamb’ / ‘ladybird’ (affectionate terms Nurse uses to refer to Juliet)

1. Affectionate nicknames for Juliet, contrasting with Lady Capulet, who only calls Juliet ‘daughter’
2. Normal in Elizabethan era for a nurse to raise the child. Highlights distance within families.

Helps Juliet by delivering the message to Romeo about their secret marriage.

1. Believes that Paris is the finer man but knows that Juliet loves Romeo.
2. Shows her love for Juliet through risking her own employment if Lord and Lady Capulet were to find out.

‘eagle’ / ‘dishclout’ (contrasting Paris and Romeo when persuading Juliet to marry Paris)

1. The Nurse tries to persuade Juliet to marry Paris.
2. Focuses on physical appearance. P = handsome ‘eagle’, whereas R = dirty ‘dishclout’ (dishcloth)
3. Juliet sees this as a betrayal, but the nurse thinks this will be the best for Juliet in order to keep her safe. Perhaps the nurse is also trying to protect herself as going against LC would result in her losing her job.

Prince Escalus (authoritative)

‘your lives shall pay’

1. Threatens death in the opening scene if any characters fight on the streets of Verona again
2. Is the most authoritative person in Verona. Is in charge.

‘all are punished’

1. PE’s authoritative voice returns in the final scene to summarise destruction caused by feud
2. He blames the Montagues and the Capulets & himself for not stopping the feud.
3. Recognises that everyone has been punished for their mistakes (he lost family members too)
4. Stretch: PE is absent for most of the play but returns in the final scene to restore order. A typical feature of tragies is that order is restored at the end, in a new way.

THEMES & CONTEXT:

Love:

• Love is an overpowering force that can override all other values, loyalties, and emotions.
• True love can lead to violence and irrational behaviour.
• Romeo and Juliet’s love might be a criticism of arranged marriage. The tragedy happens because Juliet has to marry Paris, serving the interests of the men (Capulet and Paris).

Conflict:

• Conflict happens as a result of family honour: if they or their family is insulted, they must fight the man who insults them, or else be considered a coward and disgraced.
• Shakespeare criticises male aggressive behaviour in the Elizabethan era, which leaves to sudden mistakes

Fate:

• Elizabethan audiences believed that the position of the sun, moon, planets and stars could affect the actions and lives of people, just like God.
• The theme of fate is established in the prologue when Shakespeare suggests that some higher power has predetermined their lives and deaths. ‘death-marked’
• Romeo and Juliet have several visions of death that foreshadow later events.
• Shakespeare may be suggesting that fate is unchangeable:

1. Romeo and Juliet fall in love with someone from an enemy family.
2. Friar John’s letter does not reach Romeo due to the plague.

• OR Shakespeare may be suggesting that fate is changeable because it is not God deciding things - it is social norms that decide things.

1. Arranged marriage means Romeo and Juliet cannot be together.
2. Patriarchal values mean that Lord Capulet speeds up the marriage to Paris without considering Juliet’s feelings.

Family:

• The distance between parent and child is shown through Shakespeare’s use of go-betweens: Juliet is closer to the nurse than to her mother and Romeo seeks help from Friar Laurence - not from his mother and father.
• Shakespeare could be aiming to educate parents to pay more attention to the feelings of their children, allowing them to marry later and not forcing them to marry young.
• The audience only gains an insight into the Capulet family - a traditional patriarchal family, in which Lord Capulet is in charge. Perhaps Shakespeare wanted to particularly explore the limitations for women.

STRUCTURE

1. Prologue: Shakespeare’s deliberate choice to reveal the play’s tragic end in the opening promises the audience that the play will be filled with pain, conflict and overpowering love. It also facilitates several moments of dramatic irony, during which the sense of tragedy is further heightened for the audience.
2. Pace: The action of the play takes place in just 4 days. Shakespeare uses this short time frame on purpose to place pressure on the characters, pushing them to make desperate, often foolish decisions. The time frame is not supposed to be realistic; it is a device that adds to the suspense.
3. Scene placement: Shakespeare often places scenes in which Romeo and his friends speak freely about love and sex next to scenes in which Juliet’s arranged marraige is being discussed, to show the contrast between men and women in the Elizabethan era.
4. Romeo’s absence in Act IV due to banishment forces Juliet to take matters in her own hands and seek advice from Friar Laurence. This allows Shakespeare to convey her increasing maturity and isolation from her parents.
5. Character contrasts: Mercutio and Romeo / Benvolio and Tybalt / Nurse and Lady Capulet
6. Sonnet when Romeo and Juliet first meet, portraying the unity of their love.

SETTING:

The play is set in the 14th century in Verona, Italy. It was a successful and cultured city that suffered widespread violence often over very trivial (unimportant) issues. The Montecchi and Capuleti were real families fighting for power in this time.

VOCABULARY:

General

aggressive - behaving in an angry and violent way

authoritative - someone who seems important and expects to be obeyed

courageous - willing to do something difficult or dangerous even if they’re afraid

fate - a power that some people believe controls everything that happens, in a way that cannot be prevented or changed

feud - a argument in which two people or groups remain angry with each other for a long time

honour - good reputation and character as judged by other people

impulsive - doing things suddenly without careful thought

irresponsible - not taking care properly of the person/things you are supposed to

loyal - remaining firm and unchanging in friendship and support

naive - very willing to believe someone or something is good and that people always have good intentions

obedient - willing to do what someone tells you to do

passionate - strong feelings about something or someone

patriarchal - a society, family, or system is one in which the men have all or most of the power and importance

rebellious - refusing to obey rules or authority or to accept normal standards of behavior, dress, etc. r

witty - funny in a clever way

Terminology

dramatic irony - when the audience knows something the characters don’t

foreshadowing - hinting at something that is going to happen without revealing the story or spoiling the suspense

imagery - language that causes people to imagine pictures in their mind

suspense - a growing sense of expectation; a feeling that events are leading to something exciting or tragic

tragedy - a type of literature that is serious and sad and often ends in the death of the main character

tragic flaw - the characteristic in the tragic hero that leads them to making mistakes