RJ Acts 3, 4 and 5 Questions and Response

The answers to these questions, in addition to the post-play response, are due upon arrival at the exam.

Act 3

1. What does dramatic irony mean?
2. Romeo refuses to fight Tybalt and explains that they need to have love for each other, not hate. How is this good example of dramatic irony?
3. Friar Lawrence tells Romeo that he isn’t safe while he stays in Verona. What town does he recommend he move to for the time being?
4. In the morning of the fourth day, Romeo seems to be more of a realist than Juliet in Act 3. How does figurative language explain this statement?
5. What significance might bird imagery (the nightingale and the lark) have to an audience and where else has it been shown so far in the play?

Act 4

1. Briefly explain Friar Laurence's plan, as he explains it to Juliet in Scene 1.
2. What reason does Juliet give her father for changing her mind and deciding to marry Paris?
3. What are Juliet's thoughts before drinking the potion?
4. The Nurse's reaction to Juliet's death is comic, as is the last scene in the act with the servants switching their plans from a wedding to a funeral. What's the purpose of these comic scenes?

Act 5

1. What events occur in the play, which Friar Laurence hadn't expected, that help bring about the unhappy ending?
2. What types of events do the mass media (newspapers, magazines, radio, and television) call tragic?
3. What decisions have you made impulsively that you later regretted?
4. Under what circumstances would you, like the apothecary, go against the law to make money?
5. Why might we view Romeo and Juliet's suicides today more as impulsive acts than tragic ones?
6. In what ways might the arguments that you would use to talk Romeo and Juliet out of suicide differ from the ones that adults would use?

Post Reading Response (200-300 word response)

For what reasons would you or members of society hold Romeo and Juliet responsible for their own deaths?

Who else might you hold responsible and how would you punish them?