AQA English Literature - Unseen Poetry and Romeo and Juliet
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ARNOLD HILL ACADEMY AQA English Literature Unseen Poetry and Romeo and Juliet
AQA iGCSE ENGLISH LITERATURE
Paper 1 Higher Section A – Unseen
Poetry
AO1 Respond to texts critically and imaginatively; select and evaluate relevant textual detail
to illustrate and support interpretations
AO2 Explain how language, structure and form contribute to writers’ presentation of ideas,
themes and settings
Band Mark Specific Descriptors
Insightful, critical, imaginative & evaluative response to texts and task
30-35 marks Insightful /impressive engagement with writers’ ideas and attitudes
6 ‘Insightful’
‘impressive’
Insightful/interpretations using imaginatively selected supporting textual
detail
impressive analysis of aspects of language and structure; perceptive
and imaginative
assured critical and/or imaginative and/or evaluative response to texts
and task
24-29 marks
sustained and developed appreciation of writers’ ideas and attitudes
5 ‘confident’
‘assured’ confident convincing interpretations using precisely selected supporting
textual detail
analysis of aspects of language and structure in convincing detail
considered/thoughtful response to text and/or task
18-23 marks thoughtful consideration of writers’ ideas and attitudes
4 ‘considered’ considered interpretations using thoughtfully selected supporting textual
detail
‘thoughtful’
thoughtful consideration of aspects of language and structure with
thoughtfully selected textual support
clear/consistent response to text and/or task
12-17 marks clear/consistent understanding of writers’ ideas and attitudes
3 ‘clear’
‘consistent’
clear interpretations using relevant supporting textual detail
clear/consistent understanding of features of language and structure
supported by relevant and appropriate quotation
explained response to text and/or task
6-11 marks explained response to writers’ ideas/ attitudes
2 ‘explained’ explained interpretations using relevant textual detail
explained understanding of features of language and structure
supported by relevant quotation
some response to texts and/or task
1-5 marks some familiarity with writers’ ideas supported by a range of textual detail
1 ‘some’ some familiarity with obvious features of language and structure
supported by some relevant textual detail
0 0 marks Nothing worthy of credit
Grade Boundaries out of 35
A* A B C D
25 20 15 11 7
1AQA iGCSE English Literature paper 1
Section A – Unseen poetry Question
Types
Year Questions
What impressions of childhood does Duffy create in this
Specimen poem? How does she convey these ideas to the reader?
(35 marks)
What impression of the main character does Stallworthy
create in the poem and how does he convey these ideas to
June 2012
the reader?
(35 marks)
What does the narrator of the poem feel about the birth of
Jan 2013 her child and how does the poet present these feelings?
(35 marks)
What feelings does the narrator of the poem have about his
students and his job as a teacher and how does Lawrence
June 2013
convey these feelings to the reader?
(35 marks)
2Past Paper - Specimen
Section A: Unseen Poetry
You must answer the one question in this section
You are advised to spend about 45 minutes on this section
Read the poem below and then answer the question that follows.
In Mrs Tilscher’s Class
You could travel up the Blue Nile
with your finger, tracing the route
while Mrs Tilscher chanted the scenery.
Tana. Ethiopia. Khartoum. Aswan.
That for an hour, then a skittle of milk
and the chalky Pyramids rubbed into dust.
A window opened with a long pole.
The laugh of a bell swung by a running child.
This was better than home. Enthralling books.
The classroom glowed like a sweetshop.
Sugar paper. Coloured shapes. Brady and Hindley*
Faded, like the faint, uneasy smudge of a mistake.
Mrs Tilscher loved you. Some mornings, you found
She’d left a good gold star by your name.
The scent of a pencil slowly, carefully, shaved.
A xylophone’s nonsense heard from another form.
Over the Easter term, the inky tadpoles changed
from commas into exclamation marks. Three frogs
hopped in the playground, freed by a dunce,
followed by a line of kids, jumping and croaking
away from the lunch queue. A rough boy
told you how you were born. You kicked him, but stared
at your parents, appalled, when you got back home.
That feverish July, the air tasted of electricity.
A tangible alarm made you always untidy, hot,
fractious under the heavy, sexy sky. You asked her
how you were born and Mrs Tilscher smiled,
then turned away. Reports were handed out.
You ran through the gates, impatient to be grown,
as the sky split open into a thunderstorm.
Carol Ann Duffy
* Ian Brady and Myra Hindley murdered five children in the 1960s.
3Past Paper Poems June 2012
Section A: Unseen Poetry
Spend about 45 minutes on this section.
The poem below is about an experienced sailor who drowns.
Read the poem carefully and then answer the question that follows.
The Last Mystery
He knew that coastline – no man better –
Knew all its rocks and currents, like the veins
And knuckles on the brown back of his hand;
The leap-frog rollers and tall tons that batter
Boat-rib and man-rib into grains
Of indistinguishable sand:
He had known them all since he could stand.
A shanty* was his earliest lullaby,
The beach his back-yard, flotsam all his toys.
He was admitted to the mystery
Of tides; the wind’s writing on the sky;
Could out-sail, out-dive, out-swim boys
Older by half; was known to save
Many from the sabre-toothed, man-eating wave.
Knowing so well the temper of the coast,
And all subaqueous hazards of the sea,
What voice, thought, impulse lugged him from his ale
(When every flag was fighting with a mast
And waves kicked bollards off the quay),
To match his Lilliputian* sail
Against the wrestling muscles of the gale?
Only the lemming* knows: his friends knew only
Boat-rib and man-rib littered the long shore
Many tides after. I declare he fell
Like a pearl-dazzled diver through the sea
To that last mystery on its floor;
Whose is the heart-beat under the swell,
The hand that turns the whirlpool and the shell?
Jon Stallworthy
* Shanty is a traditional song sung by sailors.
* Lilliputian refers to Lilliput which is a land of very small people in Gulliver’s Travels.
* Lemmings are rodents which are reputed to rush each year into the sea and drown.
4Past Paper Poems Jan 2013
Section A: Unseen Poetry
Spend about 45 minutes on this section.
The poem below is about an experienced sailor who drowns.
Read the poem carefully and then answer the question that follows.
Morning Song
Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements.
Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.
In a drafty museum, your nakedness
Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.
I’m no more your mother
Than a cloud that distils a mirror to reflect its own slow
Effacement at the wind’s hand.
All night your moth-breath
Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:
A far sea moves in my ear.
One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat’s. The window square
Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.
Sylvia Plath (1932 – 1963)
5Past Poems June 2013
Section A: Unseen Poetry
Spend about 45 minutes on this section.
The poem below is about an experienced sailor who drowns.
Read the poem carefully and then answer the question that follows.
Last Lesson of the Afternoon
When will the bell ring and end this weariness?
How long have they tugged the leash, and strained apart,
My pack of unruly hounds! I cannot start
Them again on a quarry of knowledge they hate to hunt,
I can haul them and urge them no more.
No longer now can I endure the brunt
Of the books that lie out on the desks; a full three-score
Of several insults of blotted pages, and scrawl
Of slovenly work that they have offered me.
I am sick, and what on earth is the good of it all?
What good to them or me, I cannot see!
So, shall I take
My last dear fuel of life to heap on my soul
And kindle my will to a flame that shall consume
Their dross of indifference; and take the toll
Of their insults in punishment? – I will not! –
I will not waste my soul and my strength for this.
What do I care for all they do amiss!
What is the point of this teaching of mine, and of this
Learning of theirs? It all goes down the same abyss.
What does it matter to me, if they can write
A description of a dog, or if they can’t?
What is the point? To us both, it is all my aunt!*
And yet I’m supposed to care, with all my might.
I do not, and will not; they won’t and they don’t; and that’s all!
I shall keep my strength for myself; they can keep theirs as
well.
Why should we beat our heads against the wall
Of each other? I shall sit and wait for the bell.
D. H. Lawrence (1885 – 1930)
*‘It is all my aunt!’ – an expression which means ‘it is all nonsense’.
6How to analyse poems 1
Analysing a poem you have never seen before under exam conditions needn’t be a frightening
prospect. You can improve through practice and by following these steps:
First of all, read the poem. It seems obvious, but you’d be surprised how many students dive
straight in and begin writing having only read the title or first few lines. Take the time to read the
poem through two or even three times. Really try and hear it in your head, getting a feel for the
sounds and rhythms and noticing any strange rhymes or interesting words.
Your analysis should then work through the following:
Speaker
Who is the speaker in the poem? The voice in the poem isn’t necessarily the poet himself –
poets often speaker through personas, real or imagined, personal or impersonal – though of
course it can be. Is it in the first or third (or second) person? Is there anything that reveals or
implies anything about the speaker? Who are they speaking to?
Setting
What is the poem’s setting? Where does the poem take place? A poem can be set anywhere, in
the past, present or future. How does this setting/location influence the atmosphere of the poem?
Form
What is the form of the poem? Poems can be written in various forms (see below for summary of
the most common) which dictate their length, their layout on the page, the line length, whether
they rhyme or not and how they rhyme (the rhyme scheme), their meter (the rhythmic structure of
the line.) Some forms are associated with certain themes or genres – sonnet form, for example, is
commonly used for love poetry; ballad form for narrative (story) poems. Poets make deliberate
decisions about which form to choose, and form always interacts with content, whether to
reinforce it or to work against it – a sonnet about the end of a relationship might have a particular
poignancy, for example.
The best way to work out and begin talking about the form (and also a good way to calm exam
nerves) is to start counting. Count the number of stanzas, the number of lines, the number of
syllables in the lines if they are regular or there is a pattern. Mark the rhymes and the stresses
(see below for summary of common stress patterns). This should help show up any patterns, and
crucially, where the poem deviates from or tries to break away from the pattern. Thinking
about rhyme for example – are all the rhymes full/perfect rhymes? (i.e. night/light, sky/high) or
are there some variations?
Subject matter – what is the poem about? If you aren’t sure, try to describe exactly what is
happening in the poem. It’s absolutely fine to express a difficulty in understanding as the poet has
probably made it intentionally complex, reflecting something about what they’re trying to say.
Look at the imagery used in the poem. Poets often use figurative and metaphorical language that
take words beyond their literal meanings, and attempt to do so in novel ways. Perhaps choose a
couple of the most interesting images in the poem and comment on them. Why are they
interesting? What is the poet doing? What does the choice of a particular word do to our
understanding, or how does an image create an atmosphere in the poem?
Finally, what does the poem mean? You can write an excellent essay covering all of the previous
points and ignoring this one, but if you can it’s a good idea to end with a summary of what the
poem means; what the poet was trying to say, and, perhaps, whether you think they were
successful in saying it.
7How to analyse poems 2
Common poetic forms and literary terms
Alexandrine: A 12 syllable poetic line
Alliteration: the repetition of consonants at the beginning of words e.g. ‘the lazy languid
line’. When consonant sounds are repeated within words it is called consonance e.g.
‘some mammals are clammy’
Assonance: the internal rhyming of vowel sounds e.g. ‘on a proud round cloud in white
high night’ (ee cummings)
Ballad: A poetic form mostly written in four line stanzas (quatrains) of alternating lines of
iambic tetrameter (four pairs of unstressed-stressed syllables) and iambic trimeter (three
pairs). Usually, only the second and fourth lines are rhymed (abcb), although there is
considerable variation in the form.
Examples of ballads: The Ballad of Moll Magee, WB Yeats, Ballad of the Breadman, by
Charles Causley
Blank verse: A type of poetry with a regular meter (generally iambic pentameter) but no
rhyme.
Cliché: a saying, expression or idea that has been overused to the point of losing its
original meaning; a stereotype.
Dramatic irony: a rhetorical device where the author causes a character to behave in a
way that is contrary to the truth, or that the audience is aware is wrong.
Free verse or vers libre: A form of poetry without any regular patterns, rhymes or meters.
Its form is its irregularity.
Heroic couplet:Commonly used for narrative poetry, heroic couplets are rhymed iambic
pentameter pairs of lines.
Hyperbole: exaggeration
Metaphor: an analogy between two words or ideas where one stands for the other e.g.
‘his smile was the sun’ – not to be confused with the simile.
Personification – ascribing human characteristics to inanimate objects or forms
Simile – a kind of metaphor which uses the words as or like – e.g. ‘he fights like a lion’
Sonnet: A poetic form. Fourteen lines long. Can be rhymed in a number of ways, but the
most common are Shakespearean and Petrarchan. Shakespearean sonnets are
rhymed in three groups of four lines rhymed alternately, followed by a couplet – i.e. abab
cdcd efef gg. The closing rhyming couplet often sums up the sonnet. Petrarchan sonnets
are divided into a group of eight lines, called the octave and a group of six lines called
the sestet. The octave is usually rhymed abba abba, and the sestet cde cde. Usually
there is a ‘turn’ or ‘volta’ - a change of direction or mood between the octave and the
sestet. Traditionally, the octave put forward a proposition and the sestet offered a
solution.
Examples of sonnets: Sonnet 18 by Shakespeare, Shall I compare thee to a summer's
day?, Leda and the Swan, by WB Yeats,On His Blindness, by Milton
Terza rima: A rhyming verse stanza form consisting of an interlocking three line rhyme
scheme – aba bcb cdc ded etc -Acquainted With The Night by Robert Frost
Villanelle: A nineteen line poem with a complex scheme consisting of alternating
refrains. The best way of describing the form is to look at a villanelle itself. The most
famous example in English is Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas
8How to analyse poems 3
Describing meter
We often talk about meter as the sequence of feet in a line, with
each foot a group of syllable types. The most common syllable
groupings are:
Iamb – unstressed/stressed or short/long e.g.
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (Shakespeare)
Trochee – stressed/unstressed or long/short
e.g. Tyger Tyger burning bright (The Tyger, William Blake)
Dactyl – stressed/unstressed/unstressed or long/short/short
e.g. Just for a handful of silver he left us/ Just for a riband
tostick in his coat (The Lost Leader, Robert Browning)
Anapaest – unstressed/unstressed/stressed or short/short/long
e.g. Twas the night before Christmas and all through thehouse/
Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse
Spondee (stressed/stressed) and Amphibrach (unstressed/stress
ed/unstressed) are also quite common.
Lines are named for the kind of feet (whether they are iambic or
dactylic etc) and then for the number of feet. If there are three it is
trimeter, four is tetrameter, five is pentameter, six is hexameter etc.
9Paper 1 Section B Higher - Prose /
Drama – Romeo and Juliet
Band Mark Specific Descriptors
Insightful, critical, imaginative & evaluative response to texts and task
Insightful /impressive engagement with writers’ ideas and attitudes
34-40 marks Insightful interpretations using imaginatively selected supporting textual
6 ‘Insightful’
‘impressive’
detail
impressive analysis of aspects of language and structure; perceptive
and imaginative.
assured critical and/or imaginative and/or evaluative response to texts
and task
27-33 marks sustained and developed appreciation of writers’ ideas & attitudes
5 ‘confident’
‘assured’
confident convincing interpretations using precisely selected supporting
textual detail
analysis of aspects of language and structure in convincing detail.
considered/thoughtful response to text and/or task
thoughtful consideration of writers’ ideas and attitudes
20-26 marks considered interpretations using thoughtfully selected supporting textual
4 ‘considered’
‘thoughtful’
detail
thoughtful consideration of aspects of language and structure with
thoughtfully selected textual support.
clear/consistent response to text and/or task
13-19 marks clear/consistent understanding of writers’ ideas and attitudes
3 ‘clear’
‘consistent’
clear interpretations using relevant supporting textual detail
clear/consistent understanding of features of language and structure
supported by relevant and appropriate quotation
explained response to text and/or task
explained response to writers’ ideas/ attitudes
7-12 marks
2 ‘explained’
explained interpretations using relevant textual detail
explained understanding of features of language and structure
supported by relevant quotation
some response to texts and/or task
1-6 marks some familiarity with writers’ ideas supported by a range of textual detail
1 ‘some’ some familiarity with obvious features of language and structure
supported by some relevant textual detail
0 0 marks Nothing worthy of credit
Grade Boundaries out of 40
A* A B C D
28 23 18 13 8
10Paper 1 Section B Foundation - Prose / Drama
Romeo and Juliet Question Types
Year Questions
08 How does Shakespeare present the relationship between Juliet and her
parents?
(40 marks)
Specimen OR
09 ‘The most interesting part of the play is the fight which results in the deaths of
Tybalt and Mercutio. After that the audience tends to lose interest.’
What do you find of interest after this point in the play?
Question 8
‘Shakespeare presents Romeo as impulsive and Juliet as cautious.’
How do you respond to this view of their relationship? (40 marks)
OR
June 2012
Question 9
In Act 1 Scene 1 Romeo says: “Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love.”
How far do you think that Shakespeare presents love as being more powerful than
hate in the play? (40 marks)
Question 8
08 How are adults presented in Romeo and Juliet? Refer to two or more of the
following characters in your response: The Nurse The Friar The Prince Capulet Lady
Jan 2013 Capulet Montague Lady Montague.(40 marks)
OR
Question 9
09 How is conflict presented in Romeo and Juliet?(40 marks)
Question 8
What do you find interesting about the ways Shakespeare presents female
characters in Romeo and Juliet? (40 marks)
OR
June 2013
Question 9
In the prologue Shakespeare describes Romeo and Juliet as “star-crossed lovers”.
What is the role of fate in the play?(40 marks)
11Paper 1 Section B Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet: Analysis by Act and Scene
INTRODUCTION
Tragedy as well as comedy deals with a conflict between an individual force (which may
be centered either in one character or in a group of characters acting as one) and
environing circumstances. In tragedy the individual (one person or a group) is
overwhelmed; in comedy the individual triumphs. In tragedy, as in comedy, five stages
may be noted in the plot development: (i) the exposition, or introduction; (2) the
complication, rising action, or growth; (3) the climax, crisis, or turning point ; (4) the
resolution, falling action, or consequence; and (5) the denouement, catastrophe, or
conclusion. Let it not be thought for a moment that each of these stages is clearly
differentiated. As a rule they pass insensibly into each other, as they do in life. Especially
is this true in a play like Romeo and Juliet, where the weaving of the plot is so close and
compact.
ANALYSIS BY ACT ACT SCENE
I. THE EXPOSITION, OR INTRODUCTION (TYING OF THE KNOT)
Prologue. The Prologue briefly gives the setting and theme of the play and prepares us
for a drama of pathos in which the destiny of two lovers is determined by fate and
external circumstances, rather than by character.
Act I, Scene i. The thread of the feud action is here introduced with the peace-making
Benvolio on the side of the Montagues and the fiery Tybalt on the Capulet side. The
quarrel is suppressed when the Prince enters and, in the presence of the heads of the
two houses which have thrice disturbed Verona's streets with broils, declares that death
will be the penalty if civil peace is again threatened by their hatred. This warning is a
preparation for the tragic climax. The love action is suggested. The strangeness of
Romeo's new mood is discussed by his parents and Benvolio. When Romeo enters, it is
soon discovered that the cause is unrequited love. Benvolio's determination to teach
Romeo to forget this lady prepares the way for the change in the hero's feelings in the
masquerade scene.
Act I, Scene ii. The entrance of Juliet is prepared for; County Paris is a claimant for her
hand. Romeo consents to attend the Capulet masquerade. In the chance meeting of
Romeo and Benvolio by the servant as he sets out to invite guests to the feast may be
read the significance of the part played by accident in determining the outcome of the
play.
Act I, Scene iii. Juliet is introduced. Lady Capulet announces to her daughter in the
presence of the garrulous nurse that Paris is seeking her in marriage and that she is to
meet him that night at the feast.
Act I, Scene iv. Mercutio joins with Benvolio in urging the reluctant Romeo to forget his
sad love affair and to enter into the spirit of the feast. The scene ends with a vague
foreboding of the consequences hanging on the night's events. The complete mastery of
fate over the destiny of these star-crossed lovers is emphasized in Romeo's helpless cry:
"But He, that hath the steerage of my course, direct my sail" (lines 112-113).
12Paper 1 Section B Romeo and Juliet
II. THE COMPLICATION, RISING ACTION, OR GROWTH (TYING OF THE KNOT)
Act I, Scene v. The feast is on. Romeo catches sight of Juliet and immediately is in love
with her. Already the counteracting forces are at work. Tybalt, the chief antagonist,
hearing his voice, recognizes him and is enraged that a Montague should dare attend a
Capulet feast. He leaves the hall with a determination to punish this intrusion. This is the
motive to the complication of the feud action. Romeo and Juliet meet, love at sight, and
part; and the dramatic entanglement has begun.
Act II, Scene i. This scene explains Romeo's presence in the next. Mercutio's
observations about Rosaline and love in general show that his companions know nothing
of the change in Romeo.
Act II, Scene ii. By a masterly device the usual delays attending lovemaking are removed
and the dramatic interest and entanglement intensified. By chance, again, Juliet in her
confession of love to the heavens and the night is overheard by her lover himself, and he
comes to her call. In this, the famous balcony scene, the lovers plan marriage. Through
the scene are scattered presentiments of evil.
Act II, Scene iii. The soliloquy of the Friar reflects the doom that awaits the love of Romeo
and Juliet, while his knowledge of herbs prepares us for his later intrigue. He promises
reluctantly to officiate at a secret wedding and sees in this union a possible reconciliation
between the hostile houses. The scene ends with the significant words : "Wisely and
slow; they stumble that run fast."
Act II, Scene iv. The first part of this scene, where it is revealed that Tybalt has sent a
challenge to Romeo, prepares us for the crossing of the feud action and love action. It
also furnishes an opportunity for Mercutio to express his disdain of Tybalt. The second
part completes the arrangement for the marriage.
Act II, Scene v. After suspense to which the Nurse's garrulity gives humorous relief, Juliet
wrings from her the message sent by Romeo.
Act II, Scene vi. The marriage rite is performed, but even this joyous scene is not without
its warning (lines 9-10):
These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die.
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13Paper 1 Section B Romeo and Juliet
III. THE CLIMAX, CRISIS, OR TURNING POINT (THE KNOT TIED)
Act III, Scene i. The threads of the feud action and the love action cross each other.
Tybalt in seeking out Romeo comes upon Mercutio, who exchanges daring words with
him. By chance, Romeo comes that way. Tybalt calls him "villain," but he controls his
anger at this insult out of respect to his secret new alliance with a Capulet. The hot-
blooded Mercutio is angered at what seems to be a vile submission and takes up the
fight. Romeo and Benvolio come between them, but Tybalt strikes Mercutio a last
revengeful blow and then runs off. The blow is fatal and the death of his friend rouses
Romeo to revenge. Tybalt comes back in triumph but £oon is the victim of death at the
hands of Romeo. Citizens and members of the two houses gather. The Prince hears an
account of what has taken place and Romeo is sentenced to banishment.
IV. THE RESOLUTION, FALLING ACTION, OR CONSEQUENCE (THE UNTYING OF
THE KNOT)
Act III, Scene ii. Juliet is told of her cousin's death and her husband's banishment. After
she has become almost distracted with confusion and despair, the Nurse finally says that
she knows where Romeo is hid, and goes to take him a ring from Juliet and ask him to
come that night to take his last farewell.
Act III, Scene iii. When Romeo hears his sentence of banishment he gives way to
despair. What the philosophy of Friar Laurence fails to do in the way of comfort is
effected by the message from Juliet. The Friar warns him to depart by break of day for
Mantua and promises to keep him informed of happenings in Verona.
Act III, Scene iv. The action of the Paris love suit begins to take definite shape. Capulet
sets the following Thursday as the wedding day of his daughter and the county.
Act III, Scene v. The lovers bid farewell and the shadow of the tragic catastrophe falls on
their parting words. Hardly has Romeo escaped, when Lady Capulet comes in to tell
Juliet of the wedding to take place on Thursday. The enmity of the family now
concentrated on Romeo as the slayer of Tybalt makes it impossible for Juliet to confess
her marriage. She pleads for time, but her angered father bursts forth in abuses, her
mother turns a deaf ear, and even the Nurse fails her in her time of greatest need. Her
only hope is in the Friar and to him she resolves to go.
Act IV, Scene i. Juliet shows wonderful self-control in her meeting with Paris at the Friar's
cell, but after he has gone her anguish finds full expression. The Friar suggests a daring
intrigue by which Juliet shall take a drug that will make her appear dead for forty-eight
hours. This will relieve her from her marriage to Paris and will afford an opportunity for
Romeo to take her shortly away to Mantua.
Act IV, Scene ii. Capulet, regardless of his daughter's feelings, is insistently making
preparations for the marriage, but she is just as determined and far more skillful in
thwarting his purpose. She feigns willing submission and seems eager for the day.
Act IV, Scene iii. After cheerfully attending to the preparations for her wedding, Juliet
asks to be left alone for the night that she may pray. In spite of terrifying misgivings and
fears, she drinks the potion. The intrigue of the Friar is begun.
14Paper 1 Section B Romeo and Juliet
Act IV, Scene iv. A scene of irony and suspense. The household is astir preparing the
trappings of the feast, the bridegroom is at hand, but the bride cannot be found.
Act IV, Scene v. The Friar's intrigue seems to be succeeding. The drug has produced the
semblance of death and the wedding feast is turned into a funeral. The merry talk of
Peter and the musicians gives relief and is a reflection of the insincerity and lack of true
feeling in the Capulets' attitude toward their daughter.
Act V, Scene i. The scene shifts to Mantua. Irony and ominous foreboding are found in
Romeo's cheerful thoughts, caused by a strange dream. When Balthasar brings him
news of Juliet's burial, but no word from the Friar, the audience realizes that there has
been some dangerous mistake in the carrying out of the intrigue. After Romeo has
determined to be with Juliet that night in the monument, and has, by bribing a poverty-
stricken apothecary, procured the means in the shape of an instant-working deadly drug,
all seems lost — yet a slight hope remains that chance will intervene and avert the tragic
end.
Act V, Scene ii. The flaw in the carrying out of the Friar's plan is explained. Again
accident has proved the enemy of the lovers, for just as the messenger was about to
depart for Mantua, the doors of the house at which he stayed were sealed because of the
pestilence. As Friar Laurence hastens to the tomb to be present when Juliet awakes,
there is a hope that he may arrive in time to meet Romeo and stay his death.
V. DENOUMENT, CATASTROPHE, OR CONCLUSION (THE KNOT UNTIED)
Act V, Scene iii. Chance is hostile to the end and drags down not only the two lovers but
Paris as well. After this tragic ending of the love action and the feud action, the Friar
explains the marriage and intrigue. His words are supplemented by the letter that Romeo
leaves with Balthasar. At last the family feud is ended by the death of the star-crossed
lovers.
15Paper 1 Section B Romeo and Juliet
Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
The Forcefulness of Love
Romeo and Juliet is the most famous love story in the English literary tradition. Love is
naturally the play’s dominant and most important theme. The play focuses on romantic
love, specifically the intense passion that springs up at first sight between Romeo and
Juliet. In Romeo and Juliet, love is a violent, ecstatic, overpowering force that
supersedes all other values, loyalties, and emotions. In the course of the play, the young
lovers are driven to defy their entire social world: families (“Deny thy father and refuse thy
name,” Juliet asks, “Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, / And I’ll no longer be a
Capulet”); friends (Romeo abandons Mercutio and Benvolio after the feast in order to go
to Juliet’s garden); and ruler (Romeo returns to Verona for Juliet’s sake after being exiled
by the Prince on pain of death in 2.1.76–78). Love is the overriding theme of the play, but
a reader should always remember that Shakespeare is uninterested in portraying a
prettied-up, dainty version of the emotion, the kind that bad poets write about, and whose
bad poetry Romeo reads while pining for Rosaline. Love in Romeo and Juliet is a brutal,
powerful emotion that captures individuals and catapults them against their world, and, at
times, against themselves.
The powerful nature of love can be seen in the way it is described, or, more accurately,
the way descriptions of it so consistently fail to capture its entirety. At times love is
described in the terms of religion, as in the fourteen lines when Romeo and Juliet first
meet. At others it is described as a sort of magic: “Alike bewitchèd by the charm of looks”
(2.Prologue.6). Juliet, perhaps, most perfectly describes her love for Romeo by refusing
to describe it: “But my true love is grown to such excess / I cannot sum up some of half
my wealth” (3.1.33–34). Love, in other words, resists any single metaphor because it is
too powerful to be so easily contained or understood.
Romeo and Juliet does not make a specific moral statement about the relationships
between love and society, religion, and family; rather, it portrays the chaos and passion
of being in love, combining images of love, violence, death, religion, and family in an
impressionistic rush leading to the play’s tragic conclusion.
16Love as a Cause of Violence
The themes of death and violence permeate Romeo and Juliet, and they are always
connected to passion, whether that passion is love or hate. The connection between
hate, violence, and death seems obvious. But the connection between love and violence
requires further investigation.
Love, in Romeo and Juliet, is a grand passion, and as such it is blinding; it can
overwhelm a person as powerfully and completely as hate can. The passionate love
between Romeo and Juliet is linked from the moment of its inception with death: Tybalt
notices that Romeo has crashed the feast and determines to kill him just as Romeo
catches sight of Juliet and falls instantly in love with her. From that point on, love seems
to push the lovers closer to love and violence, not farther from it. Romeo and Juliet are
plagued with thoughts of suicide, and a willingness to experience it: in Act 3, scene 3,
Romeo brandishes a knife in Friar Lawrence’s cell and threatens to kill himself after he
has been banished from Verona and his love. Juliet also pulls a knife in order to take her
own life in Friar Lawrence’s presence just three scenes later. After Capulet decides that
Juliet will marry Paris, Juliet says, “If all else fail, myself have power to die” (3.5.242).
Finally, each imagines that the other looks dead the morning after their first, and only,
sexual experience (“Methinks I see thee,” Juliet says, “. . . as one dead in the bottom of a
tomb” (3.5.55–56). This theme continues until its inevitable conclusion: double suicide.
This tragic choice is the highest, most potent expression of love that Romeo and Juliet
can make. It is only through death that they can preserve their love, and their love is so
profound that they are willing to end their lives in its defense. In the play, love emerges
as an amoral thing, leading as much to destruction as to happiness. But in its extreme
passion, the love that Romeo and Juliet experience also appears so exquisitely beautiful
that few would want, or be able, to resist its power.
The Individual Versus Society
Much of Romeo and Juliet involves the lovers’ struggles against public and social
institutions that either explicitly or implicitly oppose the existence of their love. Such
structures range from the concrete to the abstract: families and the placement of familial
power in the father; law and the desire for public order; religion; and the social
importance placed on masculine honor. These institutions often come into conflict with
each other. The importance of honor, for example, time and again results in brawls that
disturb the public peace.
Though they do not always work in concert, each of these societal institutions in some
way present obstacles for Romeo and Juliet. The enmity between their families, coupled
with the emphasis placed on loyalty and honor to kin, combine to create a profound
conflict for Romeo and Juliet, who must rebel against their heritages. Further, the
patriarchal power structure inherent in Renaissance families, wherein the father controls
17the action of all other family members, particularly women, places Juliet in an extremely
vulnerable position. Her heart, in her family’s mind, is not hers to give. The law and the
emphasis on social civility demands terms of conduct with which the blind passion of love
cannot comply. Religion similarly demands priorities that Romeo and Juliet cannot abide
by because of the intensity of their love. Though in most situations the lovers uphold the
traditions of Christianity (they wait to marry before consummating their love), their love is
so powerful that they begin to think of each other in blasphemous terms. For example,
Juliet calls Romeo “the god of my idolatry,” elevating Romeo to level of God (2.1.156).
The couple’s final act of suicide is likewise un-Christian. The maintenance of masculine
honor forces Romeo to commit actions he would prefer to avoid. But the social emphasis
placed on masculine honor is so profound that Romeo cannot simply ignore them.
It is possible to see Romeo and Juliet as a battle between the responsibilities and actions
demanded by social institutions and those demanded by the private desires of the
individual. Romeo and Juliet’s appreciation of night, with its darkness and privacy, and
their renunciation of their names, with its attendant loss of obligation, make sense in the
context of individuals who wish to escape the public world. But the lovers cannot stop the
night from becoming day. And Romeo cannot cease being a Montague simply because
he wants to; the rest of the world will not let him. The lovers’ suicides can be understood
as the ultimate night, the ultimate privacy.
The Inevitability of Fate
In its first address to the audience, the Chorus states that Romeo and Juliet are “star-
crossed”—that is to say that fate (a power often vested in the movements of the stars)
controls them (Prologue.6). This sense of fate permeates the play, and not just for the
audience. The characters also are quite aware of it: Romeo and Juliet constantly see
omens. When Romeo believes that Juliet is dead, he cries out, “Then I defy you, stars,”
completing the idea that the love between Romeo and Juliet is in opposition to the
decrees of destiny (5.1.24). Of course, Romeo’s defiance itself plays into the hands of
fate, and his determination to spend eternity with Juliet results in their deaths. The
mechanism of fate works in all of the events surrounding the lovers: the feud between
their families (it is worth noting that this hatred is never explained; rather, the reader must
accept it as an undeniable aspect of the world of the play); the horrible series of
accidents that ruin Friar Lawrence’s seemingly well-intentioned plans at the end of the
play; and the tragic timing of Romeo’s suicide and Juliet’s awakening. These events are
not mere coincidences, but rather manifestations of fate that help bring about the
unavoidable outcome of the young lovers’ deaths.
The concept of fate described above is the most commonly accepted interpretation.
There are other possible readings of fate in the play: as a force determined by the
18powerful social institutions that influence Romeo and Juliet’s choices, as well as fate as a
force that emerges from Romeo and Juliet’s very personalities.
Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop
and inform the text’s major themes.
Light/Dark Imagery
One of the play’s most consistent visual motifs is the contrast between light and dark,
often in terms of night/day imagery. This contrast is not given a particular metaphoric
meaning—light is not always good, and dark is not always evil. On the contrary, light and
dark are generally used to provide a sensory contrast and to hint at opposed alternatives.
One of the more important instances of this motif is Romeo’s lengthy meditation on the
sun and the moon during the balcony scene, in which Juliet, metaphorically described as
the sun, is seen as banishing the “envious moon” and transforming the night into day
(2.1.46). A similar blurring of night and day occurs in the early morning hours after the
lovers’ only night together. Romeo, forced to leave for exile in the morning, and Juliet, not
wanting him to leave her room, both try to pretend that it is still night, and that the light is
actually darkness: “More light and light, more dark and dark our woes” (3.5.36).
Opposite Points of View
Shakespeare includes numerous speeches and scenes in Romeo and Juliet that hint at
alternative ways to evaluate the play. Shakespeare uses two main devices in this regard:
Mercutio and servants. Mercutio consistently skewers the viewpoints of all the other
characters in play: he sees Romeo’s devotion to love as a sort of blindness that robs
Romeo from himself; similarly, he sees Tybalt’s devotion to honor as blind and stupid. His
punning and the Queen Mab speech can be interpreted as undercutting virtually every
passion evident in the play. Mercutio serves as a critic of the delusions of righteousness
and grandeur held by the characters around him.
Where Mercutio is a nobleman who openly criticizes other nobles, the views offered by
servants in the play are less explicit. There is the Nurse who lost her baby and husband,
the servant Peter who cannot read, the musicians who care about their lost wages and
their lunches, and the Apothecary who cannot afford to make the moral choice, the lower
classes present a second tragic world to counter that of the nobility. The nobles’ world is
full of grand tragic gestures. The servants’ world, in contrast, is characterized by simple
needs, and early deaths brought about by disease and poverty rather than dueling and
grand passions. Where the nobility almost seem to revel in their capacity for drama, the
servants’ lives are such that they cannot afford tragedy of the epic kind.
19Symbols
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or
concepts.
Poison
In his first appearance, in Act 2, scene 2, Friar Lawrence remarks that every plant, herb,
and stone has its own special properties, and that nothing exists in nature that cannot be
put to both good and bad uses. Thus, poison is not intrinsically evil, but is instead a
natural substance made lethal by human hands. Friar Lawrence’s words prove true over
the course of the play. The sleeping potion he gives Juliet is concocted to cause the
appearance of death, not death itself, but through circumstances beyond the Friar’s
control, the potion does bring about a fatal result: Romeo’s suicide. As this example
shows, human beings tend to cause death even without intending to. Similarly, Romeo
suggests that society is to blame for the apothecary’s criminal selling of poison, because
while there are laws prohiting the Apothecary from selling poison, there are no laws that
would help the apothecary make money. Poison symbolizes human society’s tendency to
poison good things and make them fatal, just as the pointless Capulet-Montague feud
turns Romeo and Juliet’s love to poison. After all, unlike many of the other tragedies, this
play does not have an evil villain, but rather people whose good qualities are turned to
poison by the world in which they live.
Thumb-biting
In Act 1, scene 1, the buffoonish Samson begins a brawl between the Montagues and
Capulets by flicking his thumbnail from behind his upper teeth, an insulting gesture
known as biting the thumb. He engages in this juvenile and vulgar display because he
wants to get into a fight with the Montagues but doesn’t want to be accused of starting
the fight by making an explicit insult. Because of his timidity, he settles for being
annoying rather than challenging. The thumb-biting, as an essentially meaningless
gesture, represents the foolishness of the entire Capulet/Montague feud and the stupidity
of violence in general.
Queen Mab
In Act 1, scene 4, Mercutio delivers a dazzling speech about the fairy Queen Mab, who
rides through the night on her tiny wagon bringing dreams to sleepers. One of the most
noteworthy aspects of Queen Mab’s ride is that the dreams she brings generally do not
bring out the best sides of the dreamers, but instead serve to confirm them in whatever
vices they are addicted to—for example, greed, violence, or lust. Another important
aspect of Mercutio’s description of Queen Mab is that it is complete nonsense, albeit vivid
and highly colorful. Nobody believes in a fairy pulled about by “a small grey-coated gnat”
whipped with a cricket’s bone (1.4.65). Finally, it is worth noting that the description of
20Mab and her carriage goes to extravagant lengths to emphasize how tiny and
insubstantial she and her accoutrements are. Queen Mab and her carriage do not merely
symbolize the dreams of sleepers, they also symbolize the power of waking fantasies,
daydreams, and desires. Through the Queen Mab imagery, Mercutio suggests that all
desires and fantasies are as nonsensical and fragile as Mab, and that they are basically
corrupting. This point of view contrasts starkly with that of Romeo and Juliet, who see
their love as real and ennobling.
21Paper 1 Section B Romeo and Juliet
Character cards
Name: Name:
Family Loyalty: Family Loyalty:
Personality Traits: Personality Traits:
Top 5 quotes: Top 5 quotes:
Themes they link to: Themes they link to:
Name: Name:
Family Loyalty: Family Loyalty:
Personality Traits: Personality Traits:
Top 5 quotes: Top 5 quotes:
Themes they link to: Themes they link to:
22Paper 1 Section B Romeo and Juliet
Character cards
Name: Name:
Family Loyalty: Family Loyalty:
Personality Traits: Personality Traits:
Top 5 quotes: Top 5 quotes:
Themes they link to:
Themes they link to:
Name: Name:
Family Loyalty: Family Loyalty:
Personality Traits: Personality Traits:
Top 5 quotes: Top 5 quotes:
Themes they link to:
Themes they link to:
23Paper 1 Section B Romeo and Juliet
Character cards
Name: Name:
Family Loyalty: Family Loyalty:
Personality Traits: Personality Traits:
Top 5 quotes: Top 5 quotes:
Themes they link to:
Themes they link to:
Name: Name:
Family Loyalty: Family Loyalty:
Personality Traits: Personality Traits:
Top 5 quotes: Top 5 quotes:
Themes they link to:
Themes they link to:
24Paper 1 Section B Romeo and Juliet
Character cards
Name: Name:
Family Loyalty: Family Loyalty:
Personality Traits: Personality Traits:
Top 5 quotes: Top 5 quotes:
Themes they link to: Themes they link to:
Name: Name:
Family Loyalty: Family Loyalty:
Personality Traits: Personality Traits:
Top 5 quotes: Top 5 quotes:
Themes they link to: Themes they link to:
25Romeo and Juliet Key Quotes
1.
But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she. . . .
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars
As daylight doth a lamp; her eye in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night.
Romeo speaks these lines in the so-called balcony scene, when, hiding in the Capulet orchard after
the feast, he sees Juliet leaning out of a high window (2.1.44–64). Though it is late at night, Juliet’s
surpassing beauty makes Romeo imagine that she is the sun, transforming the darkness into daylight.
Romeo likewise personifies the moon, calling it “sick and pale with grief” at the fact that Juliet, the sun,
is far brighter and more beautiful. Romeo then compares Juliet to the stars, claiming that she eclipses
the stars as daylight overpowers a lamp—her eyes alone shine so bright that they will convince the
birds to sing at night as if it were day.
This quote is important because in addition to initiating one of the play’s most beautiful and famous
sequences of poetry, it is a prime example of the light/dark motif that runs throughout the play. Many
scenes in Romeo and Juliet are set either late at night or early in the morning, and Shakespeare often
uses the contrast between night and day to explore opposing alternatives in a given situation. Here,
Romeo imagines Juliet transforming darkness into light; later, after their wedding night, Juliet
convinces Romeo momentarily that the daylight is actually night (so that he doesn’t yet have to leave
her room).
2.
O Romeo, Romeo,
wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name,
Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.
Juliet speaks these lines, perhaps the most famous in the play, in the balcony scene (2.1.74–78).
Leaning out of her upstairs window, unaware that Romeo is below in the orchard, she asks why
Romeo must be Romeo—why he must be a Montague, the son of her family’s greatest enemy
(“wherefore” means “why,” not “where”; Juliet is not, as is often assumed, asking where Romeo is).
Still unaware of Romeo’s presence, she asks him to deny his family for her love. She adds, however,
26that if he will not, she will deny her family in order to be with him if he merely tells her that he loves
her.
A major theme in Romeo and Juliet is the tension between social and family identity (represented by
one’s name) and one’s inner identity. Juliet believes that love stems from one’s inner identity, and that
the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets is a product of the outer identity, based only on
names. She thinks of Romeo in individual terms, and thus her love for him overrides her family’s
hatred for the Montague name. She says that if Romeo were not called “Romeo” or “Montague,” he
would still be the person she loves. “What’s in a name?” she asks. “That which we call a rose / By any
other word would smell as sweet” (2.1.85–86).
3.
O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you. . . .
She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate stone
On the forefinger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomi
Athwart men’s noses as they lie asleep.
Mercutio’s famous Queen Mab speech is important for the stunning quality of its poetry and for what it
reveals about Mercutio’s character, but it also has some interesting thematic implications (1.4.53–59).
Mercutio is trying to convince Romeo to set aside his lovesick melancholy over Rosaline and come
along to the Capulet feast. When Romeo says that he is depressed because of a dream, Mercutio
launches on a lengthy, playful description of Queen Mab, the fairy who supposedly brings dreams to
sleeping humans. The main point of the passage is that the dreams Queen Mab brings are directly
related to the person who dreams them—lovers dream of love, soldiers of war, etc. But in the process
of making this rather prosaic point Mercutio falls into a sort of wild bitterness in which he seems to see
dreams as destructive and delusional.
4.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife. . . .
O, I am fortune’s fool! . . .
Then I defy you, stars.
This trio of quotes advances the theme of fate as it plays out through the story: the first is spoken by
the Chorus (Prologue.5–8), the second by Romeo after he kills Tybalt (3.1.131), and the third by
Romeo upon learning of Juliet’s death (5.1.24). The Chorus’s remark that Romeo and Juliet are “star-
crossed” and fated to “take their li[ves]” informs the audience that the lovers are destined to die
27tragically. Romeo’s remark “O, I am fortune’s fool!” illustrates the fact that Romeo sees himself as
subject to the whims of fate. When he cries out “Then I defy you, stars,” after learning of Juliet’s death,
he declares himself openly opposed to the destiny that so grieves him. Sadly, in “defying” fate he
actually brings it about. Romeo’s suicide prompts Juliet to kill herself, thereby ironically fulfilling the
lovers’ tragic destiny.
28Romeo and Juliet More Key Quotes
1.
What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet.
(2.2.45-6), Juliet
2.
O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
(2.2.35), Juliet
3.
A plague o' both your houses!
They have made worms' meat of me!
(3.1.95-6), Mercutio
4.
But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
(2.2.2-3), Romeo
5.
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life.
(Prologue, 7)
6.
Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good night till it be morrow.
(2.2.197-8), Juliet
7.
See how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek!
(2.2.23-5), Romeo
29Romeo and Juliet More Key Quotes
8.
Thus with a kiss I die.
(5.3.121), Romeo
9.
O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright.
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear.
(1.5.43-45), Romeo
10.
O happy dagger!
(5.3.175), Juliet
Honorable Mention
Give me my Romeo, and, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the garish sun.
(3.2.21-5), Juliet
A fool's paradise.
(2.4.159), Nurse
How fares my Juliet? that I ask again;
For nothing can be ill, if she be well.
(5.1.15-16), Romeo to Balthasar
This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath,
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.
(2.2.127-8), Juliet
30Romeo and Juliet More Key Quotes
"A plague o' both your houses!" (3.1.104)
What does it mean? Tension between the Montague and Capulet families has been
mounting until a fight erupts in the streets. Romeo's best friend, Mercutio, goads Tybalt
Capulet into a duel. Mercutio is stabbed by Tybalt, who runs away. Mercutio curses both
families in his final words, wishing a plague on both families. Mercutio's words
foreshadows the loss that both families will soon feel.
"O! I am Fortune's fool!" (3.1.133)
What does it mean? After Tybalt and Mercutio die, Benvolio tells Romeo that Prince
Paris will probably doom him to death if he's caught. Romeo calls himself Fortune's fool.
Romeo is discreetly referencing the prologue, where the audience learns that Romeo and
Juliet are fated for misfortune. But Romeo also feels Fortune is being especially cruel; he
just got married, and he might be put to death. His words bring the idea of fate and
destiny back into the audience's mind.
"For never was a story of more woe [t]han this of Juliet and her Romeo." (5.3.317-318)
What does it mean? In the last two lines of the play, Prince Escalus remarks on the
lives of Juliet and Romeo. He's saying that no other tale has been this sad. While Escalus
is right, his words also allow for the enduring quality of Romeo and Juliet's love. Their
classic love story has been told and retold to every generation since first hitting the
stage in 1594.
The following quotes are part of the famous balcony scene — Act II, Scene II — when
Romeo and Juliet agree to elope. Some of the most quoted lines from Shakespeare are
from this scene
"But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the
sun!" (2.2.2-3)
What does it mean? Romeo, our young hero, already loves Juliet. In his words of
adoration, he compares Juliet to a sunrise. Juliet hasn't seen Romeo below her window;
she has no idea Romeo is even on her family's grounds. The important thing to take
away is Romeo's use of language. Throughout the play, Romeo associates Juliet with
'light' imagery. He finds her love to be bright, sunny, and warm.
"O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?" (2.2.33)
What does it mean? Juliet is thinking about Romeo and his family ties. In
Shakespearean times, "wherefore" meant "why". Juliet is asking why Romeo is a
Montague. Although Juliet is unaware that Romeo is in the orchard below, she accurately
points out a primary conflict in their relationship; their families probably won't accept or
approve of their marriage.
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