Romeo

and Juliet
Study Guide Sp. 07

Ye Name:
Due:
Contents:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

List of literary terms and definitions.pgs 2-3

Things to look for. .pgs 3-4
The players....pg 4
Vocabulary & questions to fill out as you read...pgs 5-14
End of the play questions...pgs 15-16
Timeline of events in the play (summary-to fill out at the end of every
act).pgs 17-19

Literary terms and definitions:

Literary Elements:
Monologue, soliloquy, aside
Dialogue between characters/comic relief
Tragedy
Plot, structural pyramid
Character analysis
Syntax, style, form
Iambic pentameter
Blank verse
Literary Devices:
Foreshadowing
Symbolism
Figurative language
Imagery

Metaphor
Simile
Allusion
Oxymoron
Dramatic irony
Things to look for in the play:
1. Purpose of the prologue-it establishes setting, time, place, and theme of
the play.
2. The scenes introduce various circumstances:
a. feud-the Montagues and Capulets are always fighting
b. citizens want peace in the city
c. Benvolio=peacemaker
d. Tybalt=troublemaker
e. Romeo loves thoroughly and quickly
3. Conflict in the play
a. Between different characters
b. Between characters and their circumstance
c. Bad feelings between the two houses
d. Quarreling between households opposed by citizens and Prince
Escalus
e. Friars conflictknowledge of what is right, but the desire to help
lovers in order to end the feud
f. Conflict between Romeo and Tybalt
g. Juliettorn between love for Romeo and loyalty to Tybalt, her
cousin
4. Suspense
a. Quarreling of servantsyou know more will come
b. Romeo meets Juliet and they fall in love without knowing who the
other is
c. Tybalt vows revenge on Romeo
d. Capulets discussion of Juliets marriage to Paris
e. Juliet and the Friars plan for death
f. The letter to Romeo containing information of the plan
g. Balthasar telling Romeo of Juliets death

5. Dramatic Irony-some of the players are ignorant of facts other characters

and the audience are fully aware of.
a. Benvolio and Mercutio are jesting about Romeos love for Rosaline.
Romeo hears, but is not concerned. He is now in love with Juliet,
but they dont know this.
b. Lord Capulet thinks that Friar Laurence is a great guy for making
Juliet see the error of her ways.
c. Etc
6. Foreshadowingoften the characters will foretell their own futures with
being aware of that.
7. Asides and soliloquies: Lines that the characters speak that the audience
can hear, but not the other characters.
The Players
Benvolio:
Tybalt:
The Prince:
Montague:
Lady Montague:
Capulet:
Lady Capulet:
Romeo:
Rosaline:
Paris:
Nurse:

Juliet:
Mercutio:
Friar Laurence:
Act IVocabulary:
pernicious
augmenting
grievance
transgression
heretics
Act I-The Prologue
Put each line into your own words:
Chorus (one actor who serves as a narrator):
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
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.
The fearful passage of their death-marked love,
And the continuance of their parents rage,
Which, but their childrens end, naught could remove,
Is now the two-hours traffic of our stage,

The which if you with patient ears attend.

What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
1. The last two lines of the prologue are called a ____________________.
Explain:
2. Make your own!

Act I Scene i
1. Between what two families does the feud exist?
2. What decree does the Prince make after the street brawl?
3. What advice does Benvolio give Romeo about Rosaline?
4. What is an oxymoron? Give some examples from Romeos speech:

Act I Scene ii
1. How does Capulet respond to Paris proposal to marry Juliet?
2. Fate or stars plays an important part in this play. How is that evident by the
servant meeting Romeo and Benvolio?

3. Why does Benvolio want Romeo to go to the party? What is Romeo going?

Act I Scene iii

1. What is Juliets relationship with her mother like?

2. How does Juliet feel about getting married?

3. How old is Juliet?

Act I Scene iv
1. When and where does this scene take place?
2. Find and explain the pun in lines 15-17:
3. Describe Queen Mab and tell us what she does.
4. What type of person is Mercutio?
5. Explain Romeos speech (lines 106-113).

Act I Scene v
1. Where does this scene take place?
2. Who said the following lines and explain them in context:
O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hands upon the night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiops ear

3. Find the personification in the above quote. Find the simile.

4. Who is Romeo talking about in lines 46-55? Explain the irony in these lines.

5. Why does Tybalt become so upset, and how does Capulet respond to his
rage?
6. What is ironic about Romeo and Juliet meeting and falling in love at the party?
7. What are R and Js reactions to finding out with who they fell in love?
Act II Vocabulary:
cunning
procure
predominant
intercession
lamentable
Act II-Scene i:
1. Paraphrase the prologue:

2. Explain the dramatic irony in this scene.

Act II Scene ii:

1. Romeo has hear the teasing of Mercutio, and thus replies in an aside with the
line, He jests at scars that never felt a wound.
Who is he?
What are the scars and the wound?
What does Romeo mean?
2. Find the metaphor in lines 3 and 4:
3. How important are names for Romeo and Juliet? How do you know this?

4. Explain Juliets soliloquy (lines 33-44)

5. How is this (#4) an example of dramatic irony?

6. After Romeo and Juliet vow their love for one another, what do they decide to
do and when?
7. What do you think about the quickness of their love contract?
Act II Scene iii:
1. Why does Romeo go to see Friar Laurence?
2. How does Friar Laurence respond to Romeos request?
3. Why does Friar Laurence consent to Romeos request?

Act II Scene iv
1. For whom is the nurse looking and why?
2. What warning does she give Romeo?
Act II Scene v
1. Juliet is waiting very impatiently for the nurses return. Why does she become
so irritated when the nurse does return?
Act II Scene vi
1. Romeo and Juliet are married in Friar Laurences cell. How does this scene
foreshadow future events?

2. What is Friar Laurences advice?

3. Are R&J married by the end of Act II?

Act III Scene i

1. What advice does Benvolio offer up to Mercution? Why?
2. Tybalt, still enraged at Romeos intrusion at the Capulets ball, is determined
to fight, but Romeo refuses. Why?
3. How does Mercutio get involved, and what happens to him?
4. How does Romeo react to this?
5. What decree does the Prince make?
Act III Vocabulary
gallant
fray
exile
eloquence
fickle
Act III Scene ii
1. One of the most famous tributes to another person is found in Juliets words
before the nurse comes in. Write it down below:
2. Explain the dramatic irony in the beginning of this scene.
3. How does Juliet react to the nurses news?

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3. What does Juliet plan to do with the cords? (See lines 132-137)
4. How does the nurse console her?

Act III Scene iii

1. How does Romeo react to the news of his banishment?

Act III Scene iv

1. How does the action in this scene complicate matters even further?
2. How does Capulets attitude now differ from his attitude when Paris first came
to ask for Juliets hand in marriage?

3. Explain the dramatic irony in this scene.

Act III Scene v

1. Why does Capulet agree to let Paris marry Juliet?
2. When in the marriage set for?
3. What does the lark represent? The nightingale?
4. What good news does Lady Capulet deliver to Juliet?
5. How does Capulet react to Juliets refusal to marry Paris?
6. What advice does the nurse give Juliet?

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7. What does Juliet decide to do?

Acts IV and V-Vocabulary

pensive
wayward
dismal
loathsome
pilgrimage
penury
haughty
sepulcher
ambiguities
scourge
Act IV Scene i
1. Once Paris is gone Juliet pleads with Friar Laurence to help her out of her
predicament. Explain in detail the plan they arrange:

Act IV Scene ii

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1. Juliet is so convincing in her deception that her father decides to move the
wedding day up from Thursday to Wednesday. What complication does this
change foreshadow?

Act IV Scene iii

1. List Juliets fears as she is about to drink the potion.
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Act IV Scene iv
1. Why is Capulet up all night?
Act IV Scene v
Explain the dramatic irony in Friar Laurences speech (lines 65-83)

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Act V Scene i
1. How does Romeos dream, which he describes in his opening speech,
compare with the news brought to him by Balthasar?

2. How does Romeo convince the apothecary to sell him poison?

3. What does he plan to do with the poison?

Act V Scene ii
1. Explain the conversation between Friar Laurence and Friar John.
2. What does Friar Laurence now plan to do?

Act V Scene iii

1. Why does Paris come to Juliets burial place?
2. What happens when Romeo and Paris meet?
3. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN JULIET WAKES UP?

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4. What has happened to Lady Montague?

5. Explain the paradox: Myself condemned and myself excused.

6. Summarize the main points of the Friars tale:

a.
b.
c.
d
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
j.
k.
l.
m.
n.
o.
7. Who else does the Friar implicate?
8. According to the Prince, what is the punishment of Lord Montague and Lord
Capulet?

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9. What will the Capulets and the Montagues do to show that the feud is over?
Some final thoughts
1. What are some of the final ironies of the play? What role does timing play
in the final events?

2. What role does fate play in the play? What role do the characters actions
play?

3. Romeo and Juliet is a tragedywhich means that events turn out

disastrously for the main characters. In a tragedy the characters who
survive usually learn a lesson form the sad events they have witnessed.
One common idea in a tragedy is human ignorancethe characters acting
without full information which triggers the tragic events. Given all the
information about what constitutes a tragedy, how is Romeo and Juliet a
tragic play?

4. Explain how Benvolio is a foil for Tybalt, Lady Capulet is a foil for the
nurse, Lord Montague is a foil for Frian Laurence, Rosaline is a foil for
Juliet, and Paris is a foil for Romeo:

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5. What does Romeo and Juliet have to say to us today, over 400 years after
is what written?

Romeo & Juliet Timeline

Date/times:
Incidents:___________________________
Sunday: (month and date?)
8:00 am
8:30 am
9:00 am
11:30 am
12:00 noon
7:00 11:00 pm
11:30 1:30 am
Monday:
4:30 am
8:00 am
8:30 am
9:00 am
12:00 noon:

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2:30 pm
3:00 pm
3:30 pm
4:00 pm
5:00 pm
5:30 pm
6:00 pm
6:30 pm
7:00 pm
7:30 pm
Tuesday:
4:30 am
6:00 am
7:30 am
8:30 am
9:00 am
10:30 am
12:00 noon
12:30 pm
1:30 pm

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Wednesday:
Sometime between 1:00 am and 3:00 am (42 hrs needed)
4:30 5:00 am
6:30 am
3:00 pm
Thursday:
7:00 am
7:30 am
8:00 am
8:30 am
Between 8:00 pm and 10:00 pm:
8:00/10:00 pm
8:30/10:30 pm
8:40/10:40 pm
8:50/10:50 pm
8:55/10:55 pm
9:00/ 11:00 pm
9:15/ 11:15 pm
11:00/1:00 am
End

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