Romeo and Juliet – A. J. Drake's Shakespeare Site

Questions on
Shakespeare’s Tragedies

Shakespeare, William. The Most Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Second Quarto. (The Norton Shakespeare: Tragedies, 3rd ed. 209-77.)

ACT 1

1. What does the Prologue claim will be the basic events and the cause of the tragedy that is about to take place on stage? Why might it matter that the Prologue’s form is a “shaped” poem—an English sonnet with rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg? What kind of order may thereby be suggested as a frame for our interpretation of the play’s characters and events?

2. In Act 1, Scene 1, in what light does the bantering and quarreling amongst the servants cast Verona’s longstanding interfamilial “civil strife” between the Montagues and Capulets? How do the Capulet servants understand the struggles in which they are caught up? Why are these servants’ sexual boasts so strongly connected to their talk of violence?

3. In Act 1, Scene 1, what happens when the higher-status characters get involved in the fray? Describe the hostile interaction between Benvolio and Tybalt, followed by the boisterous entrance of the Capulet and Montague patriarchs and their wives. To what extent does the elders’ involvement turn the ugly scene into “street theater”? Why might Shakespeare be aiming for that kind of comic effect so early in a tragic play?

4. In Act 1, Scene 1, when the Prince arrives, how does he sum up the history of violence between the two warring houses, and what, if anything, has he been doing about the problem between them? What warning does he now pronounce? Does it seem likely to be effective? Why or why not?

5. In Act 1, Scene 1, we first hear about and Romeo when his father, the Montague patriarch, asks his son’s friend Benvolio for some information. What kind of language does Benvolio, who has just been brawling in the streets of Verona, employ in responding to Montague? What is jarring about the contrast here? Style aside, how do Benvolio and Montague describe Romeo’s current state of mind and his whereabouts?

6. In Act 1, Scene 1, when we first meet Romeo, how does he describe his plight and its cause? What characterizes Romeo’s speech in conversation with Benvolio? What advice does Benvolio offer Romeo, and how does the latter respond to his friend’s suggestion?

7. In Act 1, Scene 2, father Capulet’s plan for his daughter, Juliet, emerges as he speaks with Count Paris, an eminent relation of Prince Escalus. How does Capulet describe Juliet to Paris, and what are his expectations of the young man who would marry this beloved and still very young daughter?

8. In Act 1, Scene 2, how does an opportunity emerge for Romeo to do just as Benvolio has told him to do to cure his grief over the supposedly heavenly Rosaline? What does the Capulet serving man’s illiteracy have to do with this opportunity? How does Romeo process Benvolio’s enthusiasm for this new “comparative” venture?

9. In Act 1, Scene 3, Lady Capulet briskly announces to Juliet that a suitor, Count Paris, will attend a family feast that evening. How does the Lady pitch this prospect of marriage to Juliet, who is still shy of her fourteenth birthday? How does Juliet take the news? Does she treat it as positive, or is her reaction less than welcoming? Explain.

10. In Act 1, Scene 3, just before Lady Capulet’s mention of marriage, Juliet’s nurse reminisces about the girl’s infancy, and then adds her remarks to the mother’s observations. What is the Nurse’s present relationship with Juliet, and what does her perspective add to this important moment? What is her view regarding the plan to marry Juliet to Prince Escalus’s kinsman Count Paris?

11. In Act 1, Scene 4, Romeo’s friend Mercutio recounts the fanciful legend of Queen Mab. What is this legend—who is Mab, and what effect does she have on humans? What is the immediate occasion for Mercutio’s telling the story, and what is the point of the story? How does Romeo react to this flight of Mercutio’s fancy?

12. In Act 1, Scene 4, the Capulet festivities are the scene of Romeo’s first meeting with Juliet. What happens during this encounter—how does Shakespeare represent “falling in love” as we discover it in the looks, actions, and words of Romeo and Juliet? (This includes an impressive impromptu sonnet.) It’s sometimes said that “love at first sight” just means infatuation. Does that assertion seem true with regard to this first meeting between Romeo and Juliet? Why or why not?

ACT 2

13. In Act 2’s Prologue, again cast as an English sonnet, how does the speaker present Romeo’s changed perspective from Act 1? What constrains both lovers, and what gives them hope and presents them with opportunities to advance their love? To what extent, if at all, does this Prologue to Act 2 come across as necessarily tragic in its import?

14. In Act 2, Scene 1, what view of romantic love does Mercutio, speaking briefly with Benvolio, offer by way of deflating Romeo’s naïvely Petrarchan outlook? What are the strengths and limitations of Mercutio’s perspective? How does Romeo—without coming forward to address Mercutio directly—effectively counter his rather cynical view before turning to his immediate business with Juliet?

15. In Act 2, Scene 1, we arrive at the “balcony scene.” How does Romeo, as yet still hidden in the garden from Juliet above him, describe her—by what metaphors does he describe her person? It would be easy to say that Romeo’s language is Petrarchan hyperbole (idealistic praise to a distant lady: the lover’s eyes as stars, etc.), but what accounts for the freshness of his expression—a quality that moves it beyond the stale exaggerations that readers had come to expect even in Shakespeare’s time?

16. In Act 2, Scene 1, as Romeo waits below and overhears her, Juliet addresses her impatience with the obstacle before her and Romeo: she is a Capulet, and he is a Montague—thus her question, “wherefore [why] art thou Romeo?” What does Juliet suggest about both the hollowness and the power of a name? When she declares that either she or Romeo should cast off their family name, is she being naïve, or is she pointing to the only way forward? Explain.

17. In Act 2, Scene 1, Romeo finally makes his presence known to Juliet. Their conversation is part love discourse and part planning session. Both are idealistic, but are there differences between them in the degree and objects of their idealism? If so, what differences? What things most concern Juliet, and what things most concern Romeo? What is the couple’s plan going forward?

18. In Act 2, Scene 2, we meet Friar Lawrence musing about “plants, herbs, stones, and their true qualities,” when Romeo arrives with big news and a very important “ask.” What surprises Laurence about what Romeo tells him, and why does he go along so readily with the young man’s request—what good does he think will come of it? Finally, while Laurence is a sympathetic and well-intentioned counselor to Romeo, why might what he says and does in this scene be a sign of misfortunes to come?

19. In Act 2, Scene 3, what does Mercutio tell Benvolio he thinks about the young Capulet blade Tybalt? In what way has Mercutio already shown himself to be both a participant in the hostilities between the Capulets and Montagues and yet capable of seeing beyond those houses and their brawling ways?

20. In Act 2, Scene 3, how does Mercutio treat Juliet’s Nurse when she comes calling? How does he go on to match wits with Romeo, and what dramatic purpose might Shakespeare find in staging such a battle at this point? When the Nurse gets free of Mercutio, what business does she have with Romeo? Between the two of them, what plan do they lay out for accomplishing the marriage of Romeo and Juliet against the wishes of their parents?

21. In Act 2, Scene 4, the Nurse again offers advice and support to Juliet. In his lecture on Romeo and Juliet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge implies that while the Nurse is eccentric, she is also a universal type of the caring, elderly nurse. What features of this scene make that quality apparent?

ACT 3

22. In Act 3, Scene 1, Tybalt mortally wounds Mercutio, and then Romeo kills Tybalt. How do these deeds unfold—what part does Romeo play in Mercutio’s death? What sentiment governs Mercutio’s dying expressions? How does Romeo understand his partial responsibility for what has happened as well as the punishment he may suffer for killing Tybalt? Does the actual sentence pronounced by the Prince seem wise? Explain.

23. In Act 3, Scene 2, consider Juliet’s soliloquy from the beginning of the scene to line 31: how does it represent her as possessing a degree of maturity that is bound to surprise us, based on what we have heard from her previously? What subjects do her metaphorically charged expressions address, and what do such expressions allow her to do or say that plainer language would not?

24. In Act 3, Scene 2, Shakespeare makes the Nurse deliver tragic news in a comic mode. How does Juliet react when she finally wrests from her the fact that her kinsman Tybalt is slain and that Romeo, who killed him, has been banished from Verona? What is her initial attitude toward the absent Romeo, and what brings her around to defending him? What plan does the Nurse have in mind to bring the newlyweds together safely?

25. In Act 3, Scene 3, what advice does the still optimistic Friar Laurence give Romeo to overcome his difficulties as a banished member of a warring house? What limitations does the Friar betray in this scene, and how does Romeo characterize the Friar’s understanding of romantic love? How, too, does Romeo react to the very idea of “banishment”—why does he consider his banishment from Verona unbearable?

26. In Act 3, Scene 5, Romeo and Juliet spend their first night together in dangerous circumstances, at the Capulet stronghold. How does their love-banter draw on the Troubadour device of lovers greeting or lamenting the coming of dawn? (In responding, familiarize yourself with the poetic subgenre “aubade.”) Within the boundaries of this device and in the brief conversation immediately following it, how do they view their situation?

27. In Act 3, Scene 4, Juliet’s father all but promises Count Paris that Juliet will marry him on the upcoming Thursday. In Scene 5, what accounts for the undeniable harshness of father Capulet when she balks at the imminent prospect of marriage? In responding, consider both the most obvious, practical reason and something that may be going on at a deeper, psychological level. In addition, what view do Lady Capulet and the Nurse take on the matter of Juliet’s marriage?

ACT 4

28. In Act 4, Scene 1, once Friar Laurence recognizes the fix Juliet is in, with her father insisting that she marry Count Paris within the next few days, what scheme to bring her through these difficulties does he devise? What are the specifics in terms of the potion to be used and the timeline to be followed? In her plea to the Friar, how does Juliet all but anticipate this Gothic-horror-tinged plan?

29. In Act 4, Scene 3, what are Juliet’s fears and resolutions as she prepares at bedtime to put the Friar’s risky plan into action? How does she steel herself psychologically to do her part, and in what way do her words and especially her confrontation with what she thinks may be Tybalt’s ghost enhance our sense of her maturity and tragic stature?

30. In Act 4, Scene 4, the Capulet parents go at once from being delighted with Juliet’s return to obedience (see Scene 2) to believing they have suffered an irretrievable loss of the sort all parents fear: the loss of a beloved only child. Describe this fourth scene in terms of its typically Shakespearean mixture of lamentation, grotesque description, and dark comedy. Which element ends up making the strongest impact, and why?

ACT 5

31. In Act 5, Scene 1, what course of action does Romeo determine when his man Balthasar arrives to tell him that Juliet is dead (or so he thinks)? How should we take Romeo’s enlistment of a poor Apothecary (druggist) in his plan, and what are the Apothecary’s sentiments about being so enlisted? What rhetoric does Romeo employ to overcome the man’s scruples?

32. In Act 5, Scene 2, what discomfiting news does Friar Laurence receive from Friar John about the progress of his plan for Romeo and Juliet? Why wasn’t Laurence’s all-important letter delivered to Romeo? Describe the circumstances that led to this failure—how do these circumstances change our sense of at least the partial cause of Romeo and Juliet’s mutual tragedy? What will Friar Laurence do now?

33. In Act 5, Scene 3, Romeo makes his way to the Capulets’ tomb. What is his intention in going there, and what actually happens when he arrives? Beyond the undelivered letter from the previous scene, what mistaken assumptions and accidents in this scene sweep the characters and us toward the play’s tragic conclusion?

34. In Act 5, Scene 3, consider Romeo’s final speech after he struggles to the death with Paris and discovers what he believes to be Juliet’s lifeless body in the Capulet mausoleum. What keeps Romeo from recognizing that Juliet is not, in fact, dead, but merely asleep thanks to Friar Laurence’s strong potion? What language, sentiments, and gestures, propel Romeo to his fatal decision to drink the Apothecary’s poison and die near his beloved Juliet?

35. In Act 5, Scene 3, Friar Laurence makes his way to the Capulet mausoleum and finds Juliet still alive but unwilling to leave until she is reunited with Romeo. In fear of being caught and punished, the Friar abandons Juliet when she refuses to come with him, preparing the way for her discovery of the now-dead Romeo and her own death. How does Shakespeare deliver a sense of Juliet’s resolution and, above all, her tragic stature at this final moment? What significance might we give to the means by which she commits suicide—Romeo’s sword?

36. In Act 5, Scene 3, Friar Lawrence (along with Balthasar) is called by the Prince to give an account of what has happened, and is apparently forgiven for his role in events. What are the basics of Laurence’s account? Why is he forgiven? Moreover, in the end, how do the play’s adults—the Prince and the surviving Montague (Lady Montague has died of grief) and Capulet parents—view what has happened? Does the play’s moralizing conclusion and its formal gesture of reconciliation between the warring houses provide adequate closure? Explain.

37. General question. Go back and read the Prologue to Romeo and Juliet. Now that you have finished reading the play, does the initial English sonnet’s way of describing the tragedy, and more particularly its cause, still sound accurate to you? Why or why not? If, as Rhodri Lewis suggests in his 2024 study Shakespeare’s Tragic Art, a gap has opened up between what the Prologue promises and what the play delivers, how should we explain that gap’s purpose?

Edition. Greenblatt, Stephen et al., editors. The Norton Shakespeare: Tragedies + Digital Edition. 3rd ed. W. W. Norton, 2016. ISBN-13: 978-0-393-93860-9.