Romeo & Juliet

Question 1

Fate: “From forth the fatal … of these two … A pair of … crossed lovers take their …”

Answer 1

“From forth the fatal lions of these two foes A pair of star crossed lovers take their life”

“Star crossed” - their fate has been pre determined, they were meant to be together and die together, Elizabethan belief in the supernatural
Alliteration of f - draw attention to the word “fatal” - primacy effect used to make us focus on the role of fate in the play
Foes and lovers are close together - shows how conflicted they will be by the relationship and a battle in their minds
“Star-crossed” means “opposed by the stars.” In Shakespeare’s day as in ours, some people believed that the course of your life was determined by the motion and position of the stars
Their births and deaths are described in the same short phrase, which again suggests that their deaths were fated from the moment they were born

Question 2

Romeo: “So shows a … dove trooping with …”

Answer 2

“So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows”

“Snowy dove” - symbolises Juliet
“Dove” and “crow” contrast - emphasises the difference between Juliet and the other girls
“Dove” - relates to God and the Holy Spirit - Elizabethan society was very religious so Romeo comparing Juliet to the Holy Spirit may be blasphemous
Shakespeare may be trying to show that love takes over the role of God or the belief in God

Question 3

Romeo: “O … love, O … hate, / O any thing of … first …!”

Answer 3

“O brawling love, O loving hate, / O any thing of nothing first create!”

Use of oxymorons highlights the ineffable quality of love: it’s full of contradiction and does not make sense
This speech is 13 lines - an imperfect sonnet this reflects the idea that Romeo’s experience with love is incomplete and flawed
There are irregular rhyming couplets in this section indicates the unpredictable nature of love, this section highlights Romeo’s role as the Petrarchan lover - suffers from unrequited love

Question 4

Romeo: “O, I am … fool.”

Answer 4

“O, I am fortune’s fool.”

This is a simple sentence - underlines Romeo’s subjugation to “fortune”
Romeo makes himself an object “fortunes fool”, which communicates his passive stance on life and his inability to accept responsibility for his actions
“Fortune” was perceived as a woman during the Elizabethan era, this “fortune” may also refer to Juliet in this instance

Question 5

Romeo: “Away to …, respective …, / And fire-ey’d … be my … now!”

Answer 5

“Away to heaven, respective lenity, / And fire-ey’d fury be my conduct now!”

Fricatives of “fire eye’d fury” accentuate the harshness of the dialogue
Juxtaposition of “heaven” with descriptions of hell “fire eye’d fury” to emphasise the conflict between mercy and revenge
He is denying religion - context: ultra religious Elizabethan society
He is letting evil take over his body

Question 6

Romeo: “Under … heavy … do I sink.”

Answer 6

“Under love’s heavy burden do I sink.”

Question 7

Romeo: “With … light … did I o’er-perch these …”

Answer 7

“With love’s light wings did I o’er-perch these walls”

Question 8

Juliet: “when he shall …, Take him and … him out in little …”

Answer 8

“when he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars”

Question 9

Romeo: “it is the …, and Juliet is the ….”

Answer 9

“It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.”

Question 10

Juliet: “Come, gentle … […] Give me my …”

Answer 10

“Come, gentle night […] Give me my Romeo”

Question 11

Mercutio: “O calm, …, vile …!”

Answer 11

“O calm, dishonourable, vile submission!”

Question 12

Tybalt: “Peace! I … the word / As I hate …, all … and thee”

Answer 12

“Peace! I hate the word / As I hate hell, all Montagues and thee”

Question 13

Friar Laurence: “households … to pure …”

Answer 13

“households rancour to pure love”

Doesn’t actually go like this, goes from rancour to death - marriage + rancour = death
It not happening like this shows that love and death overpower God - friar Laurence is connected to God, so what he says, God thinks - God gets it wrong - not as powerful and omniscient as thought
Church seems wise but isn’t??
Hatred will always overpower God and love - no matter what, hatred has negative consequences - death

Shakespeare critiques church - leaning into the belief in fate

Question 14

Nurse: “You are to …, my …, to rate her so”

Answer 14

“You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so”

Question 15

Prince: “Three civil …, bred of an … word”

Answer 15

“Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word”

Air - has oxygen, so the brawls live off one word OR saying it’s light and petty

Question 16

Juliet: “It is too …, too …, too sudden, too like the …”

Answer 16

“It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden, too like the lightning”

Question 17

Capulet: “My will to her … is but a …”

Answer 17

“My will to her consent is but a part”

Question 18

Friar Laurence: “young … love then … Not … in their …, but in their …”

Answer 18

“young men’s love then lies Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.”

Question 19

Juliet: “Do not … by the …, for she … constantly.”

Answer 19

“Do not swear by the moon, for she changes constantly.”

Question 20

Mercutio: “A … o’ both your …”

Answer 20

“A plague o’ both your houses.”

Question 21

Lord Capulet: “Hang, …, starve, … in the …”

Answer 21

“Hang, beg, starve, die in the streets.”

Hang = punishment done for treason to peasants, beheading was for royalty

Question 22

Lord Capulet: “My … is but a … in the world.”

Answer 22

“My child is but a stranger in the world.”

Question 23

Lord Capulet: “Hang thee, young …, … wretch!”

Answer 23

“Hang thee, young baggage, disobedient wretch!”

Question 24

Lady Capulet: “This sight of … is as a … that warns my old age to a ….”

Answer 24

“This sight of death is as a bell that warns my old age to a sepulchre.”

Question 25

Nurse (about Paris): ‘‘he’s a man of …’’

Answer 25

“he’s a man of wax’’

Question 26

Prince: “You …, that quench the fire of your … rage with … fountains issuing from your ….”

Answer 26

“You beasts, that quench the fire of your pernicious rage with purple fountains issuing from your veins.”

Question 27

Prologue: “where civil … makes civil … unclean”

Answer 27

“where civil blood makes civil hands unclean”

Question 28

Juliet: “My … is as boundless as the …, my love as …”

Answer 28

“My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep.”

Question 29

Friar Lawrence: “These violent … have violent … and in their … die, like … and powder.”

Answer 29

“These violent delights have violent ends and in their triumph die, like fire and powder.”

Question 30

Juliet: “O … dagger.”

Answer 30

“O happy dagger.”

Question 31

Juliet: “That which we call a … by any other … would smell as …”

Answer 31

“That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Question 32

Nurse: “I think you are … in this … match, For it … your first” “Your first is …”

Answer 32

“I think you are happy in this second match, For it excels your first” “Your first is dead”

Question 33

Lady capulet: “Nurse, where’s my …? Call her … to me.”

Answer 33

“Nurse, where’s my daughter? Call her forth to me.”

Question 34

Mercutio: “That … often lie.”

Answer 34

“That dreamers often lie.”

Juliet and Romeo dreamed of having an amazing, supported relationship - foreshadowing

Question 35

Tybalt: “Now, by the … and … of my … / To … him …, I hold it not a …”

Answer 35

“Now, by the stock and honour of my kin / To strike him dead, I hold it not a sin.”

-Shakespeare uses a rhyming couplet to emphasise how Tybalt believes that murdering a Montague is completely justified and not a sin - conveying that he sees Montagues as less-human and evil, so it is his role to get rid of them
-Tybalt only ever rhymes when he speaks of killing, which we can infer means that he has a love for murder and revenge

Question 36

Juliet: “…, …, … nurse” “Oh my … mother”

Answer 36

“sweet, sweet, sweet nurse” “Oh my sweet mother”