Mood and Atmosphere

Question 1

True or False? Setting the play in Verona would have made it seem exotic to an Elizabethan audience.

Answer 1

True. Most Elizabethan people wouldn’t have ever travelled abroad, so Verona would have seemed like an exotic location. This might have made it easier for an Elizabethan audience to imagine such a dramatic story taking place.

Question 2

Briefly describe the mood created by Mercutio’s Queen Mad speech.

Answer 2

Mercutio’s Queen Mab speech creates a magical, dreamlike mood. He talks about imaginary creatures and uses whimsical images such as Queen Mab in a “chariot” made out of a “hazelnut”. This prepares the audience for Romeo and Juliet’s ‘magical’ meeting at the party in the next scene.

Question 3

Give one moment in the play where the mood is tense.

Answer 3

In Act 4, Scene 5, the mood is tense when the audience knows Juliet has taken the potion and the Nurse is about to discover her ‘dead’ body.

Question 4

When Romeo arrives at the tomb in Act 5, Scene 3, he describes it as a “womb of death” with “rotten jaws”. How does his language help to set the mood of the scene?

Answer 4

Romeo’s language creates a dark, sinister mood. A “womb” would normally be a place where a new life is nurtured, but in this scene Romeo suggests that the tomb has become a “womb” that nurtures death by swallowing people in its “rotten jaws”. This image is violent and disturbing — it emphasises how horrible the tomb is and prepares the audience for the death and tragedy to come.