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Romeo and Juliet: Act 1 Study Guide
(Directions: After reading Act I answer the following questions.)
1. What city is the setting of the play?
2. What Scene of conflict opens the action?
3. Which character is most aggressive and eager to prolong the fight?
4. What edict does Prince Escalus pronounce concerning anyone who breaks the peace again?
5. How old will Juliet be on her next birthday?
6. What young man does her father favcor as a husband for Juliet?
7. In what state of mind is Romeo when we first see him in the play?
8. How does Romeo learn of the Capulet ball?
9. Which of the Capulets becomes furious when he recognizes Romeo at the ball?
10. Who first tells both Romeo and Juliet who the other is?
Romeo and Juliet: Act 2 Study Guide (part B)
Act 2- Scene 1
1. What does Juliet mean when she says, “Deny thy father and refuse thy name”
2. What plans do Romeo and Juliet make at the end of this scene?
3. What is a soliloquy?
4. What does he call her that tells her who it is speaking to her?
5. Why does she tell Romeo not to swear by the moon?
6. Explain the line, “Parting is such sweet sorrow.”
Act 2-Scene 3
1. Why does Friar Laurence at first question Romeo’s love for Juliet?
2. Why does Friar Laurence agree to marry Romeo and Juliet?
Act 2- Scene 4
1. What news does Benvolio have about Tybalt?
2. What does Romeo tell the nurse to tell Juliet?
3. Do you think the nurse is wise to act as an intermediary between Romeo and Juliet? Why?
Act 2- Scene 5 and 6
1. Explain the misunderstanding between the nurse and Juliet?
2. Where does Juliet go at the end of this act? Why?
3. What creates the tremendous tension in scene five?
4. At this point in the relationship between Romeo and Juliet, which one of the two do you believe is really in control of the wedding plans?
5. Explain “Violent passions have violent ends.”.
Romeo and Juliet : Study Guide Act 3
Act 3- Scene 1
1. Benvolio and Mercutio are teasing each other at the beginning of this act. What about?
2. When Tybalt and Mercutio start quarreling, what does Benvolio suggest they do?
3. How does Mercutio feel about Romeo attempting to stop the fight? (Hint: page 119)
4. Why is Mercutio’s death a special insult to the Prince?
5. How is Mercutio killed?
6. To what “houses” is Mercutio referring when he says, “A plague o’ both your houses!”?
7. What does Romeo mean by the following lines: “…for Mercutio’s soul / Is but a little way above our heads, / Staying for thine to keep him company.”?
8. What does Lady Capulet ask the Prince to do as a result of the loss of her cousin?
9. Why is Lady Capulet’s assumption that Benvolio is lying when he tells the Prince what happened at the battle a fallacy?
10. What sentence does that Prince decree on Tybalt’s murderer?
Act 3- Scene 2
11. How do the following lines further the ongoing motif in this play: “…when I 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.”?
12. Identify three (3) oxymorons/paradoxes from Juliet’s speech on page 135.
13. What does Juliet send to Romeo (via the Nurse) as a pledge of her love?
Act 3- Scene 3
14. Romeo and Juliet both have the same connotation for the word “Banishment”. What is it?
15. Where does Romeo go to hide after he kills Tybalt?
16. How does the Friar feel Romeo SHOULD be acting in regards to his banishment?
17. What is Romeo’s tragic flaw?
18. What plan does the Friar make for Romeo?
Act 3- Scene 4
19. Whose idea is it to have Juliet marry Paris this week? Who tells Juliet of these plans?
Act 3- Scene 5
20. What is the following an example of ? “O God, I have an ill-divining soul! / Methinks I see thee, no thou art so low, / As one dead in the bottom of a tomb.”?
21. What is an aside?
22. For what reason does Lady Capulet think Juliet is weeping?
23. Lady Capulet decides she should send someone to Mantua to poison Romeo. What is Juliet’s plan?
24. What might Juliet’s tragic flaw be?
25. Lord Capulet has a MAJOR change in character when he confronts Juliet. What is the most obvious aspect of this change?
26. Where does Juliet go for help?
Romeo and Juliet: Study Guide Act 4
Act 4- Scene 1
1. At the very beginning of the act, what concern does the Friar express concerning Paris’ plans to marry Juliet the following day?
2. On page 179, Juliet says “what must be shall be.” What is the double meaning of these words?
3. When Juliet is talking to Paris about her face, why does she say “…for it is not mine own.”?
4. On page 181 starting on line 45, how does Juliet come to resemble Romeo?
5. Why is the following comment, made by Juliet, ironic? “Or hide me nightly in a charnel house, / O’ercover’d quite with dead men’s rattling bones…”
6. Briefly summarize the Friar’s plan for Juliet.
Act 4- Scene 2
7. What sin does Juliet tell her father she has repented for?
8. What change does Lord Capulet make to the wedding plans?
Act 4- Scene 3
9. Juliet say’s, “I have faint cold fear thrills through my veins / That almost freezes up the heat of life.” This is an example of ___________. Why?
10. Why does Juliet place a dagger beside her Bed?
11. Why does she think the Friar night want to poison her?
12. Throughout Juliet’s soliloquy beginning on page 192, her mood can be described as ______________.
13. Who does Juliet “see” during her soliloquy?
Act 4- Scene 4
14. This scene opens with a very different mood. What is this sudden changed called, when you go from a very dark, serious scene to something much more light-hearted?
Act 4- Scene 5
15. Who is sent to wake Juliet?
16. What change do we finally see in Lady Capulet at the news of her daughter’s death?
17. Identify one simile and three metaphors the Lord Capulet uses on page 201 concerning his daughter’s death. (Reminder- this is figurative language.)
18. How is the Friar’s interjection on page 203 optimistic?
19. What reason does Peter give for wanting the musicians to play so badly?
20. How is Romeo and Juliet’s love a paradox in itself?
Romeo and Juliet: Act 5 Study Guide
1. Why is Romeo happy about the dream he had concerning his death, and Juliet’s breathing life into him?
2. What news does Romeo receive of Juliet in Mantua?
3. Explain the following quote in terms of Romeo’s tragic flaw: “I do beseech you, sir, have patience”. (spoken by Balthazar.) What is he talking about?
4. What does Romeo buy from the apothecary, and why did he have to convince the man to sell it to him?
5. 5. How does Romeo convince him to sell it to him anyway?
6. We know that romeo has a certain consistent lack of reason. How does his response to the news of his wife’s death support that part of his character?
7. Who does the Friar send to Mantua to give Romeo his message?
8. What complication occurs?
9. Now, what is the Friar’s fear? (what must he do?)
10. Why is Paris at the Capulet tomb?
11. Romeo says the following comment to his servant: “Hold, take this letter Early in the morning, see thou deliver it to my lord and father.” Why is this foreshadowing?
12. For what reason does Romeo threaten to tear his servant apart “joint by joint”?
13. Provide one aspect of proof that Romeo has matured since the beginning of the play.
14. Who starts the fight?
15. Who wins the fight?
16. In dramatic irony, the audience knows something that one or more of the characters do not know. Identify the dramatic irony in Romeo’s speech.
17. On page 225, Romeo again refers to the motif of light/darkness. How so?
18. What is the first question Juliet asks the Friar when she awakens?
19. What is the greater power that the Friar refers to on page 231?
20. What does Juliet first do in reaction to hearing of Romeo’s death?
21. When this fails, what does she do?
22. What significance does Lady Montague’s death (and Lady Capulet’s foreshadowing of her own death) hold?
23. Does the Friar admit his own fault in all of this?
24. What does the Prince tell the two families is really responsible for the tragedies?
25. What do old Montague and Capulet vow to build?