Act 4

Question 1

scene 1

Answer 1

the Friar’s plan. structure: private. later on Tuesday

Question 2

Juliet being duplicitous with Paris scene 1

Answer 2

neither commits to love or marry. cross purposes

Question 3

“thy face is mine” scene 1

Answer 3

Paris. Juliet’s position in society - brutality of line shows her husband dictates her. Shakespeare playing with words

Question 4

“past hope, past cure, past help” scene 1

Answer 4

Juliet to Friar. repetition of past amplifies how desperate she is feeling - loss amplified

Question 5

“shall Romeo by my letters know our drift” scene 1

Answer 5

Friar telling Juliet plan. doesn’t happen - makes tragedy greater

Question 6

Juliet’s character in scene 1

Answer 6

really headstrong - makes rash decisions - hamartia. manipulative and cunning - lie to fiance. passionate and determined. morally courageous - will not marry Paris and “stain” marriage to Romeo

Question 7

scene 2

Answer 7

wedding preparations. structure: private. near night on Tuesday

Question 8

“repent the sin… by holy Lawrence to fall prostrate here… I beseech you. Henceforward I am ever rul’d by you” scene 2

Answer 8

Juliet to Capulet. convincing in apology. religious language to manipulate her father. irony.

Question 9

“knot knit” scene 2

Answer 9

Capulet. metaphor for how complicated the tragedy/ everything has become

Question 10

“my heart is wondrous light since this same wayward girl is so reclaim’d” scene 2

Answer 10

Capulet. ironic image of dutiful daughter. how far apart Juliet and her father are, prepares audience for poison trick to come

Question 11

scene 3

Answer 11

Juliet’s act of desperation. structure: private. tuesday night.

Question 12

Juliet’s soliloquy in scene 3

Answer 12

whole soliloquy focuses on the crypt where she will be placed, further darkens the mood of the play. images of death - play’s tragic end. “come vial”-addresses it. doubting Friar. fear and uncertainty. supernatural - fear becomes magnified. imagining going mad. “stay, Tybalt, stay” imagines ghost of Tybalt coming. fear makes her drink it. toast to Romeo

Question 13

scene 4

Answer 13

preparations continue. 5am wednesday. private scene. dramatic contrast to scene before of stillness - juxtaposition of two scenes

Question 14

“spare not for cost” scene 4

Answer 14

Capulet determined to show his material wealth - irony his most precious possession lies “dead” above him

Question 15

“make haste, make haste” scene 4

Answer 15

Capulet. repetition of haste is ironic. haste of Capulet has contributed to tragedy. stark contrast to following scene

Question 16

scene 5

Answer 16

the Friar’s potion has its effect. structure: private. early wednesday morning

Question 17

“my child, my only life, revive, look up, or I will die with thee” scene 5

Answer 17

Lady Capulet. odd contrast. shes restricted in feelings - only Juliet’s death connection. amplifying gap of parent and child - formalised responsibilities. exaggerates responses plus dramatic irony can make this scene seem false

Question 18

“shes dead, shes dead, shes dead!” scene 5

Answer 18

Lady Capulet. repetition - so overwhelmed with grief or sense of regret - relationship in formal stock grieving

Question 19

“Death lies on her like an untimely frost…Death ties up my tongue and will not let me speak… the night before thy wedding day hath Death lain with thy wife” scene 5

Answer 19

Capulet personifies death. metaphor about the ‘untimely frost’ cuts through his wife and the Nurse’s hysterical cries. death is so real to him can almost see death - through loss of daughter. repeated personification of death - quasi-sexual images of death lying with Juliet - lose virginity by death himself “deflowered by him”

Question 20

“is the bride ready to go to Church?” scene 5

Answer 20

Friar is duplicitous - shock the audience that he so easily pretends shock - complicit in her fake death

Question 21

“accurs’d, unhappy, wretched, hateful day!” “O woe! O woeful, woeful, woeful day!” “Beguil’d, divorced, wronged, spited, slain!” “despis’d, distressed, hated, martyr’d, kill’d” scene 5

Answer 21

Lady Capulet then Nurse then Paris then Capulet. extreme use of repetition by nurse represents guilt and sorrow or adds to overwhelming artificiality. formalised, ritualised response. echoes of structure. listing device. rather than a sincere outpouring of grief. within society Shakespeare is criticising formality of their relationships to Juliet

Question 22

Friar Lawrence use of religious language in scene 5

Answer 22

man in control. hypocrite. manipulating everyone

Question 23

“melancholy bells… sad burial feast… dirges change… for a buried corse” scene 5

Answer 23

Capulet mirrors swiftness of fate. lines are a balance of life and death - metaphor for play

Question 24

Friar Lawrence’ fault scene 5

Answer 24

or feel more complicit because we know friar is lying through religious language and putting blame on others