Romeo and Juliet

Question 1

how does Romeo and Juliet fit our expectations of a Shakespearean tragedy (4)

Answer 1

• there is a tragic hero
• the tragic hero has hamartia
• this hamartia causes him to make a fatal mistake
• the fatal mistake leads to his downfall

Question 2

who is the tragic hero in the play

Answer 2

Romeo

Question 3

list the characters who have hamartia

Answer 3

Romeo
Juliet
Friar Lawrence

Question 4

what is Romeo’s hamartia

Answer 4

Romeo acts impetuously and is extremely rash. He makes decisions without processing all the possible outcomes of what he does.

Question 5

what is the result of Romeo’s hamartia (4)

Answer 5

• the death of his close friend, Mercutio
• the death of his cousin-in-law, Tybalt
• the death of his lover, Juliet
• the suicide committed by himself

Question 6

what is Juliet’s hamartia

Answer 6

She is too loyal to Romeo and at times, her love for him consumes and blinds her until she loses her logic and acts without ration.

Question 7

what is the result of Juliet’s hamartia (3)

Answer 7

• Her suicide
• Romeo’s suicide
• grief bestowed on her family

Question 8

what is Friar Lawrence’s hamartia

Answer 8

His hope for peace to settle the feud sizzling on Verona’s streets was too strong for him to see that making a thoughtless attempt to fix the families by covertly marrying their youngest children would not solve the problem.

Question 9

what is a consequence of Friar Lawrence’s hamartia (2)

Answer 9

• the death of Romeo and Juliet

- the death of Paris and many more

Question 10

how does the feud end

Answer 10

The feud ends when the relevant families find their deceased children in a tomb with a dead Paris and realise how innocent they were to be taken as a sacrifice for a conflict that they should not have been a part of. This made Capulet and Montague understand the pointlessness of the feud and reconcile, deciding to honour the two children as a mark of their newly evened relationship.

Question 11

give 3 examples of soliloquies in the play

Answer 11

1) ‘But, soft!’- Act II Scene II
2) ‘Ethiope’s ear’ one- Act I Scene V
3) ‘I’ll drink to thee’- Act IV Scene III

Question 12

list as many key quotations as you remember

Answer 12

• ‘death-mark’d love’
• ‘now seeming sweet turn to bitterest gall’
• ‘my only love sprung from my only hate’
• ‘Romeo, Romeo wherefore art though Romeo?’
• ‘a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear’
• ‘I’ll be new baptised’
• ## ‘your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace’