Romeo & Juliet (key scene) Flashcards
Summarise the plot of ‘Romeo and Juliet’?
The play, originally written for Shakespeare’s daughter to scare her away from marriage, follows our two star-crossed lovers; Romeo and Juliet and throughout the play, we see how (essay question)
(P1) What’s your topic sentence?
Before, Act 3 Scene 1, the pivotal scene, everything so far is going swimmingly, with Romeo constantly sneaking off to Juliet’s bedroom and the two lovers getting married in secret. This fantasy-teenage romance quickly comes to an end when Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, seeks Romeo for revenge for getting into the Capulet Ball uninvited.
(P1) What’s your first quote?
“these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.”
(P1) What’s your PEE for “these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.”?
Benvolio and Mercutio are walking together when Benvolio says, “these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.”. The use of this pathetic fallacy conveys the anger that was once concealed is now starting to boil over and becomes a warning for what will happen later
(P1) What’s your second quote?
“Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries – That thou hast done me; therefore turn, and draw!”
(P1) What’s your PEE for “Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries – That thou hast done me; therefore turn, and draw!”?
Romeo finally comes out of hiding and faces Tybalt, but instead of fulfilling Tybalt’s wish of fighting, Romeo confronts him with peace and Tybalt detests and commands Romeo, “Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries – That thou hast done me; therefore turn, and draw!”. In this piece of dialogue, we can hear Tybalt’s anger as he demands Romeo fight with him and displays his confidence as he wants Romeo to take out his weapon with the word ‘draw’ meaning he’s cocky and powerful enough to win a fair duel without any tricks and the harsh tone of ‘this shall not’ is forceful and harsh which displays his disdain for the Montagues and reveals his determined and fiery persona.
(P1) What’s your third quote?
“A plague o’ both your heart.”
(P1) What’s your PEE for “A plague o’ both your heart.”?
Frustrated, Mercutio fights Tybalt in place of Romeo and as Romeo tries to break up the fight and ends up accidentally wounding Mercutio, Mercutio after falling victim to Tybalt’s blade curses the Montagues and the Capulet, “A plague o’ both your heart.”. This displays how this feud between the two houses bothers society, meaning that Mercutio blames the hatred between these families for his death and his curse foreshadows the romantic tragedy impending in Romeo and Juliet
(P1) What’s your evaluation?
In Act 3 Scene 1 we can see the intensity and the danger of this rivalry through the death that happens in this key scene (essay question)
(P2) What’s your topic sentence?
In this scene, we see the dramatic change from newly married Romeo, kind and soft-hearted to now vengeful and anger-fueled after Mercutio is killed in front of him.
(P2) What’s your first quote?
“And so, good Capulet – which name I tender as dearly as mine own”
(P2) What’s your PEE for “And so, good Capulet – which name I tender as dearly as mine own”?
When Tybalt attempts to provoke Romeo to duel with him, Romeo kindly dismisses saying, “And so, good Capulet – which name I tender as dearly as mine own”. The word choice of ‘good’, ‘tender’, and ‘dearly’ have a very affectionate tone which displays that his love for Juliet has made him want to respect and be on good terms with her family – the Capulets – despite the deep-rooted feud between the two houses and the overall tone of this quote is very calm and caring which contrasts with tense and rough energy with the characters also in this scene.
(P2) What’s your second quote?
“O sweet Juliet – Thy beauty hath made effeminate”
(P2) What’s your PEE for “O sweet Juliet – Thy beauty hath made effeminate”?
After Tybalt accidentally kills Mercutio while aiming for Romeo, this sends Romeo into a rage as he feels guilty that his innocent friend was wounded instead of him and Romeo cries, “O sweet Juliet – Thy beauty hath made effeminate”. The use of the word ‘effeminate’ tells us that Romeo feels that his love for Juliet blinded him in this situation and made him forget his masculinity and made him unable to fight.
(P2) What’s your evaluation?
This shows how this act results in changes within Romeo as he goes from calm and open-minded to embarrassed about how Juliet has made him unable to fight through this key scene (essay question)
(P3) What’s your topic sentence?
After this act, Juliet also goes through a transformation of her own
(P3) What’s your first quote?
“It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden; Too like lightning, which doth cease to be Ere once can say ‘It lightens’”
(P3) What’s your PEE for “It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden; Too like lightning, which doth cease to be Ere once can say ‘It lightens’”?
When Juliet first meets Romeo at the Capulet ball, despite her love she feels that their relationship is moving too quickly and tells to Romeo, “It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden; Too like lightning, which doth cease to be Ere once can say ‘It lightens’”. Juliet expresses her worry with the use of the simile ‘like lighting’ to reflect the speed Romeo is going with her and the use of the word ‘lighting’ emphasises the danger this pace could pose on their relationship, and this displays how new and cautious Juliet is about her first romance.
(P3) What’s your second quote?
“O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!”
(P3) What’s your PEE for “O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!”?
After Juliet hears of her cousin’s death she feels conflicted as her only cousin has been killed by her first love and we can see this in this quote, “O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!” In this piece of dialogue, we can hear Juliet’s frustration with her use of ‘serpent’ which depicts Romeo as not being truthful and being ‘two-faced’, but this is contradicted by ‘flowering’ describing his handsome exterior which shows her contrasting opinion of Romeo.
(P3) What’s your evaluation?
In Act 3, through the scene that involves conflict or reconciliation, we can see a shift in Juliet’s character as she goes from being infatuated and obsessed with Romeo to questioning how far is too far and finding it difficult to support him.
(P4) What’s your topic sentence?
At the end of this act, we see the effects of the events of this key scene on all the characters.
(P4) What’s your first quote?
“Shame come to Romeo!”
(P4) What’s your PEE for “Shame come to Romeo!”?
One of the characters who experience a change of heart is the Nurse, who goes from complimenting Romeo to cursing him for murdering Tybalt and we see this when she says, “Shame come to Romeo!”. The Nurse when she first meets Romeo calls him an ‘honest gentle’ which contradicts her newly formed picture of him after the news of his crime was spread around. This in turn causes a split in the Nurse’s and Juliet’s once very close relationship as they stop seeing eye to eye as Romeo enchants Juliet and the Nurse loathes him at this point.
(P4) What’s your second quote?
“Romeo must not live.”
(P4) What’s your PEE for “Romeo must not live.”?
Another character that shifts is Lady Capulet, who goes from pushing her husband to stop this silly feud to wanting Romeo dead for murdering her brother’s child, when she discovers her nephew’s dead body she begs, “Romeo must not live.”. This shows a very strong contrast between her very non-violent opinions at the beginning of the play to her now commanding death to come to Romeo and shows that Act 3 has affected everyone and sets the dark tone for the rest of the play.
(P4) What’s your evaluation?
This showcases the transformation of each character due to the actions of Tybalt and Romeo and how the feud connects each character to the misfortunes that occur in Act 3 through this key scene (essay question)
What’s your conclusion?
In conclusion, this essay explored how William Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ dealt with rivalry (essay question) and used dramatic techniques to not only answer this question but to create an intense story with lots of memorable scenes. At first, the story didn’t live up to my expectations but when I read the text by myself and analysed the play I started to understand why people enjoy the story of Romeo and Juliet so much, the characters are diverse and equally interesting, I love the ‘back and forth’ between the star-crossed lovers when they first meet and I love how Juliet is a character with many layers and I end up rooting for her despite her recklessness and I will always find Luhrmann’s adaptation endearing.
