Romeo and Juliet

Vocabulary and Quick-write Prompts

Act I
“My only love sprung from my only hate!”

Quick Write prompts: Choose one of the given prompts and write a paragraph to state your opinion.
The paragraph should be around 200-250 words.

1. Some things are fated to happen, and we have no control over them.
2. Family feuds only harm the families involved.
3. Love at first sight is possible.

Words to Know:

adversary enemy; opponent

augmenting adding to; enlarging

deformities irregularities; disfigurements

discreet showing good judgment; perceptive

disparagement criticism; censure

nuptial wedding; marriage

obscured hid; darkened

pernicious harmful; destructive

portentous ominous; threatening

posterity future generations

prodigious terrible; extraordinary

profane dishonor; make impure

propagate reproduce; increase

purged got rid of; expelled

Act I Study Guide Questions:
1. What does Tybalt think about Benvolio when they first meet in the street?

2. What do the marginal notes for lines 74-81 and 82-90 help you understand about the main point
of the Prince’s speech?

3. What does Lord Montague’s lines in lines 124-135 indicate about Romeo?

4. Why does Lord Capulet hesitate when Paris asks to marry Juliet?

5. How does Shakespeare provide comic relief in Scene 3?

6. Why does Lady Capulet tell Juliet to start thinking about marriage?

7. What reason does Romeo give for wanting to avoid the Capulets’ party?

8. What word best characterizes Tybalt’s reaction when he recognizes Romeo at the party?

9. What does Romeo’s presence at the party cause Lord Capulet to do?

10. Reread Scene 5, lines 91-108. Why does Shakespeare have Romeo and Juliet speak in rhyming
lines instead of blank verse?

11. Are the Capulets or the Montagues to blame for the fight in the street during Scene 1? Support
your answer with one detail from the text.

12. Romeo receives advice from Benvolio, and Paris receives similar advice from Lord Capulet. What
is this advice?

13. How would you describe Romeo’s personality as shown in Act One? Use details from the play to
support your answer.

14. Do you believe that Romeo really loves Rosaline at the beginning of Act One? Use details from
the play to support your answer.
Act II
“O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?”

Quick Write prompts: Choose one of the given prompts and write a paragraph to state your opinion.
The paragraph should be around 200-250 words.

1. Boys suffer over unrequited love as much as girls do.

2. True love is worth the sacrifice of family and friends.
3. Long engagements are better than short ones.

Words to Know:

chided criticized; scolded

confounds confused; obscures

conjure call up; summon

discourses talks; speaks

driveling chattering; jabbering

exposition display; demonstration

idolatry worship; adoration

impute blame; attribute

intercession asking a favor of; intervention

lamentable unfortunate; regrettable

perjuries lies; swearing to what is untrue

rancor hatred; hostility

repose calm; peacefulness

sallow sickly; pale

Act II Study Guide Questions:
1. What does the summary of Scene I tell you about Romeo’s actions immediately following the
party?

2. Reread Scene 1, lines 6-10. What do these lines tell you about Mercutio?

3. Which sentence best explains what Romeo means in Scene 2, lines 19-22?

4. Reread Scene 2, lines 116-120. What do the lines suggest about Juliet’s personality?

5. What does the soliloquy at the beginning of the Scene 3 reveal about Friar Laurence’s belief of
people?

6. Why is Friar Laurence concerned about Romeo’s request to marry Juliet?

7. What is Tybalt’s letter to Romeo about?

8. What plan does Romeo share with the Nurse?

9. After the Nurse sees Romeo, what do her actions towards Juliet show?

10. What does Shakespeare reveal about the ending of the tragedy through Friar Laurence’s allusion
to fire and gunpowder in Scene 6, lines 9-15?

11. What two things does Shakespeare revel about Juliet through her soliloquy in Scene 2, lines 33-
49?

12. Reread Scene 2, line 37. What does Shakespeare reveal about Romeo through Romeo’s aside
during Juliet’s soliloquy?

13. What is similar and different about Romeo’s and Juliet’s views of love? Support your answer
with details from the text.

14. What functions do Mercutio and the Nurse serve in Act two? Support your answer with
examples from the text.
Act III
“A plague o’ both your houses!”

Quick Write prompts: Choose one of the given prompts and write a paragraph to state your opinion.
The paragraph should be around 200-250 words.

1. If an adult knows a young person is heading for serious trouble, he or she has a responsibility to
tell that person’s parents.
2. Youthful marriages seldom work out well.

Words to Know:

civil having to do with citizens or the public

confines interior; insides

dexterity skill; proficiency

dismembered took apart; split

eloquence expressiveness; verbal facility

garish gaudy; showy

jocund cheerful; happy

martial military; soldierly

monarch royalty; a king, queen, or emperor

plague disease; hex

prevails controls; dominates

reconcile make up; apologize

renowned famous; well-known

usurer swindler; extortionist

Act III Study Guide Questions:
1. Why does Mercutio challenges Tybalt to a fight?

2. Why does Romeo fight Tybalt?

3. Why does Lady Capulet doubt Benvolio’s description of the fight?

4. Why Romeo’s banishment is considered a merciful punishment?

5. Reread Scene 2, lines 1-31. What does Shakespeare reveal about Juliet through Juliet’s
soliloquy?

6. Reread the marginal notes for Scene 2, lines 114-127. What does the note help you understand?

7. How does Friar Laurence finally succeed in comforting Romeo?

8. Why does Lord Capulet agree to let Paris marry Juliet?

9. What is Lord Capulet’s reaction to Juliet’s refusal to marry Paris?

10. Juliet says in her soliloquy in Scene 5, lines 240-241, “Go, counselor! Thou and my bosom
henceforth shall be twain.” What does Shakespeare reveal about Juliet in these lines?

11. Identify two emotions that Juliet feels when she learns of Tybalt’s death. Use details from the
play to support your answer.

12. What are three reasons that Friar Laurence thinks that Romeo should be happy?

13. How do Lord and Lady Capulet show themselves to be emotional people in Act Three? Use
examples of their actions from the play to support your answer.

14. Use details from Act Three to show that sometimes actions motivated by love can have negative
consequences.
Act IV
“What is it be a poison…”

Quick Write prompt: Do you agree with the following statement? Write a paragraph to state your
opinion. The paragraph should be around 200-250 words.

1. Dreams can warn us about future events.

Words to Know:

arbitrating deciding; judging

culled chose; selected

distraught upset; distressed

entreat plead; ask for

immoderately wastefully; extravagantly

inundation flood; outpouring

pensive thoughtful; reflective

prostrate flat; prone

resolution solution to a problem

solace relief; consolation

spited acted maliciously or with ill will

surcease suspend; pause

supple flexible; pliant

Act IV Study Guide Questions:
1. Why does Paris go to Friar Laurence’s cell?

2. What does Juliet’s threat to harm herself in Scene I reveal about her personality?

3. Why does Friar Laurence suggest that Juliet take the potion?

4. Why does the change in the wedding date affect Friar Laurence’s plan?

5. Reread Scene 3, lines 14-16. What does Shakespeare reveal in these lines from Juliet’s soliloquy?

6. What does Juliet do to ensure that she will not have to marry Paris?

7. Reread the marginal note for lines 11-13 from Scene 4. What does the note help you understand
about Lord Capulet?

8. Reread Scene 5, lines 1-11. What do the Nurse’s comments reveal?

9. Which character is the last to hear about Juliet’s supposed death?

10. What is the most likely reason that Shakespeare ends Act Four with a conversation between
musicians and a servant?

11. During his discussion with Paris in Scene 1, Friar Laurence says in an aside, “I would I knew not
why it should be slowed.” What does Friar Laurence mean?

12. Reread Scene 3, lines 21-54. What are two fears Juliet expresses before she takes the potion?

13. Do you think that Paris does or does not love Juliet? Use details from the play to support your
answer.

14. How do you think the Nurse and Friar Laurence could have behaved differently to change the
course of events in Act Four? Use specific details to support your response.
Act V
“Eyes, look your last! Arms, take your last embrace!”

Quick Write prompts: Choose one of the given prompts and write a paragraph to state your opinion.
The paragraph should be around 200-250 words.

1. Revenge is sometimes justifiable.

2. Love is blind.
3. Suicide is never justifiable.

Words to Know:

abhorred hated; despised

apprehend arrest; take into custody

canopy covering; protection

contempt scorn; distain

disperse scatter; distribute

inexorable unmovable; relentless

interred buried; shut in

penury poverty; destitution

presage predict; fortell

remnants remains; leftovers

righteous virtuous; moral

steeped soaked; covered in liquid

wretchedness anguish; torment

Act V Study Guide Questions:
1. Reread Scene 1, lines 34-40. What does Shakespeare reveal through this soliloquy about
Romeo?

2. What does Friar Laurence hurry to the Capulets’ tomb to do?

3. Why is Paris at the cemetery?

4. Reread Scene 3, lines 43-44. What does Shakespeare reveal through this aside about Balthasar?

5. Reread the marginal note for Scene 3, lines 45-49. What does the note help you understand?

6. How does Paris believe Juliet died?

7. When Romeo sees Juliet in the tomb, what does he notice about her?

8. What does Juliet hope to accomplish by kissing Romeo in the tomb?

9. Why do Lord Capulet and Lord Montague stop their feud at the end of the play?

10. Reread Scene 3, lines 309-310. Why does Shakespeare probably end the play with rhyming lines
instead of blank verse?

11. How does Romeo select the apothecary?

12. What two pieces of evidence confirm Friar Laurence’s tale about Romeo and Juliet?

13. Which do you think plays a more significant role I the tragic conclusion of the play---fate or the
choices of the characters? Use specific details from the play to support your responses.

14. Did true love or immaturity play the more significant role in the events of The Tragedy of Romeo
and Juliet? Use examples from the text to support your responses.