HW
ROMEO AND JULIET
ACT 1, SCENE 1
The play takes place in Verona, a city
in Italy, and starts with two servants
(Gregory and Sampson) from the
Capulet house/family talking about
the hatred the Capulets have for the
Montagues, and, after they meet two
servants (Abraham and Balthasar)
from the house of Montagues, a fight
breaks out. Benvolio, Lord
Montague's nephew, tries to stop the
fight (Benvolio serves as an
unsuccessful peacemaker in the play,
attempting to prevent violence
between the Capulet and Montague
families), but escalates when Tybalt,
Juliet's short-tempered first cousin,
arrives. The fight becomes so big
there is a huge street brawl involving
both Lord Montague and Lord
Capulet, until Prince Escalus finally
stops it. When it has ended, Lord and
Lady Montague talk to Benvolio about
their son Romeo, who has been
missing all day. Upon finding him,
Romeo reveals to Benvolio that he is
in love with Rosaline – the niece of
Lord Capulet – but she doesn’t love
him in return.
ACT 1, SCENE 3
Lady Capulet is searching for her
daughter, who is getting ready for the
ball, and together with Nurse, try to
convince Juliet that she should marry
Paris, and Nurse talks of a memory
she has of a young Juliet, saying ‘Thou
wast the prettiest babe that e'er I
nursed’.
Wednesday 25th March 2020
TIMELINE
ACT 1, SCENE 2
Paris – a wealthy count and a relation
of the prince – visits Lord Capulet to
ask for Juliet, his daughter’s hand in
marriage, but Lord Capulet thinks she
is too young.
QUICK NOTE: Juliet is only thirteen,
which is shown in the line ‘she hath
not seen the change of fourteen
years’, and although Romeo is
believed to be 16 in the play, Paris is
usually portrayed in his late
twenties/early thirties.
Despite this, Lord Capulet later
encourages Paris to ‘woo’ Juliet at an
upcoming masquerade ball the
Capulets are hosting. He sends a
messenger to invite other guests, and,
on the messenger’s way, he asks
Romeo to read the guest list for him,
since he cannot read. Romeo and
Benvolio see Rosaline’s name on the
list, so Benvolio suggests they go to
the ball so Romeo can find someone
else to fall in love with. Romeo agrees,
but only to prove that Rosaline is the
prettiest there, and ‘rejoice in
splendour of mine own’.
 ACT 1, SCENE 4
Romeo, Benvolio and Mercutio (a
close friend to Romeo and a blood
relative to Prince Escalus and Count
Pari. He is neither a Montague nor a
Capulet, and is one of the few named
characters in the play with the ability
to mingle around those of both
houses.) are getting ready to go to the
ball, but Romeo is having doubts, as
he is feeling depressed about
Rosaline, telling his friends he had an
ominous dream, but Mercutio tells
him that dreams are meaningless,
saying ‘True, I talk of dreams, / Which
is as thin of substance as the air’, and
Romeo agrees to go to the ball.
QUICK NOTE: these dreams, and
others Romeo speaks about, saying
‘for my mind misgives some
consequence yet hanging in the
stars… of untimely death’ (Act 1,
Scene 4), probably link to the play’s
tragic ending, when Romeo and Juliet
both die.
ACT 2, SCENE 1
QUICK NOTE: right, so. So far, the two
families hate each other, Tybalt
especially hates Romeo, and Romeo
and Juliet have just ‘fallen in love’
despite the blood feud and her
parents wanting her to get married to
old Count Paris. Think, Lion King II.
Romeo climbs over a wall into the
Capulet’s garden, and Mercutio and
Benvolio can’t seem to find him
anywhere, soon giving up.
QUICK NOTE: The Lion King II:
Simba’s Pride (2004) is one of the
many modern-day retellings of
Romeo and Juliet, in the same way
that the original Lion King was based
on Hamlet. The sequel stars Kiara,
Simba’s daughter (left), as she falls in
love with Kovu, the lion chosen to
carry on Scar’s legacy. Surprisingly
underrated, for a Disney movie:
worth a watch, and its soundtrack
surprisingly good, with songs such as
Upendi (sung by Rafiki), He Lives in
You, Love Will Find a Way, and my
personal favourite, One of Us.
ACT 1, SCENE 5
The Capulet household is getting
ready for the ball, but Tybalt (Juliet’s
cousin from earlier) sees Romeo
there and gets offended by his
presence (honestly same) and claims
that he won’t endure Romeo at the
ball. Lord Capulet stops him before he
can cause a fight, but this only
enrages him more and he vows
revenge. Later on, Romeo meets Juliet
at the ball, and, despite their families
long running feud, they kiss, with
Juliet saying, ‘You kiss by the book’.
they don’t realise the other’s identity
(due to the masquerade ball) until
afterwards, when Juliet remarks that
she has fallen in love with him. And
with this discovery, Act 1 is
concluded.
 ACT 2, SCENE 2
Juliet appears at her window/balcony
(I like the balcony idea more), and
Romeo then says, upon seeing her
’But, soft! what light through yonder
window breaks? / It is the east, and
Juliet is the sun’, and, after his
dramatic monologue wherein he says
‘Two of the fairest stars in all the
heaven, having some business, do
entreat her eyes / To twinkle in their
spheres till they return.’, Juliet has a
dramatic monologue about how she
wishes he was not a Montague.
She then realises someone has been
listening to her, and he says that he
would give up his name for her (he
would stop being a Montague), which
I assume is a very nice compliment,
but her Nurse calls her inside, and
they part ways once again.
ACT 2, SCENE 3
Friar Laurence crosses paths with
Romeo after his secret meeting with
Juliet, while the Friar is collecting
herbs and plants to use for medicines
and remedies. Romeo tells him about
his wishes and hopes to marry Juliet,
but at first, the friar is dismissive of
his proposal, as only a few hours ago,
he was also in love with Rosalind
(who didn’t love him back and also
never appears on stage, has any lines
and isn’t listed in the cast list).
The Friar brings all this up with
Romeo, asking ‘Is Rosaline, whom
thou didst love so dear, / So soon
forsaken?’, but agrees to officiate the
marriage, as it may bring peace to the
clashing families

ACT 2, SCENE 4 QUICK NOTE: this seems like a very

flawed plan. In hindsight, they should
Romeo’s two friends returned home have predicted it wasn’t going to end
after searching for him, revealing that well…
Tybalt (CEO of being offended) has
challenged him to a duel, before
Romeo arrives home in a good mood.
The three friends tease each other,
saying ‘Why, is not this better now
than groaning for love? Now art thou
sociable, now art thou Romeo’. The
Nurse enters, wanting to speak to
Romeo, whereupon he tells her his
‘intentions’ with Juliet are true, and
tells her to ask Juliet to meet him and
the Friar the next day so they can be
married.
QUICK NOTE: the movie above is
Gnomeo and Juliet, another animated
adaptation about two gnome
ACT 2, SCENE 5
collections: (left to right) Nurse,
Juliet is waiting for Nurse to return portrayed as a frog, Juliet,
with news of Romeo’s proposal, but is Romeo/Gnomeo, and finally
irritated when the Nurse is reluctant Benny/Benvolio: very good ending
to tell her what Romeo said. The scene of Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.
Nurse tells Juliet to visit Friar
Laurence where she’ll be married,
remarking ‘Now comes the wanton
blood up in your cheeks.’
 ACT 2, SCENE 6
The couple meet in the Friar’s cell to
be secretly married, and exit offstage
to be married, whereupon the Friar
tells them to ‘Come, come with me,
and we will make short work; / For,
by your leaves, you shall not stay
alone / Till holy church incorporate
two in one.’

ACT 3, SCENE 1
Outside on the Verona street,
Benvolio and Mercutio wait around
for Romeo to meet them, but Tybalt
and his friend Petruccio, looking to
fight Romeo, see them first.
Romeo arrives, overjoyed at his new
marriage, and refuses to duel with
Tybalt (as the are now related, even
though Tybalt doesn’t know this).
Mercutio instead challenges Tybalt,
and while he is being held back by
Romeo, is fatally stabbed and dies
soon after. While he is dying, he
chastises and curses both the
Montages and Capulets.
Romeo pledges revenge on Tybalt,
and then seeks him out and kills him,
before being banished from Verona
when the prince finds out.
ACT 3, SCENE 2
Juliet is onstage, waiting for Romeo
and delivering one of the most
stirring monologues of the play,
saying ‘Come, civil night, / Thou
sober-suited matron, all in black, /
And learn me how to lose a winning
match’.
The Nurse arrives, and Juliet discerns
that someone has dies and someone
else is banished, but the Nurse allows
Juliet to believe Romeo has been
killed, but eventually reveals the
truth, and Juliet laments her new
husband’s role in the violence. She
then asks the Nurse to deliver
messages to Romeo for her.

ACT 3, SCENE 3
Whilst Romeo is hiding in the chapel,
Friar Laurence tells him of his
punishment, but Romeo is
heartbroken at the thought of being
separated from Juliet and never
seeing her again.
The Nurse arrives to find Romeo on
the ground weeping, and ready to
stab himself, but the Nurse and the
Friar beg Romeo to see things
positively: at least they’re both alive,
and agree on Romeo visiting Juliet
that night before escaping the
following morning.
 ACT 3, SCENE 4
In the Capulet’s estate, many of the
family members are ready to sleep,
after mourning Tybalt’s death, and
converse on Juliet’s apparent despair
on loosing her cousin.
Lord Capulet decides to let Paris
marry Juliet, partly because he
believes it will relieve her sadness,
and then goes to bed.
ACT 4, SCENE 2
Ecstatic upon her upcoming reunion
with Romeo, Juliet returns home, and
apologises to her father about her
reluctance of her marriage to Paris.
Her father forgives her, and instructs
her on the wedding, which he has
moved and will take place the next
day.
ACT 4, SCENE 4
The Capulet household prepares for
the wedding.
ACT 3, SCENE 5
The morning arrives, and Romeo and
Juliet are together, but Juliet’s mother,
Lady Capulet, arrives with news of
her upcoming marriage to Paris, and
Romeo flees through the balcony.
Juliet protests adamantly, insisting
she would rather marry Romeo
Montague than Paris, which her
mother thinks is entirely rhetorical.
ACT 4, SCENE 1
At the chapel, while speaking to Paris,
the Friar, aware of the complicated
situation, offers Paris many
misgivings, and then, Juliet arrives to
see the Friar, but is vague in her
answers to Paris.
Together with the Friar, Juliet
conducts a plan after saying she
would rather die than be apart from
Romeo, wherein the Friar will give
her a special potion that will cause
her to fall into a deep sleep, not unlike
death, and when her body is placed
into the Capulet vault, Romeo will
meet her and they will both leave
Verona together.
ACT 4, SCENE 3
Juliet drinks the Friar’s potion, and
falls down, apparently dead, although
she has to drink it a day early. At first
she worries that maybe the Friar has
given her a poison so his marrying
her to Romeo won’t be discovered,
but she knows she has no other
option.
QUICK NOTE: Romeo isn’t present in
most of this act, and paired with how
quick moving the scenes are, is used
to show how desperate Juliet is
becoming, and draws attention to
Juliet’s unwavering devotion, and her
actions show the divide between the
young and old in the play, however
she thinks through her problems
more rationally that Romeo did when
he was first banished.
 ACT 4, SCENE 5
The Nurse discovers the ‘dead’ body ACT 5, SCENE 1
of Juliet, and exclaims ‘She's dead,
Romeo is brought news of Juliet’s
deceased, she's dead; alack the day!’.
death, although he hasn’t been told
Her parents and Paris see her, and
that it was a disguise. He buys some
her body is placed inside the
poison from an apothecary, who is
Capulet’s tomb.
written to look similar to death, and
returns to Verona to visit Juliet’s
tomb, stricken with grief.
ACT 5, SCENE 2
Friar John – who was supposed to ACT 5, SCENE 3
deliver the letter – reveals to Friar
Laurence that during an outbreak of Paris and Romeo run into each other
the plague, he was stopped from at Juliet’s tomb, and, without realising
leaving the city and was unable to it’s Paris, Romeo kills him hastily.
deliver the letter. The Friar rushes to Romeo goes to see Juliet’s body, and
the tomb, knowing this might derail believing she has truly died, he drinks
their plans completely. the potion and kills himself, his last
words ‘Eyes, look your last! / Arms,
take your last embrace!’.
QUICK NOTE: This play takes place Juliet wakes soon after and refuses to
over a number of days, but within it, go with the Friar when he arrives.
Romeo and Juliet become so sure of Instead, she takes Romeo’s dagger,
their love that they would rather die and kills herself with it, after seeing
than live without the other. In fact, his dead body right beside her, saying
they both embrace it, and ‘O happy dagger! This is thy sheath;
Shakespeare shows their deaths as an there rust, and let me die’.
heroic action.
The families arrive at the tomb, and
devastated by their loss, agree to
settle their lifelong dispute.
MEMORABLE QUOTES:
The Prince ends Act 5 by grieving the
“He jests at scars that never felt a deaths of the young lovers, claiming,
wound.” (Romeo, Act 2 Scene 2) "For never was a story of more woe /
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo".
“Don't waste your love on somebody,
And so, the feud ends, but too late for
who doesn't value it.”
Romeo and Juliet.
That which we call a rose / By any
other word would smell as sweet.
(Juliet, Act 2 Scene 1)
My only love sprung from my only
hate / Too early seen unknown, and
known too late! (Juliet)
"O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou
Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse
thy name, Or, if thou wilt not, be but
sworn my love, And I'll no longer be a
Capulet." (Juliet; Act 2, Scene 2)