Romeo & Juliet - Study Guide 3 PDF

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1. “Enter Mercutio, Benvolio, and Men…” Notice the above stage direction (sd) at the beginning of Act 3, Scene 1. We are now back in the lethally competitive world of male boasting and honor. How do we know from the opening speeches where we are and what time of day it is? -Benvolio complains of how hot the day is, so they’re outside somewhere in Verona and it’s mid day Is there a reference to the weather at the beginning of Mercutio's and Benvolio's conversation? (3.1.2) -yes, “the day is hot”, “these hot days” 2. “… thou art a villain.” Double question: Mercutio uses what special sort of diction to mock Tybalt’s expertise in what important skill (hint: both answers are related, the first providing a sort of basic “vocabulary” for the second)?? -Fencing diction ; Fencing When Tybalt sees Romeo approaching, he says, "Here comes my man" (3.1.53). Mercutio responds with "But I'll be hanged, sir, if he wear your livery. . . ./ Your Worship in that sense may call him “man" (3.1.54–56). (hint: “livery” is a word for the uniforms that members of one house wore; Tybalt would have been recognized by his Capulet livery). What is the difference between their definitions of "man"? -Tybalt calls Romeo a Capulet man, and Benvolio calls him a Montague man 3. “[They fight.]” From 3.1.81 to 3.1.86 a lengthy fight rivets everyone’s attention, much longer in time that a mere five lines suggest. Here the choreography of bodies on stage replaces the poetic medium of Shakespeare’s intensely verbal theater. We also become aware that we are not the only audience to this fight, for a crowd of actors circles the duelers and contributes to the drama of their conflict by egging them on. What is the tone of this duel, before, that is, it becomes surprising apparent that Mercutio has been fatally stabbed? -the tone of the fight is aggressive, and Mercutio is at first making light of his injury, and so everyone kinda blows it off and then he dies and Romeo is extremely angered Can you come up with some words that describe this tone? -? The sd (stage direction) tells you that “Tybalt under Romeo’s arm stabs Mercutio”—a complicated bit of stage action. How does it happen? -Romeo tries to get Mercutio and Tybalt to stop fighting so he puts himself in the middle of their fight and that’s when Tybalt slides his sword underneath Romeo’s arm and stabs Mercutio Is Shakespeare’s play particularly subtle about how it arranges “the fall of the first domino”? Can

we say, for instance, that Mercutio’s death is a “tragedy of fate”? Or is it a “tragedy of character” (Romeo’s, Mercutio’s, Tybalt’s)? -Mercutio: tragedy of fate -Romeo: tragedy of character -Tybalt: tragedy of fate 4. “A plague on both your houses!” What does Mercutio mean in the famous line from the play? -Mercutio is not technically on either side of the feud, however he has been hurt/ultimately killed by the “plague” of their hatred for each other How does his fatal wound become apparent? - he dies as Benvolio is trying to help him How would you describe Mercutio in his last dying minutes? -acting the same as always; making light of his injury, playing it off cool -not treating it as the fatal wound that it was Why does Mercutio invoke “a church door” at 3.1.94-95? -possibly a premonition to his upcoming death // going to heaven?? How are we to respond to the obviously grisly pun in “Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man.”? -at first the response is just that Mercutio is just being his usual smartass self, until he dies, and then the response is more like how can he be so morbid as he’s dying? 5. "O sweet Juliet, / Thy beauty hath made me effeminate…” After Mercutio's death, why does Romeo say, "O sweet Juliet,/Thy beauty hath made me effeminate / And in my temper soft'ned valor's steel"? (3.1.111-113) -Romeo’s love for Juliet caused him to not want to fight Tybalt, and because of that Mercutio fought Tybalt for Romeo and ultimately died What exactly do you think Romeo means by “effeminate”? -possibly made him weak, passive.. etc? How would you describe the transformation that turns Romeo the loving the husband into Romeo the revenge killer? -Romeo’s friend has just been slain, so he immediately seeks revenge without any thought to how it would affect his future, marriage, or Juliet Is Tybalt’s death caused by the tragedy of fate or by the tragedy of character? -Tybalt’s death can be described by both, his actual death is a tragedy of fate, however the cause of his death is Romeo’s tragedy of character What does Romeo mean by his exclamation, "O, I am fortune's fool!" after the death of Tybalt? (3.1.135) -fate is playing with Romeo 6. “Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe?”

What penalty does Prince Escalus pronounce after the death of Tybalt? (1.188 ff.) Why is it not the penalty he had earlier vowed he would exact? -Romeo is banished -He told everyone in Act 1 Scene 1, that anyone else involved in another fight would be executed Who in the crowd surrounding the Prince speaks surprisingly for Romeo’s death? -Lady Capulet 7. “Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds…” Juliet’s speech at 3.2.1 ff. is one of the most powerful in the play. Notice that she delivers it alone, this moment being the first of several more times when she must execute the business of the play all alone, her speeches in soliloquy. Recall her circumstances: “Oh, I have bought the mansion of love [i.e., gotten married] / But not possessed it [i.e., not sexually consummated her love for Romeo]. One of the purposes of this soliloquy, then, is to give expression to her powerful erotic longing for her husband. How does the language accomplish this? -Juliet uses metaphors that represent the erotic lust and desire she feels towards Romeo Can you point to specific lines and phrases that powerfully summon up a representation of Juliet’s extraordinary desire? (Look at 3.2.20–25, lines which makes metaphoric use of a commonplace Elizabethan pun in the word “die,” which also meant sexual orgasm.) -”Hood my unmanned blood” -”Give me my Romeo, and when I shall die,” The Nurse's emphatically social personality has been comic in some scenes, but not when she tells Juliet of Tybalt's death and Romeo's banishment (Act 3, Scene 2). What’s the effect her “temporizing” loquacity (verbosity, irrepressibly talky) here? -at first Juliet is angered at Romeo and herself, because she’s married this guy and he turns out to be a murderer, but then once the nurse agrees with her, Juliet makes a 180 and defends him, and then when asked who she sides with, she chooses her murderous husband over her dead cousin When the Nurse finally tells Juliet about Romeo’s killing of Tybalt, what is Juliet’s immediate response (ll.75 ff.) What are some of the terms she uses to express her feelings in this speech? (hint: oxymorons!) -”serpent heart” ; “beautiful tyrant” ; “fiend angelical” ; -”dove-feathered raven” “wolvish-ravening lamb” “damned saint” “honorable villian” -”was there ever a book containing such vile matter so fairly bound” As soon as Juliet hears the Nurse agree with her assessment of Romeo as a dragon and tyrant, she immediately chastises the Nurse and corrects herself: “He was not born to shame. / Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit…” Does this sudden change in Juliet seem mature to you or full of folly? -it’s a bit immature, however considering her age i’m not surprised 8. “Art thou a man?” In what ways does Romeo's behavior in Friar Lawrence's cell seem hysterical? (scene 3)

-he starts saying that he’d rather be dead than be banished & the Friar is saying he’s being ungrateful and not seeing all of the blessings he has been given When the Nurse arrives, in what state does she find Romeo? (3.3.90-91) What message does she bring Romeo from Juliet? (3.2.142-43; 3.3.163-64) -she finds Romeo acting the same way as Juliet - all weepy and heartbroken -the Nurse tells Romeo of how Juliet cannot stop crying about his banishment and her cousin’s death The Friar gives Romeo a long lecture at 3.3.112 ff., after he restrains Romeo from killing himself. What does he tell Romeo about his behavior in the first part of the speech? Notice: the play’s thematic concern with manliness—in what consists being a man in Verona—is again give a powerful voice, as we hear the Friar castigate Romeo for his “womanish” tears. -the Friar is basically saying that Romeo is acting like a woman when he needs to act like a man and be strong In the latter half of the speech, how does he counsel Romeo out of his despair? -Friar says to go see Juliet and comfort her, but not to stay too long, and then he says to flee to a place called Mantua and live there until they figure out a way for Romeo to get pardoned from the Prince and for him and Juliet to live happily together. 9. Act Three, Scene 4 This scene reminds us that Lord Capulet has promised Paris the hand of his daughter in marriage. What else does it tell us about these wedding plans? -because of Tybalt’s death, Lord Capulet has forgotten to tell Juliet of his plans to wed her and Paris, and at first he was going to postpone the wedding, but he believes Juliet will do whatever he says so he decides to set the wedding in 3 days 10. Lark or nightingale? This scene takes place the morning after Romeo and Juliet have consummated their marriage, secretly at the Capulet household. Why does Juliet at first say it is the nightingale, not the lark, that sings? (3.5.1-5) -She tries to procrastinate Romeo’s departure, because he must leave before day, and by the context i think Nightingale’s chirp at night, and lark’s chirp by day, so saying it was the Nightingale will keep Romeo just a little while longer Why does she say, a few minutes later, that it is the lark? (3.5.27 ff.) -Romeo starts saying how he’d rather be taken and put to death than leave her, so she says it’s the lark to get him to leave so that he isn’t caught and killed Why does its song seem discordant? -because it’s the lark’s noise that separates day and night, and Juliet is using it as a metaphor to say the bird is separating them two and how some people like the distinction, but not she because it tears Romeo away. The scene is even more poignant in retrospect because we learn that this is the last time in the play the lovers will be able to speak with each other. When they say their good-byes, they don’t

know it is for the last time. As Romeo descends from the balcony of Juliet’s window (which reminds us of an earlier, far more hopeful, moment of departure), Juliet has a premonition; what is it? (3.5.54–57) Consider the powerful despair in Romeo’s words at l.59: “Dry sorrow drinks our blood.” -her premonition is that this will be the last time she sees Romeo 11. Juliet isolated… Almost as soon as Romeo leaves, Juliet is made to feel alienated in her own home (while Romeo is banished to Mantua, Juliet is exiled in her own house). Her conversation with Lady Capulet underscores how she now must play a role and disguise her real feelings. How does Lady Capulet interpret the tearful state in which she finds Juliet? -she thinks she’s crying because of Tybalt How does Juliet play along with her mother’s “un-maternal” expression of vengeance toward Romeo, the slayer of her nephew? (see 3.5.88 ff.) -she pretends that she seeks vengence against Romeo and wishes to find someone for poison for him, but secretly she has other plans When Capulet berates Juliet for refusing to marry Paris, he calls her "tallow-face." (3.5.161) What does this epithet tell us about her appearance at this point? -her outside reflects her inside, she is broken and saddened because of Romeo What is it about Juliet’s behavior that drives her father into a rage? (ll.165 ff.) What does he threaten her with? (ll.201 ff.) -she is heartbroken and doesn’t care about the punishments her father threatens to give her, which only makes him more mad 12. Abandoned now even by the Nurse… The last blow in this explosive scene occurs when Juliet feels she is betrayed by the Nurse. What is the Nurse's advice to Juliet after her father has told her she is to marry Paris? (3.5.224-236) -she says that she should listen to her father and marry Paris Are we surprised to hear it? -yes because she’s been helping Romeo and Juliet this entire time, and now she just switches sides?? As soon as the Nurse leaves, what does Juliet say that shows us her real feelings? (3.5.247 ff.) -she is angered by the Nurse suddenly disagreeing with her desire to be with Romeo, she decides to never confide with the Nurse again and will go seek the Friar and ask for help, and if she doesn’t get help, she’ll just kill herself...