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Romeo and Juliet
Mountaineers · 10th–12th
Does Act I stage the love that begins at Capulet's feast as an escape from the feud's heat, or as one more outbreak of the same fire that drives the brawl?
The tension The act's love speaks a sacred language of pilgrims, saints and purged sin, yet the feast stages it inside the feud's heat in a fixed order: Romeo's "O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!" is what Tybalt's ear catches ("This by his voice, should be a Montague."), Capulet then orders that the guest "shall be endur’d", Tybalt withdraws promising "bitter gall", and only after that does the sonnet begin. Before Romeo has seen Juliet he has already called love "brawling", and Benvolio has prescribed a new love as "one fire" to burn out another; after the feast Juliet asks the Nurse about two other guests before she asks about the one "that would not dance", then says "Go ask his name." and, still not knowing it, that if he is married her grave is likely to be her wedding bed; only then, told he is a Montague, does she call her love sprung from her "only hate".
Read Act I for order: notice what happens just before and just after Romeo and Juliet first speak.
A servants' joke becomes a street fight, and the Prince threatens death for the next one. Romeo mourns a woman who will not love him, and Benvolio says a new fire will burn out the old. Capulet tells Paris to woo Juliet, and Lady Capulet tells Juliet to look at him. Mercutio mocks dreams, and Romeo fears the night ahead. At the feast Romeo praises Juliet, Tybalt hears his voice and leaves promising gall, and the lovers speak in a sonnet before each learns who the other is.
Start with the bitten thumb and ask what the servants are really fighting about. Then ask how Romeo sounds when he hears about the fight.
Retell The student retells the feast scene in order: Romeo's praise, Tybalt's voice, Capulet's order, Tybalt's exit, the sonnet, the two questions about who the other is. Order matters in this act, so correct any reshuffling.
Imitate the author After copying Romeo's speech, the student writes four lines of paired opposites about one feeling, keeping the exclamation marks.
Debate One reader takes Juliet's last line as praise and another takes it as a warning. Each must use one line from the sonnet.
Purpose Close by asking why Shakespeare puts the quarrel first and the feast last, and what the student would miss by reading the feast alone.
Easier Read the feast scene aloud together and talk through discussion questions 3, 4 and 5 only.
On level Talk through all six discussion questions, then have the student write one critical-thinking thesis with a quote, an objection and a revision.
Harder Ask the student to write a second thesis for a different critical-thinking question and say which of the two the act supports better.
1. Sampson and Gregory start the play with puns and a bitten thumb, and soon the whole street is fighting. The Prince calls the cause "an airy word." Does that name fit what you watched?Tone
What it asks What the feud is made of in the opening scene, and whether the Prince's "airy word" fits what the audience has just seen.
It is airy: the quarrel starts in puns and a bitten thumb, and the servants can only say it belongs to their masters.
I will bite my thumb at them, which is disgrace to them if they bear it.
The quarrel is between our masters and us their men.
Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,
It is not airy: citizens arrive with clubs, Capulet calls for his sword, and only the threat of death stops the fight.
Clubs, bills and partisans! Strike! Beat them down!
What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!
Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.
A strong answer The feud begins in words. Sampson and Gregory joke about quick tempers, Sampson bites his thumb, and then says he is not biting it at Abram. The Prince's "airy word" names that. But the light quarrel spreads: Tybalt joins, citizens come with clubs, Capulet calls for his long sword, and only the Prince's threat of death stops it. A strong answer can say the feud is light in its cause and heavy in its results, and gives one moment for each.
2. Benvolio says "one fire burns out another’s burning." What kind of love does that picture describe, and does Romeo's first sight of Juliet bear it out?Theme
What it asks What idea of love Benvolio's fire and poison words carry, and whether Romeo's reaction to Juliet fits that idea or goes beyond it.
It fits: Romeo weighs Juliet against the other women as Benvolio asked, and doubts that his heart ever loved before.
And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows
Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!
It goes beyond: no one is cured by comparison here, because Juliet answers Romeo and plays along with his pilgrim talk.
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.
A strong answer Benvolio talks about love as a fire or an infection: a new one drives out the old. At the feast Romeo's "snowy dove trooping with crows" reads like the comparison Benvolio asked for, and "Did my heart love till now?" sounds like the old love giving way. But Juliet is not only a newer fire: she speaks back and reshapes his pilgrim talk. A strong answer says what Benvolio's picture gets right, what it leaves out, and what it means that the play's peacemaker talks about love this way.
3. Capulet stops Tybalt with "Am I the master here, or you?" Who is he protecting in that moment: Romeo, his guests, or himself?Character
What it asks What Capulet cares about most when he silences Tybalt, and whether his reasons change as the argument grows.
He protects his guest: he speaks well of Romeo and will not insult him in his own house.
I would not for the wealth of all the town Here in my house do him disparagement.
Verona brags of him To be a virtuous and well-govern’d youth.
He protects his own rule: once Tybalt argues back, the quarrel is about who is master and Romeo is forgotten.
Am I the master here, or you? Go to.
You’ll make a mutiny among my guests!
A strong answer Capulet gives good reasons at first: Verona speaks well of Romeo, and he will not insult him in his own house. But when Tybalt says "I’ll not endure him," Capulet stops talking about Romeo and starts talking about himself: "Am I the master here, or you?" and "You’ll make a mutiny among my guests!" The text does not rank his motives, so a strong answer can argue for guest, feast or authority, as long as it weighs his later lines against his first ones.
4. Romeo praises Juliet, Tybalt hears his voice and calls for a rapier, Capulet overrules him, and only then does the sonnet begin. Why might Shakespeare set it in that order?Plot structure
What it asks What the order of events in the feast scene does, and why it might matter that the first words between Romeo and Juliet come last.
The order puts the meeting inside the feud: the anger comes first and the lovers speak just after the threat has been made.
This by his voice, should be a Montague.
I will withdraw: but this intrusion shall, Now seeming sweet, convert to bitter gall.
The order sets up a contrast: after the threat, the lovers speak in a gentle language of pilgrims and prayer.
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
A strong answer Romeo's praise is answered within lines by Tybalt, who knows his voice and calls for a rapier. Capulet orders Tybalt to put up with the guest, and Tybalt withdraws, promising that this intrusion will turn to "bitter gall." Only after Tybalt leaves do Romeo and Juliet speak, in pilgrims and prayer. Shakespeare could have let them meet first; he put the threat first. A strong answer says what that choice makes the audience feel as the sonnet begins, and stays with the order on the page.
5. Juliet ends the pilgrim-and-saint talk with "You kiss by the book." Why might Shakespeare give her that last word, and is it praise, teasing, or a warning?Author's choice
What it asks How to hear Juliet's last line, and what it does to the sacred language Romeo began.
It is praise or play: she has matched his pilgrim talk line for line, and the last line is a teasing compliment on his skill.
For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch,
Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake.
You kiss by the book.
It is a warning or a test: Romeo asks for his sin back at once, and Juliet says his kissing comes from rules, not from feeling.
Then have my lips the sin that they have took.
Give me my sin again.
A strong answer The exchange is built of pilgrims, saints, prayer and sin, and Juliet does not just follow: she answers Romeo's figures and reshapes them, then ends with "You kiss by the book." It can be praise, since he has been skilful; teasing, since he has just asked for "my sin again"; or a warning that his devotion is learned from rules. A strong answer picks one reading, tests it against "Give me my sin again," and says what her last word does to the language before it.
6. Juliet asks the Nurse about two other guests before she asks about the man "that would not dance." What do you make of her order of questions, and of what she says next?Inference
What it asks What Juliet's way of asking shows about her feeling before she knows who the stranger is.
She is covering her interest: she asks about two other men first, and names the one she wants last.
What is yond gentleman?
What’s he that now is going out of door?
What’s he that follows here, that would not dance?
She is already sure: she singles out the man who would not dance, and before she has his name she says that if he is married her grave is likely to be her wedding bed.
What’s he that follows here, that would not dance?
Go ask his name. If he be married, My grave is like to be my wedding bed.
A strong answer Juliet's first two questions are about other guests, and only the third is about the man who would not dance. That can be read as concealment, since she hides her interest among other names, or simply as a way of getting to the one she wants. Then, before she has his name, she says that if he is married her grave is likely to be her wedding bed. A strong answer weighs that grave line against her first words after the name, "My only love sprung from my only hate!", and does not decide what the name does to the love.
1. Mercutio's Queen Mab gives lovers, lawyers and soldiers each a dream that matches what they want awake, then he sums up dreams in his line about an idle brain. Write a thesis on what his speech shows, answer one objection, and revise.
What it asks What Mercutio's long list of dreamers shows, and whether it supports his claim that dreams are nothing.
The list shows dreams only repeat waking wants, so they are empty.
Through lovers’ brains, and then they dream of love;
O’er lawyers’ fingers, who straight dream on fees;
Which are the children of an idle brain,
The list shows wants are strong enough to shape a sleeper, so dreams are not nothing; the soldier is frightened awake.
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,
Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes;
A strong answer Mab visits lovers, courtiers, lawyers, a parson and a soldier, and each dreams of what they already chase awake. A thesis can say the speech shows dreams as mirrors of waking wants. An objection is the soldier, who dreams of "cutting foreign throats" and is woken by drums, so the dream has power over him. A revision keeps the mirror idea but admits a mirror can still startle the sleeper. The speech gives no proof of what Romeo's own dream means, and a strong answer does not claim one.
2. Lady Capulet tells Juliet to "Read o’er the volume of young Paris’ face," and Juliet answers, "I’ll look to like, if looking liking move." Write a thesis on what kind of choice Juliet is given here, answer one objection, and revise.
What it asks Whether Juliet is given a real say in this exchange, or only a part in a plan her mother has already made.
She is given a real say: her mother asks what she feels, and Juliet's answer makes liking depend on looking.
What say you, can you love the gentleman?
Speak briefly, can you like of Paris’ love?
I’ll look to like, if looking liking move:
She is given a script: her mother tells her what to find in Paris, and Juliet's look is limited by her mother's consent.
This precious book of love, this unbound lover,
So shall you share all that he doth possess,
But no more deep will I endart mine eye Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.
A strong answer Lady Capulet asks whether Juliet can love Paris, then tells her to read his face as a precious book and lists what she will gain by having him. Juliet promises only to look, and to like if looking moves her, and she limits even that to what her mother's consent allows. A thesis can say the choice is real but small: permission to look, not to decide. An objection is her "if," which keeps her own judgment; a revision weighs that "if" against her last line. This exchange comes before the feast, so a strong answer does not say what Juliet will feel there.
3. Romeo describes his love for Rosaline in contradictions, then as a siege, then as a blindness, and also says "I have lost myself." Write a thesis on whether these speeches show a feeling or a way of talking, answer one objection, and revise.
What it asks Whether Romeo's speeches about love show what he feels or show how well he can speak about it.
They are a way of talking: each speech is a polished set of images, and Romeo has a new one ready at each turn in the talk.
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!
She will not stay the siege of loving terms
He that is strucken blind cannot forget The precious treasure of his eyesight lost.
They show a real feeling: Romeo says he has lost himself and lives as if dead under her vow, and these words read as pain.
Tut! I have lost myself; I am not here.
Do I live dead, that live to tell it now.
Farewell, thou canst not teach me to forget.
A strong answer Romeo gives love many shapes: a list of opposites, a siege his lady will not allow, a blindness that cannot forget. A thesis about talk can say each is a finished set piece. The strongest objection is that he also says he has lost himself and lives dead under her vow, which sound like pain, not display. A revision can say feeling and fluency sit in the same speeches, as long as it uses two speeches and does not claim the act proves which came first, or how this love compares with any other.
Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!fighting noisily in public
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!emptiness that looks important
That quench the fire of your pernicious ragedeeply harmful, working ruin
Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.the penalty paid for breaking a rule
I would not for the wealth of all the town Here in my house do him disparagement.an insult that lowers someone's standing
To fleer and scorn at our solemnity?a formal ceremony or celebration
If I profane with my unworthiest hand This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this,to treat something holy with disrespect
Prodigious birth of love it is to me, That I must love a loathed enemy.monstrous and unnatural, like a bad omen