Act 1, scenes 4 and 5 Romeo and Juliet

Act 1, Scene 4

Read carefully. So much is packed into a short scene.

Support your responses with specific lines from the text.

 

1. What is the setting of scene 4, and what is the function of the scene?

 

 

2. What is the subject of the conversation between Romeo and Mercutio on page 21 of scene 4?

 

 

3. What allusions do you find on page 21 and how do they relate to the themes of the play?

 

 

4. Mercutio describes love as “a tender thing.” What is Romeo’s response, and what is Mercutio’s retort? How does this exchange characterize Mercutio and Romeo as characters? Does one seem older than the other? Justify your response. How does Mercutio’s role in this scene compare to Benvolio’s in Act 1.1?

 

 

 

 

5. How does Romeo feel about crashing the Capulet party and why? What is the dominant image in the scene?

 

 

 

 

6. How does Romeo’s mood contrast with Mercutio’s before the Queen Mab speech, and what becomes the focus of the scene?

 

 

 

7. Analyze Mercutio’s Queen Mab speech.

 

  1. Who is Queen Mab, and what does she do?
  2. What happens when she gallops over lovers’ brains, what do they do?
  3. Courtiers’ knees?
  4. Lawyers’ fingers?
  5. Ladies’lips?
  6. A courtier’s nose?
  7. A parson’s nose
  8. Soldier’s neck?
  9. What else does she do?

 

 

8. How do Mercutio’s and Romeo’s roles reverse following the Queen Mab speech, and what point does Mercutio prove to Romeo? Support with the lines of the text and page number.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Act I, Scene 5- Sunday night at the Capulet house.

 

 

  1. What do we learn about Lord Capulet in lines 15-24 on page 26? Describe his mood.

 

 

 

  1. How long is it since the Capulets have held a masked ball?

 

 

  1. In Romeo’s speech on page 27, what kinds of figurative language does he use in the following lines to describe Juliet?

 

“O she doth teach the torches to burn bright!”

It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night

As a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear—“

 

“So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows.”

 

  1. Who notices Romeo at the feast, and what does he try to do about it?

 

 

 

  1. Type out Capulet’s response to Tybalt, and then write your reaction to what Capulet says.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Describe the meeting between Romeo and Juliet. What image dominates their exchange? Do you notice anything about their exchange?

 

  1. Interpret what Juliet means by the line “You kiss by th’ book.”  What do you think her tone is when she says the line?

 

 

 

 

 

  1. What does Romeo say when he learns that Juliet is the daughter of the Capulets?

(Write out the lines.

 

 

 

 

 

  1. What ironic remark does Juliet make when she is waiting for the Nurse to find out who Romeo is?

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1. What does Juliet say when she learns that Romeo is a Montague? Write them out and explain her reaction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. What happens at the Capulet party? Does anything surprise you? If so, why? What inferences can you draw from the scene about Lord Capulet? Tybalt? Romeo? Juliet?

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. What is interesting about the exchange between Romeo and Juliet in the scene?