Knowledge Organiser: Romeo & Juliet
What will the exam look like?
Read the extract on the opposite page. Then answer the following
question: What does the extract show an audience about…...
[15]
How does Shakespeare present …………… in Romeo and Juliet?
Refer to characters and events from the play in your answer. [25]
inc 5 for SPaG
What will you be tested on?
A01: Knowledge and understanding
A02: Language, form and structure and subject
terminology
A04: (Question 2 only): Qulaity of Wrotten
Communication (SPaG)
Literary Heritage
Shakespeare
Knowledge – Human
Experience
Humans’ relationships
(love and conflict) in
many forms
Knowledge (genre)
Shakespeare & Drama
Context
Queen Elizabeth I – She was queen while Shakespeare was
writing. Elizabeth I made Protestantism the official religion of
England, which angered many Catholics, and led to much
conflict. Shakespeare may be referencing this in ‘Romeo and
Juliet’, with the two warring families though it is set in Italy – a
Catholic country.
Patriarchy – patriarchal societies are ones where men are
dominant, and have control over women e.g. by choosing who
they would marry.
Nurses – employed by wealthy families to feed and care for
their children.
Fate - the belief that your life is mapped out for you, or ‘written
in the stars’. Many Elizabethans believed God decided your fate,
and that astrology could help you identify your course in life.
Bubonic Plague/Black Death – a plague that killed many people.
Sufferers were quarantined in their houses, with a red ‘X’
painted on the door, and left to die.
Themes:
Conflict
Fate
Love
Young vs old
Loyalty
Family
Violence
Relationships
Prologue
1. ‘Two households, both
alike in dignity’
2. ‘Ancient grudge’
3. ‘A pair of star-cross’d
lovers’ with a ‘death-
mark’d love’
Act 1
1. Benvolio: ‘I do but keep the
peace’ (sc 1)
2. Lord Capulet, to Paris: ‘let two
more summers wither in their
pride’ (sc 2)
3. Tybalt, about Romeo: ‘To
strike him dead I hold it not a sin’
(sc 5)
4. Romeo, about Juliet: ‘she doth
teach the torches to burn bright’
(sc 5)
5. Juliet, about Romeo: ‘if he be
married, /My grave is like to be
my wedding bed.’ (sc 5)
Act 2
1. Juliet, about Romeo: ‘Tis but
thy name that is my enemy’ (Sc.
2)
2. Friar Lawrence: ‘This alliance
may so happy prove to turn your
household rancour to pure love’
(Sc. 3)
3. Friar Lawrence: ‘These violent
delights have violent ends’ (Sc. 6)
Act 3
1. Tybalt, to Romeo: ‘thou art a
villain’ (Sc. 1)
2. Mercutio: ‘a plague o’ both
your houses’ (Sc. 1)
3. Mercutio: ‘ask for me to-
morrow, and you shall find me a
grave man.’ (Sc. 1)
4. Romeo: ‘O, I am fortune’s
fool!’ (Sc. 1)
5. Lady Capulet, about Juliet: ‘I
would the fool were married to
her grave’ (Sc. 5)
6. Lord Capulet, about Juliet:
‘Hang thee young baggage,
disobedient wretch!’ (Sc. 5)
7. The Nurse, to Juliet, about
Paris: ‘I think it best you
married with the County’ (Sc. 5)
Act 4
1. Juliet, to Friar Lawrence: ‘I
long to die if what thou speak’st
speak not of remedy’
2. Lord Capulet, about Juliet:
‘Death is my son-in-law, Death
is my heir’
3. Lord Capulet: ‘with my child
my joys are buried’
Act 5
1. Romeo: ‘here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes/ This vault a feasting
presence full of light.’
2. Prince: ‘all are punish’d’
3. Capulet: ‘O brother Montague, give me thy hand’
Key Quotations
Romeo –anywhere between 16 and 21; Benvolio – Romeo’s cousin; Lord and Lady Montague – Romeo’s parents. Abraham; Balthasar – servant Capulets
Juliet –age 13 in the play Tybalt – Juliet’s cousin Lord and Lady Capulet – Juliet’s parents Gregory – servant Sampson – servant; The Nurse
Prince Escalus – ruler of Verona Mercutio – related to Prince, friends with Romeo Count Paris – related to Prince; Friar Lawrence – friends with Romeo
