Due Tuesday Week 5 B

How is the audience positioned to consider the theme of love in Romeo and Juliet? Compare Mercutio, (1.4.96-103 & 2.4.72-75), Romeo (1.1.162-189 & 2.2.2-9 & 5.3.119-120) and Capulet’s (3.4.12-21) views on love, discussing what each of these male characters assumed about women.


Use full essay format (introduction, three body paragraphs, conclusion – all with TEEC paragraph structure) and evidence in the form of quotations. Ensure your thesis statement directly answers the question. Write your introduction and all three body paragraph topic sentences before writing the actual body paragraphs.

Example thesis:

“The audience is positioned to see the ‘reality’ of love (rather than a romanticised ideal or fantasy) through Mercutio, Romeo and Capulet’s differing views on the role of women and thus the importance of love.”

Due Tuesday Week Four

Romeo is variously characterised as virtuous (Capulet 1.5.66-67), melodramatic (Montague 1.1.122-133; Mercutio 1.4.53-103 & 2.1.1-43), lustful (Friar Lawrence 2.3.66-68; Mercutio 2.4.72-75), rash (Friar Lawrence 2.3.94), submissive (Mercutio 3.1.66), vile (Juliet 3.2.73-84), and womanish (Friar Lawrence 3.3.109-112). N.B. these are only examples, there other ways of looking at his character.


Make a decision about how Romeo is presented in the play, then explain the effect this has on audiences. Are we positioned to like Romeo? To despise him? To feel sorry for him?

Justify your view of Romeo by using at least 10 examples of things that other characters say about him. Try to integrate words and short phrases into your own sentences instead of using long quotations.

Due Tuesday Week 3

Juliet is 13 years old at the time of the play, and Romeo is assumed to be about 16. What EFFECT does the age of the main characters have on modern audiences?

In your response, refer to both:
• characterisation (the way that characters are presented to readers), and
• assumptions about Venetian social values (things that Venetians accept as ‘right’, ‘proper’ and ‘normal’, but may be very different to modern VABs).

Write at least one page in your English notebook - no typed responses (The exam requires handwriting so you should practice this way).

DUE TUESDAY WEEK 2 - R&J Question One

The play 'Romeo and Juliet' seems to be built around oppositions.

E.g.:

• The plot:             Montagues Vs Capulets.
• The language:     Antitheses (opposing words near each other in lines of text. E.g. ancient / new in line 3 of the prologue).

Using just the Prologue of the play, suggest a reason why Shakespeare chose to use so many oppositions. Your response should be a TEEC paragraph, at least half a page, and should be handwritten in your notebook - no typing. You must use at least one quotation from the prologue.