Shakespeare, Year 10: Romeo and Juliet (Romeo and Juliet option)

Rosaline

提示She is a niece of Capulet who does not return his love.

为什么Romeo is miserable over her at the start of the play. Benvolio tells him to look at other women, and the invitation list to the Capulet feast is how he comes to meet Juliet instead.

That she is so radiant that she outshines the lights in the room

提示Think of what torches do in a dark hall.

为什么Romeo often thinks of Juliet as light, here and again in the garden when he calls her the sun. It is a way of showing how bright she seems to him.

oxymoron

提示Its name comes from a Greek phrase meaning sharp-dull.

为什么Romeo uses a string of these when he is miserable over Rosaline. He is trying out the fashionable language of love poems before he has felt anything real.

Fortune: bad luck or fate

提示He does not blame himself first.

为什么Romeo has just been pushed into the killing by Mercutio's death, and he sees himself as a plaything of chance. The play leaves it open how far he is really to blame for his rashness.

He drinks poison in the Capulet tomb

提示He bought it from a man in Mantua.

为什么Romeo has killed Paris at the tomb, then lies down beside Juliet and drinks. A few moments later Juliet wakes.

Thirteen: she is not yet fourteen

提示She is younger than most GCSE students, by a few years.

为什么Capulet says she has not seen the change of fourteen years, and the Nurse says that on Lammas Eve she will be fourteen. Her youth makes her father's pressure to marry harder to excuse.

Dutifully but cautiously: she will look at him, but promise no more

提示She is obedient without being keen.

为什么The Juliet of Act 1 is a polite and obedient daughter who has not thought about love. Her independence grows quickly after she meets Romeo.

That a name is just a label: Romeo would be the same man if he were called something else

提示She compares the matter to a rose.

为什么Juliet is thinking aloud on her balcony. For her the feud is a matter of words, but the play shows that the names carry life-or-death power.

That she has become brave and takes decisions on her own, in spite of her fears

提示She is more frightened now than at any other point in the play.

为什么She imagines waking in the tomb among the dead and wonders whether the Friar has tricked her, yet she drinks. She has gone from the obedient girl of Act 1 to someone who risks everything for her choice.

She stabs herself with Romeo's dagger

提示She finds the weapon at his side.

为什么She wakes to find Romeo dead; the Friar urges her to leave, and she refuses. She speaks to the dagger, calling it happy.