Romeo and Juliet Act 1, Scene i-v

12. How old was Lady Capulet when she gave birth to Juliet?

Almost the same age as Juliet in the play

When and where was William Shakespeare born? When and where was he baptized?

Born on April 23rd, 1564, in England. Baptized on April 26th in Stratford-upon-Avon Church.

17. How do the Montagues plan on getting into the Capulets' feast?

By wearing masks

Describe his family.

Father: John, a town chamberlain and mayor Wife: Anne Hathaway, married in 1582. She was already three months pregnant. He was 18, she was 26 Children: Susanna, their first daughter Judith, daughter who survived to adulthood Hamnet, Judith's twin that did not survive

9. Why does Peter ask Romeo and Benvolio to read the invitation list?

He cannot read it himself

10. What mistake does Peter make regarding Romeo and Benvolio?

He doesn't realize that they're Montagues

18. Why is Romeo anxious about attending the feast?

He dreamt that it was a bad idea

12. Why does Romeo agree to go to the feast?

He hopes to see Rosaline

Where did Shakespeare move to?

He left his family and moved to London to be an actor and playwright. Theater was popular there but not considered high art. Queen Elizabeth I enjoyed plays and protected acting companies from restrictive laws. He wrote several plays that were preformed for her including Twelfth Night.

5. Why is Romeo so melancholy when the play begins?

He loves Rosaline, but doesn't love him back because she won't sleep with him

19. How does Mercutio react to Romeo's statements about love?

He says love is a burden

22. Which event does Romeo foreshadow as they make their way to the feast?

His own death

What is a Shakespearean sonnet?

It must include: - 14 lines - Iambic pentameter (5 feet/ 10 beats of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables); the poem's rhythm - a rhyme scheme of "ABAB" "CDCD" "EFEF" "GG" - a turning point- mood changes - a heroic couplet sums up theme of the sonnets.

13. Which character shows the most authority over the Nurse?

Juliet

7. Why does Capulet want Paris to wait before marrying Juliet?

Juliet is too young to get married

"My only love sprung from my only hate!/ Too early seen unknown, and known too late!/ Prodigious birth of love it is to me,/ That I must love a loathed enemy."

Juliet says this when she finds out who Romeo is. She is saying that the only man she loves is the son of the only man she hates. She saw him too early without knowing who he was, and then she found out who he was too late. She calls love a monster for making her fall in love with her worst enemy.

8. What kind of father is Capulet to Juliet?

Juliet's father is a protective father and does not want to give up her marriage. When Paris asks to marry her, Capulet claims that she is too young. Paris says that young girls become happy mothers. Capulet argues that those girls were disfigured by early childbirth. He doesn't want her to die because she is the only child child he has left to pass on his lineage. So, he suggests to Paris to wait until she is sixteen or try to win her and if she likes him, she can marry him.

"I'll look to like, looking liking move; / But no more deep will I endart mine eye / Than your consent gives strength to make it fly"

Lady Capulet puts pressure on Juliet to think about Paris as a husband before Juliet has begun to think about marriage at all. Juliet admits just how powerful the influence of her parents is. Juliet is saying that she will follow her mother's advice exactly in thinking about Paris. In this phrase, while agreeing to see if she might be able to love Paris, she is at the same time saying that she will put no more enthusiasm into this effort than her mother demands.

21. Who is Mercutio?

Mercutio is Romeo's friend who mocks him for being beaten by love. He tells Romeo to be rough with love and beat love down, meaning fight for love no matter how hard it is although he thinks love is a burden. Like love, Mercutio believes that dreams are nothing more than fantasies brought by our inner desires and hopes that will not come true. He says that Queen Mab manipulates people in their dreams by creating what they desire to keep their hopes up and mess with their heads.

"O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you. . . . She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes In shape no bigger than an agate stone On the forefinger of an alderman, Drawn with a team of little atomi Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep."

Mercutio is trying to convince Romeo to set aside his lovesick melancholy over Rosaline and come along to the Capulet feast. When Romeo says that he is depressed because of a dream, Mercutio launches on a lengthy, playful description of Queen Mab, the fairy who supposedly brings dreams to sleeping humans. The main point of the passage is that the dreams Queen Mab brings are directly related to the person who dreams them—lovers dream of love, soldiers of war, etc. But in the process of making this rather prosaic point Mercutio falls into a sort of wild bitterness in which he seems to see dreams as destructive and delusional.

When did he moved back to his family?

Moved back to Stratford in1610/1611 at about 50 years old. He continued to write plays including, The Tempest, and Henry VIII, which burned down the court theater in 1616. In all, he wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets

15. Whom does Juliet initially want to marry?

No one

4. Who stops the street battle?

Prince Escalus

20. Who is the subject of Mercutio's long speech?

Queen Mab

6. What does Romeo do after being rejected by Rosaline?

Romeo is depressed and full of doubt. He isolates himself by not talking to anyone and drawing all the curtains to make his room pitch black. He cries and sighs and doesn't laugh or smile. He describes his feelings with oxymoron statements, which shows he is conflicted with his thoughts and doesn't know exactly how he feels

"Some consequence yet hanging in the stars/ Shall bitterly begin his fearful date/ With this night's revels, and expire the term/ Of a despisèd life closed in my breast/ By some vile forfeit of untimely death."

Romeo says that he has a feeling that the party tonight will be the start of something bad; something that will end with my own death. This foreshadows that he will die when he meets Juliet.

24. Whom does Romeo forget about the moment he sees Juliet?

Rosaline

16. What does Juliet agree to do with regard to Paris

See if she can love him

What happened in 1599?

Shakespeare became part owner of the Globe theater, where plays like Othello, Hamlet, and King Lear were preformed.

What happened after the queen's death in 1603?

Shakespeare's acting company became known as the King's Men, for King James.

14. How do we see the Nurse as she first appears in the play?

The Nurse appears to be a mother-like figure to Juliet. When Lady Capulet needed to talk to Juliet, she feel the need for the Nurse to be in the conversation. She knows more about Juliet than her actual mother does and she basically raised Juliet. She has been there for Juliet. The Nurse even had to confirm Juliet's age to Lady Capulet, who was not sure about it. She also remembers every memory she has of Juliet.

25. How do Romeo and Juliet act when each discovers whom the other is?

They are both devastated

1. Which gesture starts the fight between the Montagues and the Capulets at the beginning of the play?

Thumb-biting

11. Why does Benvolio want Romeo to go to the feast?

To compare Rosaline to other beautiful women

2. Why does Benvolio draw his sword in the street?

To stop the fight before it begins

23. Who first discovers that there is a Montague at the Capulets' feast?

Tybalt

3. Which character claims to hate peace?

Tybalt

Describe his education.

Went to grammar school in Stratford where he most likely learned Greek and Latin.