Download Romeo and Juliet: Act III

English 9
Mrs. Zarnas
Name__________________________________________
Period______ Date_________
Romeo and Juliet: Act III
Scene 1 – Tybalt gets his anticipated fight with Romeo, but it is more complicated than just that
1. What is unusual or ironic about the things Mercutio teases Benvolio about at the start of this
scene?
2. How does Romeo respond to Tybalt’s insult and threat? What is the dramatic irony in this
response?
3. Why do you think Mercutio decides to fight Tybalt?
4. What does Romeo attempt to do when the fight begins?
5. What is ironic about Mercutio’s words after Tybalt stabs him?
6. What change does Romeo undergo when Mercutio is killed?
7. Whose version of events is more true when the Prince arrives and questions people about
Tybalt and Mercutio’s deaths? (Benvolio or Lady Capulet) Why?
8. What is Romeo’s punishment for his involvement in the killings?
Scene 2 – Juliet finds out that Tybalt is dead and Romeo is banished
9. Summarize Juliet’s words/feelings in her soliloquy that starts the scene?
10. How does Juliet misunderstand the nurse when she brings the news about Tybalt?
11. Can you find any oxymorons (pairs of opposites) in Juliet’s speech around line 75 when she
realizes what has really happened?
12. How does Juliet rationalize or come to understand events around line 105?
13. What are the cords/ropes Juliet talks about around line 130 supposed to be for? What does
she consider using them for instead?
Scene 3 – Romeo goes to the Friar for advice and comfort
14. How is Romeo reacting to his banishment?
15. Why does the Friar call Romeo a mad man?
16. When Romeo continues to go on about his situation, what four reasons to be happy does the
Friar give him?
17. Where is Romeo going at the end of this scene? Where is his ultimate destination by the next
morning?
Scene 4 – Back to that other complication from act 1
18. Who is visiting the Capulets? What additional complication arises from this visit?
Scene 5 – Juliet’s bedroom
19. What do Juliet and Romeo playfully argue about at the start of this scene?
20. Who has a premonition of an unhappy ending as R & J say their goodbyes?
21. What is ironic about Juliet and her mother’s conversation on p. 837 (lines 75-105ish)?
22. How does Juliet react to the news that she is to marry Paris?
23. How does Capulet respond to Juliet’s reaction?
24. What advice does the nurse give to Juliet around line 215?
25. Do you think Juliet is really going to Friar Laurence for confession in line 232? Explain?
26. What does Juliet’s speech (line 200ish) mean?
Big picture question from this act:
Who are the supporting characters who have helped Romeo and Juliet in this play so far? How
many of them will still be available as sources of help in Act 4? How does this relate to the idea
that act 3 in a 5-act tragedy is the act where a turning point happens?
List/Explanation of important quotations from Act III:
“A plague o’ both your houses!”
(III.i. Line _________)
Speaker:
To whom is he/she speaking:
Meaning:
Significance:
“O God, I have an ill-divining soul!/ Me thinks I see thee, now thou are below,/As one dead in the
bottom of a tomb./Either m y eyesight fails, or though look’st pale.”
(III.v. Line _________)
Speaker:
To whom is he/she speaking:
Meaning:
Significance:
“Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds,/ But fettle your fine joints ‘gainst Thursday next,/
To go with Paris to Saint Pete’s Church,/ Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither./Out, your greensickness carrion! Out, you baggage,/ You tallow face!”
(III.v. Line _________)
Speaker:
To whom is he/she speaking:
Meaning:
Significance:
“Indeed, I never shall be satisfied/ With Romeo till I behold him-dead-/Is my poor heart so for a
kinsman vexed. / Madam, if your could find out but a man/To bear a poison, I would temper it,/That
Romeo should, upon receipt thereof,/Soon sleep in quiet. O, how my heart abhors/To hear him
named, and cannot com to him,/ To wreak the love I bore my cousin/Upon his body that hath
slaughtered him.”
(III.v. Line _________)
Speaker:
To whom is he/she speaking:
Meaning:
Significance: