Who’s Who & Family Trees
This is the name of the Montague man, who is also Romeo's cousin, who tries to reason with Tybalt during the street fight in Act 1, Scene 1.
Who is Benvolio?
This overarching dramatic genre requires a narrative to focus on noble characters experiencing a catastrophic, irreversible reversal of fortune.
What is a Tragedy (or Tragic Drama)?
Mercutio delivers an extensive speech about this dream-weaving fairy queen to mock Romeo's romantic obsessions.
Who is Queen Mab?
The sovereign Italian city-state governed by Prince Escalus where the central conflict occurs.
What is Verona?
The fiery Capulet cousin who instigates the Act 3 street fight by looking for a duel with Romeo is also known as the Prince of Cats.
Who is Tybalt?
This kinsman to the Prince seeks an honorable, public marriage to Juliet, unaware that she is already wed.
Who is Paris?
Juliet uses intense imagery, claiming she would rather be chained to this dangerous beast than break her vows to Romeo and marry Paris.
What is a roaring bear?
This is the name of the character who think dreams are meaningless in Act 1, Scene 4.
Who is Mercutio?
The nearby town that serves as Romeo's place of exile and the home of a desperate, law-breaking apothecary.
What is Mantua?
This is the total number of characters who are physically dead by the time Prince Escalus delivers the final lines of the play.
What is six? (Mercutio, Tybalt, Lady Montague, Paris, Romeo, and Juliet).
This character has a sudden, off-stage death at the end of the play.
Who is Lady Montague?
Romeo relies heavily on this specific literary device, pairing contradictory terms like "loving hate" and "heavy lightness."
What is an oxymoron?
This character acts as both a holy figure and an amateur scientist, noting that both deadly poison and healing power exist within the same small flower.
Who is Friar Laurence?
This dedicated companion serves as Romeo’s personal servant, traveling across city lines to deliver what he mistakenly believes is accurate news of Juliet's death.
Who is Balthasar?
In the chaotic final scene in the tomb, a confused Romeo accidentally encounters and kills this character before drinking his poison.
Who is Paris?
Prince Escalus claims that because of his leniency toward the feud, heaven has punished his own family by taking this many lives.
What is two? (Mercutio and Paris)
The rhythmic structure Shakespeare famously uses throughout the play, consisting of five unstressed syllables each followed by a stressed syllable.
What is iambic pentameter?
In a desperate bid to assert absolute control over his daughter's life, Lord Capulet suddenly alters the wedding timeline, shifting it forward to this day.
What is Wednesday?
Friar Laurence's entire plan falls apart because his messenger is forcibly locked away inside a house suspected of hosting this crisis.
What is the plague?
Juliet wakes up to discover Romeo's body and uses this specific item to permanently end her own life.
What is Romeo's dagger?
While Lord Capulet feels Juliet is too young to be married at her current age, his wife points out that she herself was already a mother at that exact age, revealing that she herself is either ___ or ___ years old.
What is 26 or 28 years old?
This is the exact number of acts that Shakespeare opens using a formal sonnet.
What is two? (Acts 1 and 2 only)
What is biting one's thumb?
This specific character serves as the comedic, illiterate helper to the Nurse.
Who is Peter?
To signify the absolute end of the ancient family hatred, Lord Capulet and Lord Montague vow to construct these monuments in Verona to honor each other's fallen children.
What are golden statues?