Cause and Effect
This is how Romeo and Benvolio find out about the Capulets' party.
The servant can't read.
These two fools open the play with their banter and quickly get into a fight with Abraham.
Gregory and Sampson
This term is defined as the development of characters, including their traits, flaws, motivations, relationships, and how they change throughout the text.
Characterization
A fortnight is this many days.
14
"O God, I have an ill-divining soul! / Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low, / as one dead in the bottom of a tomb."
Juliet
Romeo kills Tybalt after Tybalt kills this character.
Mercutio
Before Romeo met Juliet, this character was the object of his affections.
Rosaline
This is the strategic positioning and movement of actors on stage, included in the stage directions.
Blocking
Juliet means this when she asks, "Wherefore art thou Romeo?"
Why are you Romeo?
"Hang thee, young baggage, disobedient wretch!"
Lord Capulet
This is why Juliet seeks Friar Laurence's help with faking her death.
Her parents are forcing her to marry Paris.
This character is referred to as the "Prince of Cats."
Tybalt
This phrase is Latin for "cast of characters."
dramatis personae
This cosmic term, which appears in the prologue, suggests that the love between Romeo and Juliet was doomed from the start.
"star-crossed"
"A plague o' both your houses!"
Mercutio
This is why Juliet assumes Romeo is the one who has died after the fight between Tybalt and Romeo.
The Nurse was vague.
This character delivers the news to Romeo that Juliet is dead.
Balthasar
This term refers to the juxtaposition of two unlike characters. Examples include Tybalt and Benvolio, Romeo and Mercutio, and Nurse and Lady Capulet.
Foil
This term, also the name of the character who gives Romeo poison, refers to someone who sells medicine.
Apothecary
"These violent delights have violent ends . . ."
Friar Laurence
Friar John can't complete this mission given by Friar Laurence because he's been quarantined.
Delivering a letter to Romeo
Of the two characters related to Prince Escalus, this character dies second.
Paris
This type of monologue happens when a character speaks directly to the audience or themselves, giving them deeper insights into their thoughts and beliefs.
Soliloquy
The "infectious pestilence" refers to this event in Europe in the mid-1300s.
The Black Plague (or Bubonic Plague)
"There is thy gold - worse poison to men's souls / doing more murder in this loathsome world / than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell."
Romeo (to the Apothecary)