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AQA English Literature · Paper 1
William Shakespeare · Written c. 1594–96 · Tragedy
Understanding the exam structure is essential for maximising your marks. Romeo and Juliet appears in Paper 1: Shakespeare and the 19th-Century Novel, Section A: Shakespeare.
Marks Available
30 marks + 4 marks for SPaG (34 total)
Recommended Time
Approximately 50-55 minutes (of a 1 hour 45 minute paper)
Question Format
You will be given a short extract from the play and asked a question about a theme or character. You must write about the extract AND the play as a whole.
Read, understand and respond to texts. Use textual references to support interpretations.
Tip: Make a clear argument. Use short, embedded quotations. Every point must be supported by evidence from the text.
Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects.
Tip: Zoom into individual words and techniques. Analyse HOW Shakespeare creates meaning, not just WHAT he says. Discuss form (sonnet, soliloquy, prose vs verse) and structure (where events are placed in the play).
Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written.
Tip: Integrate context into your analysis - do not bolt it on. Link Elizabethan attitudes to love, gender, honour, and fate to your points about the text.
Use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.
Tip: Write in formal academic English. Use literary terminology accurately. Proofread for spelling and punctuation errors.
The action of Romeo and Juliet takes place over just five days, creating a breathless pace that mirrors the intensity of the lovers' passion.
Prologue
The Chorus delivers a sonnet revealing the entire plot: 'two star-cross'd lovers' from 'two households, both alike in dignity' will die, and only their deaths will end their families' feud. This prologue removes suspense and creates dramatic irony - the audience knows the lovers are doomed from the start.
Scene 1.1
Servants of the Capulets and Montagues brawl in the streets of Verona. Benvolio tries to keep peace but Tybalt escalates the violence: 'I hate the word [peace], as I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee.' Prince Escalus threatens death for further disturbances. Romeo is revealed to be lovesick over Rosaline.
Scene 1.2-1.3
Paris asks Capulet for Juliet's hand in marriage. Capulet says Juliet is too young (nearly 14) but invites Paris to the feast. Romeo and Benvolio learn of the feast. Lady Capulet and the Nurse discuss Juliet's marriage prospects. Juliet is obedient: 'I'll look to like, if looking liking move.'
Scene 1.4
Romeo, Benvolio, and Mercutio prepare to gatecrash the Capulet feast. Mercutio delivers the 'Queen Mab' speech about dreams and fantasy. Romeo has a premonition of his own death: 'my mind misgives / Some consequence yet hanging in the stars.'
Scene 1.5
Romeo sees Juliet at the feast and falls in love instantly: 'Did my heart love till now?' They share a sonnet and kiss. Tybalt recognises Romeo and is furious, but Capulet prevents a fight. Both Romeo and Juliet discover the other belongs to their enemy family.
Scene 2.1-2.2
Romeo climbs the Capulet orchard wall. In the balcony scene, Juliet questions the importance of names: 'What's in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other word would smell as sweet.' They declare their love and plan to marry in secret. Juliet is practical about the danger; Romeo is reckless with passion.
Scene 2.3
Romeo visits Friar Lawrence at dawn and asks him to marry them. The Friar is surprised at how quickly Romeo has moved from Rosaline to Juliet but agrees, hoping the marriage will end the feud: 'For this alliance may so happy prove / To turn your households' rancour to pure love.'
Scene 2.4-2.5
Mercutio and Benvolio joke about Romeo. The Nurse acts as a go-between, arranging the secret wedding. Juliet waits impatiently for news, showing her youthful eagerness.
Scene 2.6
Romeo and Juliet are secretly married by Friar Lawrence. The Friar warns: 'These violent delights have violent ends.' This foreshadows the tragedy ahead. The marriage happens offstage.
Scene 3.1
The pivotal scene. Tybalt challenges Romeo, who refuses to fight because Tybalt is now his kinsman by marriage. Mercutio fights Tybalt instead and is fatally stabbed when Romeo intervenes: 'A plague o' both your houses!' Romeo, enraged, kills Tybalt: 'O, I am fortune's fool!' Prince Escalus banishes Romeo from Verona.
Scene 3.2
Juliet awaits her wedding night. The Nurse brings news of Tybalt's death and Romeo's banishment. Juliet's conflicting loyalties are expressed through oxymorons: 'Beautiful tyrant! Fiend angelical!' She concludes that Romeo's banishment is worse than Tybalt's death.
Scene 3.3
Romeo hides in Friar Lawrence's cell, distraught at his banishment. He attempts suicide but the Friar intervenes, urging him to go to Juliet then flee to Mantua. Romeo's emotional extremity contrasts with the Friar's rationalism.
Scene 3.4-3.5
Capulet arranges Juliet's marriage to Paris for Thursday. Romeo and Juliet share their wedding night before Romeo leaves for Mantua. Lady Capulet tells Juliet of the arranged marriage. When Juliet refuses, Capulet explodes in rage, threatening to disown her: 'hang, beg, starve, die in the streets.' The Nurse advises Juliet to marry Paris, losing Juliet's trust.
Scene 4.1
Juliet goes to Friar Lawrence in desperation. He devises a plan: she will take a potion that makes her appear dead for 42 hours. Her family will place her in the Capulet tomb, and Romeo will come to rescue her. Juliet, showing immense courage, agrees: 'Give me, give me! O, tell not me of fear!'
Scene 4.2-4.3
Juliet pretends to agree to the marriage. Alone, she takes the potion despite terrifying visions of waking in the tomb surrounded by dead bodies. Her soliloquy reveals her fear but also her determination - love outweighs terror.
Scene 4.4-4.5
The Capulets prepare for the wedding. The Nurse discovers Juliet apparently dead. The family's grief is intense, though Paris's and Capulet's laments focus on their lost plans rather than Juliet herself. Friar Lawrence urges calm, knowing Juliet is alive.
Scene 5.1
In Mantua, Romeo's servant Balthasar brings news that Juliet is dead (not knowing about the plan). Romeo immediately resolves to die beside her: 'Then I defy you, stars!' He buys poison from an Apothecary. The Friar's letter explaining the plan never reached Romeo.
Scene 5.2
Friar Lawrence learns that his letter to Romeo was not delivered because Friar John was quarantined due to plague. Friar Lawrence rushes to the tomb, knowing Juliet will wake soon with no one to help her.
Scene 5.3
Paris is at Juliet's tomb and fights Romeo. Romeo kills Paris. Romeo drinks poison beside Juliet: 'Here's to my love... Thus with a kiss I die.' Juliet wakes, finds Romeo dead, and stabs herself with his dagger: 'O happy dagger! This is thy sheath.' The Prince, Montagues, and Capulets arrive. The Friar explains everything. The families are finally reconciled in grief. The Prince concludes: 'All are punished.'
Understanding characters as constructs — Shakespeare made deliberate choices about how to present each character to convey meaning.
Romeo is a young Montague who moves from shallow infatuation with Rosaline to a deep, passionate love for Juliet. He is impulsive, emotionally extreme, and driven by passion rather than reason. Shakespeare presents him as both a romantic ideal and a cautionary figure - his intensity is beautiful but also reckless, and his impulsive actions directly cause the tragedy.
'Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! / For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night'
'But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks? / It is the east, and Juliet is the sun'
'O, I am fortune's fool!'
'Then I defy you, stars!'
'Thus with a kiss I die'
Juliet begins as an obedient, sheltered 13-year-old girl and rapidly matures into a decisive, courageous young woman. She is more practical and rational than Romeo, questioning the absurdity of the feud and taking bold action. Shakespeare gives her some of the play's most intelligent and self-aware speeches, challenging Elizabethan expectations of passive femininity.
'What's in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other word would smell as sweet'
'My bounty is as boundless as the sea, / My love as deep'
'Give me my Romeo; and, when I shall die, / Take him and cut him out in little stars'
'O happy dagger! / This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die'
Mercutio is Romeo's witty, cynical friend who mocks romantic love and social conventions. He is neither Montague nor Capulet but becomes a victim of the feud. His death is the play's turning point - it transforms the comedy of Acts 1-2 into tragedy. His 'Queen Mab' speech reveals both his brilliance and his instability.
'If love be rough with you, be rough with love'
'O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you'
'A plague o' both your houses!'
'Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man'
Tybalt is Juliet's cousin and the embodiment of the feud's destructive aggression. He lives by a code of honour that demands violence in response to any perceived insult. Shakespeare uses him to show how toxic masculinity and family loyalty can become deadly forces that destroy the innocent.
'What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, / As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee'
'Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries / That thou hast done me; therefore turn and draw'
Friar Lawrence is a well-meaning but ultimately ineffective figure who represents the failure of the adult world to protect the young. He agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet hoping it will end the feud, but his increasingly desperate schemes lead directly to the tragedy. He functions as a chorus figure, offering moral commentary.
'These violent delights have violent ends'
'Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast'
'For this alliance may so happy prove / To turn your households' rancour to pure love'
The Nurse is Juliet's closest companion, having raised her from birth. She is bawdy, garrulous, and loyal - until Act 3, when she advises Juliet to abandon Romeo and marry Paris. This betrayal forces Juliet to act alone and marks Juliet's final separation from childhood. The Nurse represents a pragmatic, survival-focused worldview that cannot comprehend Juliet's absolute love.
'Thou wast the prettiest babe that e'er I nursed'
'His name is Romeo, and a Montague; / The only son of your great enemy'
'I think it best you married with the County'
Capulet initially appears reasonable, telling Paris that Juliet is too young for marriage and that her consent matters. However, when Juliet defies him in Act 3, he becomes tyrannical and verbally abusive, threatening to disown her. Shakespeare uses Capulet to expose the violence of patriarchal authority - his 'love' for Juliet is conditional on her obedience.
'My child is yet a stranger in the world'
'Hang, beg, starve, die in the streets, / For, by my soul, I'll ne'er acknowledge thee'
'Death is my son-in-law, Death is my heir'
Themes are the big ideas Shakespeare explores through the plot, characters, and language of the play.
Shakespeare presents multiple types of love throughout the play. Romeo's initial infatuation with Rosaline is shallow, conventional Petrarchan love, using tired cliches. His love for Juliet is presented as transformative and genuine - a spiritual and physical union expressed through shared sonnets and religious imagery. However, Shakespeare also questions whether their love is truly different from infatuation, given its speed and intensity. The play ultimately presents love as a force powerful enough to overcome hatred, but only through sacrifice and death.
'My bounty is as boundless as the sea, / My love as deep; the more I give to thee, / The more I have, for both are infinite'
'Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!'
'These violent delights have violent ends'
The prologue announces Romeo and Juliet are 'star-cross'd' - destined to die. Shakespeare creates a tension between this predetermined fate and the characters' free choices. Romeo's impulsive decisions (killing Tybalt, buying poison) could be seen as fate working through his character, or as avoidable mistakes. The play asks whether tragedy is inevitable or whether different choices could have changed the outcome. Every moment of bad timing (the undelivered letter, Romeo arriving minutes too early) reinforces the sense of cosmic injustice.
'A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life'
'Some consequence yet hanging in the stars'
'O, I am fortune's fool!'
'Then I defy you, stars!'
The feud between the Montagues and Capulets is the engine of the tragedy. Shakespeare never explains its origin - it is simply inherited hatred, making it all the more absurd and destructive. Violence is presented as cyclical and self-perpetuating: each act of aggression demands retaliation. The play moves between private love scenes and public violence, showing how the feud invades every aspect of life in Verona. Only the lovers' deaths can break the cycle, suggesting that entrenched hatred can only be overcome through catastrophic sacrifice.
'Two households, both alike in dignity, / In fair Verona, where we lay our scene'
'A plague o' both your houses!'
'All are punished'
'What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word'
The play presents a stark contrast between the passionate, idealistic young characters and the rigid, controlling older generation. The parents perpetuate the feud; the children pay for it with their lives. Capulet's authoritarian control over Juliet reflects the patriarchal power structures of Elizabethan society. The Friar and the Nurse, both adult authority figures, fail the lovers through well-meaning but inadequate intervention. Shakespeare implies that the older generation's values - honour, obedience, social status - are destructive when imposed without compassion.
'Hang, beg, starve, die in the streets'
'These violent delights have violent ends'
'Is she not proud? Doth she not count her blest?'
Shakespeare uses light and dark imagery paradoxically throughout the play. Conventionally, light represents goodness and dark represents evil, but Shakespeare inverts this. Romeo and Juliet's love flourishes in darkness (the balcony scene, the wedding night) and is threatened by daylight (which brings separation and public violence). Juliet is consistently associated with light - 'the sun,' 'a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear' - suggesting she illuminates Romeo's world. However, this light imagery is always set against darkness, foreshadowing the idea that their love can only truly exist beyond the world of the living.
'It is the east, and Juliet is the sun'
'O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!'
'Give me my Romeo; and, when I shall die, / Take him and cut him out in little stars'
The play exposes the rigid gender roles of Elizabethan society and their devastating consequences. Men are expected to be aggressive and honour-bound - those who refuse to fight (like Romeo after his marriage) are mocked. Women are treated as property: Juliet's marriage is arranged without her consent, and her refusal is met with threats of disownment. Shakespeare uses Juliet to challenge these norms: she is the play's most intelligent and decisive character, yet she is trapped by a patriarchal system that denies her autonomy. The tragedy is partly caused by a society that values male honour over female agency.
'My child is yet a stranger in the world'
'Hang, beg, starve, die in the streets'
'Is she not proud? Doth she not count her blest?'
'O happy dagger! / This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die'
Learn these quotations and their analysis. In the exam, embed short phrases rather than copying entire quotes. AQA rewards analysis of individual words and techniques (analysing language and structure).
“Two households, both alike in dignity, / In fair Verona, where we lay our scene”
Chorus (Prologue)
The opening line establishes the setting and the social equality of the feuding families - 'both alike in dignity' means neither is morally superior. 'Fair Verona' is ironic: the city is torn apart by violence. The sonnet form of the prologue is fitting for a love story, but its content is tragic - foreshadowing death from the very first line.
“A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life”
Chorus (Prologue)
This reveals the ending before the play begins, creating dramatic irony that pervades every scene. 'Star-cross'd' suggests their fate is written in the stars - they are cosmically doomed. 'Take their life' has a double meaning: they live their life together and they end their life. The audience watches knowing every joyful moment is temporary.
“O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! / It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night / Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear”
Romeo (1.5)
Romeo's first sight of Juliet. The light/dark imagery presents Juliet as a source of illumination against darkness. 'Teach the torches' personifies the torches as her students - she outshines artificial light. The simile 'rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear' emphasises her preciousness and radiance. His language shifts from the artificial Petrarchan style he used about Rosaline to something more vivid and genuine.
“Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! / For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night”
Romeo (1.5)
Romeo dismisses all previous feelings as false, presenting his love for Juliet as an awakening. The rhetorical question challenges his own past. However, the speed of this transformation (he was lovesick for Rosaline hours ago) raises questions about whether this is genuine love or another infatuation. Shakespeare leaves this ambiguity deliberate.
“My only love sprung from my only hate! / Too early seen unknown, and known too late!”
Juliet (1.5)
Juliet discovers Romeo is a Montague. The antithesis of 'love' and 'hate' encapsulates the play's central paradox - love born from hatred. 'Too early seen unknown, and known too late' expresses the cruel irony of falling in love before discovering the obstacle. The rhyming couplet gives it a sense of fatalistic finality.
“But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks? / It is the east, and Juliet is the sun”
Romeo (2.2)
The balcony scene's opening metaphor. Romeo elevates Juliet to a celestial body - she is not merely compared to the sun but identified as it. The sun is the centre of the universe (a bold claim in Elizabethan England), suggesting Juliet is the centre of Romeo's existence. 'Breaks' implies her light pierces the darkness forcefully.
“What's in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other word would smell as sweet”
Juliet (2.2)
Juliet argues that names are arbitrary social constructs - Romeo's identity as a Montague is merely a label, not his essence. This is philosophically radical: she challenges the entire basis of the feud. The rose metaphor is simple but powerful - identity lies in nature, not in what society calls us. She is more rational and analytical than Romeo in this scene.
“My bounty is as boundless as the sea, / My love as deep; the more I give to thee, / The more I have, for both are infinite”
Juliet (2.2)
Juliet's declaration of limitless love uses the sea as a metaphor for infinite depth and abundance. The paradox ('the more I give... the more I have') presents love as inexhaustible - it grows through giving. This is one of Shakespeare's most beautiful articulations of love. The boundless imagery contrasts with the confined, walled world of Verona.
“These violent delights have violent ends”
Friar Lawrence (2.6)
The Friar's warning before the marriage. 'Violent' means both passionate and destructive - the intensity of their love will lead to destruction. The symmetrical structure (violent... violent) mirrors the idea that beginnings predict endings. This is the play's most direct piece of foreshadowing and encapsulates its central tragedy: extreme love leads to extreme loss.
“A plague o' both your houses!”
Mercutio (3.1)
Mercutio's dying curse is repeated three times, giving it the weight of a prophecy. He blames both families equally - neither Montague nor Capulet is innocent. 'Plague' invokes divine punishment for collective sin. Mercutio is the play's most significant casualty: an outsider destroyed by a feud that was not his. His curse articulates the play's moral judgement on the feud.
“O, I am fortune's fool!”
Romeo (3.1)
Romeo's cry after killing Tybalt. 'Fortune's fool' suggests he is a plaything of fate - a helpless victim. But the audience has seen Romeo choose to fight. This tension between fate and choice is central to the play. The alliteration emphasises his despair. He externalises blame onto 'fortune' rather than accepting responsibility for his impulsive actions.
“Beautiful tyrant! Fiend angelical! / Dove-feather'd raven! Wolvish-ravening lamb!”
Juliet (3.2)
Juliet's string of oxymorons expresses her impossible position - her husband has killed her cousin. The contradictions ('beautiful tyrant,' 'fiend angelical') mirror the play's central paradox of love and hate coexisting. Each oxymoron pairs beauty with violence, reflecting how Romeo is both her beloved and a killer. The rapid accumulation shows her mind racing to process the shock.
“Hang, beg, starve, die in the streets, / For, by my soul, I'll ne'er acknowledge thee”
Lord Capulet (3.5)
Capulet's explosive rage when Juliet refuses to marry Paris. The list of monosyllabic verbs ('hang, beg, starve, die') is brutally direct. He threatens to abandon his daughter to destitution and death. This reveals that his parental 'love' is conditional on obedience - Juliet is property, not a person. The violence of his language mirrors the physical violence of the feud.
“Give me, give me! O, tell not me of fear!”
Juliet (4.1)
Juliet demands the Friar's potion with urgent imperatives. The repetition of 'give me' shows her desperation and determination. 'Tell not me of fear' is a direct rejection of the timidity expected of young women. At 13, Juliet shows more courage than any adult in the play. She is willing to risk apparent death rather than betray her love - this is a profoundly radical act of female agency.
“Then I defy you, stars!”
Romeo (5.1)
Romeo's response to Juliet's apparent death is to challenge fate itself. The exclamation mark conveys passionate defiance. However, his 'defiance' of the stars (fate) actually fulfils their decree - by rushing to die beside Juliet, he ensures the tragedy the stars predicted. This is Shakespeare's deepest irony: free will and fate are indistinguishable. Romeo thinks he is choosing; the audience knows he is being led.
“O happy dagger! / This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die”
Juliet (5.3)
Juliet's final words. 'Happy' is bitterly ironic - the dagger is 'happy' because it will reunite her with Romeo. 'Sheath' is a sexual metaphor (her body sheathes the dagger as in their marriage), linking love and death one final time. 'Rust' implies permanence - she will never be separated from Romeo again. Her death by stabbing contrasts with Romeo's poison: she chooses a more violent, traditionally masculine method.
“All are punished”
Prince Escalus (5.3)
The Prince's final judgement. The universality of 'all' refuses to assign blame to any single character - the tragedy is collective. The passive voice ('are punished') suggests a force greater than human justice is at work - God, fate, or the natural consequences of hatred. This line echoes the prologue's message: the feud has consumed innocent and guilty alike. It is Shakespeare's most concise statement of the play's moral.
“For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo”
Prince Escalus (5.3)
The play's closing couplet. The rhyme gives it the finality of an epitaph. 'Her Romeo' - the possessive pronoun is significant: in death, Romeo belongs to Juliet, not to the Montague family. The superlative 'never... more woe' elevates their story to universal significance. Shakespeare closes the play as it began - with a formal poetic structure that frames the tragedy as a completed narrative.
Relating to context (what markers look for) is worth 6 marks. Integrate it into your analysis rather than writing separate "context paragraphs."
Romeo and Juliet was written around 1594-96 during the reign of Elizabeth I. Marriage was primarily a financial and social arrangement, especially among the upper classes. Romantic love as a basis for marriage was a relatively new and radical idea. Juliet's refusal to marry Paris for love of Romeo would have been seen as both romantic and dangerously rebellious by an Elizabethan audience.
Women in Elizabethan England had very limited rights. Daughters were legally the property of their fathers until marriage, when they became the property of their husbands. Capulet's rage at Juliet's disobedience reflects the legal and social reality: daughters who refused arranged marriages could be disowned. Juliet's defiance is therefore an extraordinary act of rebellion against the entire social order.
Romeo's love for Rosaline parodies the Petrarchan sonnet tradition - exaggerated declarations of love for an unattainable woman. Shakespeare satirises this literary convention through Romeo's cliched language. When Romeo meets Juliet, their first conversation forms a shared sonnet (1.5), suggesting their love is a genuine collaboration rather than one-sided worship. Shakespeare is both using and critiquing the literary conventions of his time.
Elizabethan society placed enormous value on male honour. Insults demanded violent retaliation; refusing to fight was seen as cowardly and emasculating. Tybalt and Mercutio embody this honour code. Romeo's refusal to fight Tybalt (because of his secret marriage) is seen as shameful - Mercutio fights and dies to defend Romeo's honour. Shakespeare shows how this code of masculinity destroys young men.
Elizabethans held complex beliefs about fate. Christianity taught that God controlled human destiny, but there was also a classical tradition of Fortune (personified as a goddess turning a wheel). Shakespeare draws on both: the lovers are 'star-cross'd' (astrological fate) and Romeo calls himself 'fortune's fool.' The play asks whether tragedy is divinely ordained, cosmically fated, or the result of human choices.
Shakespeare based the play on Arthur Brooke's poem 'The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet' (1562). Setting it in Verona, Italy, gave it an exotic, passionate atmosphere for English audiences. Italy was associated with both romance and violence (feuding families, vendetta culture). The Italian setting allowed Shakespeare to explore extreme passions that might have seemed improper in an English context.
Understanding the question wording is crucial. Here are the key phrases AQA uses and what they require from you.
“How does Shakespeare present...”
Focus on Shakespeare's methods - language, structure, form, dramatic techniques. Discuss his deliberate choices as a writer. Always refer to Shakespeare as the craftsman, not just the characters.
“Starting with this extract...”
You MUST begin with the extract. Spend roughly half your essay on the extract and half on the wider play. Use the extract as a springboard - find connections between the extract and the rest of the play.
“...explore...”
Consider multiple interpretations. Use phrases like 'alternatively,' 'a modern audience might,' 'Shakespeare could be suggesting.' Show that meanings are not fixed and that different readers may interpret the text differently.
“...write about...”
This is broad - cover the topic from multiple angles. Include analysis of language, structure, context, and different interpretations. Aim for breadth and depth.
Practise planning essays in 5 minutes. These reflect the style of AQA Paper 1 Section A questions. Remember: start with the extract, then move to the wider play.
Suggested Paragraph Plan
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Suggested Paragraph Plan
Suggested Paragraph Plan