Romeo & Juliet (AQA GCSE English Literature)

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134 marks

Romeo and Juliet

Read the following extract from Act 3 Scene 2 of Romeo and Juliet and then answer the question that follows.

At this point in the play, the Nurse has told Juliet that Romeo has killed Tybalt and has been banished from Verona.

5	JULIET O serpent heart, hid with a flow’ring face! Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave? Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical! Dove-feathered raven, wolvish-ravening lamb! Despisèd substance of divinest show!
10	Just opposite to what thou justly seem’st, A damnèd saint, an honourable villain! O nature, what hadst thou to do in hell When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend In mortal paradise of such sweet flesh?
15	Was ever book containing such vile matter So fairly bound? O that deceit should dwell In such a gorgeous palace! NURSE There’s no trust, No faith, no honesty in men, all perjured,
20	All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers. Ah, where’s my man? Give me some aqua-vitae; These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old. Shame come to Romeo! JULIET Blistered be thy tongue
25	For such a wish! he was not born to shame: Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit; For ’tis a throne where honour may be crowned Sole monarch of the universal earth. O what a beast was I to chide at him!

Starting with this conversation, explore how far Shakespeare presents Juliet as a female character with strong emotions.

Write about:

how Shakespeare presents Juliet in this extract
how far Shakespeare presents Juliet as a female character with strong emotions in the play as a whole.

[30 marks]
AO4 [4 marks]

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	PRINCE	Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace, Profaners of this neighbour-stainèd steel – Will they not hear? – What ho, you men, you beasts! That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
5		With purple fountains issuing from your veins: On pain of torture, from those bloody hands Throw your mistempered weapons to the ground, And hear the sentence of your movèd prince. Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,
10		By thee, old Capulet, and Montague, Have thrice disturbed the quiet of our streets, And made Verona’s ancient citizens Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments To wield old partisans, in hands as old,
15		Cankered with peace, to part your cankered hate; If ever you disturb our streets again, Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace. For this time all the rest depart away: You, Capulet, shall go along with me,
20		And, Montague, come you this afternoon, To know our farther pleasure in this case, To old Free-town, our common judgement-place. Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.

	ROMEO If I profane with my unworthiest hand This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this, My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
5	JULIET Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, Which mannerly devotion shows in this, For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch, And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss. ROMEO Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too? JULIET
10	Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer. ROMEO O then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do: They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair. JULIET Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake. ROMEO Then move not while my prayer’s effect I take.
15	Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged. JULIET Then have my lips the sin that they have took. ROMEO Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urged! Give me my sin again. JULIET You kiss by th’book.

5	CAPULET How now, wife, Have you delivered to her our decree? LADY CAPULET Ay, sir, but she will none, she gives you thanks. I would the fool were married to her grave. CAPULET Soft, take me with you, take me with you, wife.
10	How, will she none? doth she not give us thanks? Is she not proud? doth she not count her blest, Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought So worthy a gentleman to be her bride? JULIET Not proud you have, but thankful that you have:
15	Proud can I never be of what I hate, But thankful even for hate that is meant love. CAPULET How how, how how, chopt-logic? What is this? ‘Proud’, and ‘I thank you’, and ‘I thank you not’, And yet ‘not proud’, mistress minion you?
20	Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds, But fettle your fine joints ’gainst Thursday next, To go with Paris to Saint Peter’s Church, Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither. Out, you green-sickness carrion! out, you baggage!
	You tallow-face!