| Romeo Montague | The romantic and passionate young man who falls for Juliet |
| Lord Montague | Romeo's father and enemy of the capulets. He is worried about Romeo's welfare. |
| Lady Montague | Romeo's Mother. She kills herself when Romeo is banished from Verona. |
| Benvolio | Romeo's cousin who aims to calm violence between families and distract Romeo from Rosaline. |
| Mercutio | Romeo's comedic but unpredictable best friend who does not believe in love. |
| Juliet Capulet | The intelligent and idealistic girl who falls for Romeo |
| Lord Capulet | Juliet's father and enemy of the Montague's. He initially cares for juliet but becomes violent when disobeyed. |
| Lady Capulet | Juliet's emotionally detached mother who also married young. |
| Tybalt | Juliet's proud and fierce cousin who is quick to violent action when he feels he is disrespected. |
| Friar Lawrence | The thoughtful Franciscan friar who is Romeo's father figure and a herb expert. |
| The nurse | Juliet's comedic best friend and confidante who has looked after Juliet since she was a baby. |
| Count paris | A powerful relation of the prince and suitor of Juliet. |
| Prince Escalus | The prince of Verona and relation of Mercutio and Paris. He is concerned about the violence in the streets. |
| Abram & Balthasar | Two minor Montague servants |
| Peter, Sampson & gregory | Three minor Capulet servants |
| Rosaline | The chaste woman who Romeo loves at the start of the play. |
| Context - 14th century italy | The play can be seen as a criticism of how blood was spilled over trivial issues. |
| Context - Religion | The play can be seen as a criticism of Catholicism and its rigid rules, outmoded theology and unreliable priests such as Friar Lawrence. |
| Context - Family and Honour | Shakespeare explores how the father's absolute power and the lack of bonds with parents led to conflict between generations.
If you were challenged to a duel and you refused, you would be deemed a coward, thus damaging your honour and the status of your family. |
| Context - Male aggression | Males were considered 'weak' if they did not show aggression or violence towards others when necessary, especially when family honour was at stake. |
| Context - Patriarchal society and the position of women | Shakespeare explores the tragic consequences of what happens when a daughter challenges the patriarchal system.
This is what marks Romeo and Juliet's love out as unique, and why Juliet's refusal to marry her father's choice, Paris, is so shocking - with such serious consequences. |
| Context - Belief in Fortune | The characters all express the belief that higher forces control the fate of human beings; however Shakespeare highlights that they may be too quick to reject personal responsibility, and that human error may well be partially responsible for the tragedy. Indeed, the play ends with the idea that social harmony is restored only when person responsibility is accepted. |
| Context - Belief in astrology: lives being "mapped out" in the stars | In the play, Shakespeare shows that no matter what the lovers do, what plans they make or how much they love each other, their struggles against Fate only help fulfil it. Romeo and Juliet's determination to struggle against Fate in order to be together, whether in life or death, shows the strength and commitment of their true love. |
| Context - Courtly love | Presents the male lover who views his lady as unattainable and effects/pretends to be love sick, in torturous suffering and pain, while the object of his love adopts a cool and disdainful attitude towards him.
Shakespeare drew on the context of Petrarch's courtly love poetry in his depiction of Romeo's false love for Rosaline. |
| Vocab - Belligerent | Angry and ready to fight. |
| Vocab - Reconcile | Cause people to become friendly again after an argument. |
| Vocab - Conspire | Secretly plan with someone to do something harmful or illegal. |
| Vocab - Infatuated | Filled with foolish or very strong love. |
| Vocab - Oppression | To treat a person in a cruel or unfair way. |
| Vocab - allegiance | Loyalty to a person, country or group. |
| Vocab - Clandestine | Done in a private or secretive way |
| Vocab - Exile | Forced to leave your home and go to live in a foreign country |
| Vocab - Naive | Having a lack of experience or knowledge. |
| Vocab - Inevitable | Certain to happen |
| Dramatic Methods - Sonnet | A poem of 14 lines with a strict rhyme scheme, usually associated with love and romance in conflict. |
| Dramatic Methods - Verse | When the characters' words rhyme. |
| Dramatic Methods - blank verse | Two or more lines of iambic pentameter. It is usually spoken by the upper class. |
| Dramatic Methods - Iambic Pentameter | Ten syllables in each line, following a rhythmic pattern of unstressed-stressed. |
| Dramatic Methods - Prose | Lines which are not written in iambic pentameter/don't rhyme. It is usually spoken in the lower class. |
| Dramatic Methods - Rhyming couplets | 2 lines next to each other ending in rhyme |
| Dramatic Methods - Pun | Using the double-meaning of a word for humour. |
| Dramatic Methods - Innuendo | Remark that suggests something sexual or something unpleasant but not referring to it directly. |
| Dramatic Methods - Symbolism | An object that stands for an idea, eg. 'light' standing for hope or heaven. |
| Dramatic Methods - Oxymorons | Juxtaposition of two contradictory words, e.g. 'heavy lightness'. |
| Dramatic Methods - Soliloquy | Talking while or as if alone; used to reveal a character's innermost thoughts. |
| Dramatic Methods - Dramatic irony | When the audience knows something the character on stage does not |
| Dramatic Methods - Foreshadowing | Hinting about something that will happen in the future |
| Dramatic Methods - Religious imagery | Words linked to religious ideas: God, pilgrims, angels, heaven, hell, etc. |
| Dramatic Methods - Light and darkness motif | Repeated symbolic references to light and darkness throughout the play |
| Dramatic Methods - Celestial imagery | Words linked to things 'above': heaven, angels, God, the sky, stars, moon, sun, other worlds. |
