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Shakespeare's verse appears in Valentine's cards.
Romeo and Juliet - Language
This GCSE English Literature quiz takes a look at language in Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet contains some of the best-known of Shakespeare’s verse. You might well have heard many of the most famous lines quoted, or even seen them reused on Valentine’s cards. Yet the language in this play is not entirely light and fanciful, but is instead full of violence and dark passion. Much of the play centres on the contrast between the visible and public and the hidden and private, and so the language, too, contains multiple meanings which repay careful reading.
Characters in Romeo and Juliet are sharply delineated by their linguistic choices, with recognisable words and phrases being picked up and echoed by other characters in different circumstances throughout the play.
1 .
"Within the infant rind of this weak flower / Poison hath residence, and medicine power." Why are these lines spoken by Friar Laurence significant?
Love, like the medicinal flower, can also be deadly
The small and the weak can also be powerful, as the younger members of the feuding families reveal themselves to be
Friar Laurence foreshadows the later use of the potion which feigns death and the actual poison used by Romeo
All of the above
Poison and power are key themes in Romeo and Juliet.
2 .
"Call me but love and I'll be new baptized. / Henceforth I never will be Romeo." What does Romeo mean by being "new baptized" here?
He will become a Christian
He will take a new name
He promises to be a good man if Juliet overlooks his hateful name
He hints that he wishes to get married as quickly as possible
Juliet has asked rhetorically that Romeo, who is perfection to her, could do without the name which makes him an enemy of her family. Overhearing her, he responds that he would happily take on a new name (given at baptism), if only she will call him "love". Being newly baptised also implies beginning anew
3 .
"O brother Montague, give me thy hand. / This is my daughter's jointure, for no more / Can I demand." Which words indicate Capulet's change of heart?
Brother, thy, hand
Montague, daughter, demand
Hand, daughter, more
Daughter, jointure, demand
Capulet symbolically refers to Montague as "brother", using the familiar pronoun "thy" (the pronoun used with family) and asking for his hand in a gesture of reconciliation
4 .
"I would have thee gone — / And yet no farther than a wanton's bird, / That lets it hop a little from his hand." Juliet compares Romeo to which of the following?
A free bird of prey
A farmyard animal
A bird intended for roasting
A captive bird
Juliet deals with conflicting desires. She wants Romeo to be safely away and wishes to keep him near. She perceives that love can be a restraint
5 .
Hearing that Tybalt has been killed by Romeo, Juliet laments, "Was ever book containing such vile matter / So fairly bound?" Which of the following lines does NOT express the same sentiment?
"Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st —"
"Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?"
"O that deceit should dwell / In such a gorgeous palace!"
"Thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend / In mortal paradise of such sweet flesh?"
Juliet is torn by grief and at first passionately denounces Romeo for not being what he appears to be (using the metaphor of the book and the cover, as her mother does in the first act)
6 .
"A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life, / Whose misadventured piteous overthrows / Doth with their death bury their parents' strife." How is the word "bury" used here?
To refer to their buried love
To refer to the lovers' ill fate
As a simile
Metaphorically
Death buries the feud, which is abstract and, unlike Romeo and Juliet's bodies, cannot literally be buried
7 .
"Why, is not this better now than groaning for love? Now art thou sociable, now art thou Romeo, now art thou what thou art by art as well as by nature." Mercutio's words relate most closely to which of the following lines?
"His name is Romeo, and a Montague, / The only son of your great enemy"
"Why, Romeo, art thou mad?"
"O Romeo, Romeo, / wherefore art thou Romeo?"
"'Tis he, that villain Romeo"
Romeo's identity is problematic. Juliet asks what virtue is in a name and Mercutio insists that Romeo is only truly himself when he is engaged in bawdy joking with the lads
8 .
CAPULET'S WIFE: So shall you share all that he doth possess
By having him, making yourself no less.
NURSE: No less, nay, bigger. Women grow by men.
To what does Nurse refer?
By having him, making yourself no less.
NURSE: No less, nay, bigger. Women grow by men.
To what does Nurse refer?
Pregnancy
Increased wealth
Increased love and affection
Illness
Nurse continuously twists the meaning of Juliet's mother's words, turning them into crude jokes
9 .
"If I profane with my unworthiest hand / This holy shrine..." - Romeo. Which of the following is true?
Romeo compares himself to a pilgrim and the Capulet home to a shrine
Romeo compares Juliet to a pilgrim and himself to a saint
Romeo compares himself and Juliet to pilgrims
Romeo compares himself to a pilgrim and Juliet to a saint
Romeo honours Juliet with the reverence of a pilgrim for a saint. He also wishes to touch and to kiss her as pilgrims would in reverence at a saint's shrine. Juliet's body is the shrine and herself the saint
10 .
"O sweet Juliet, / Thy beauty hath made me effeminate, / And in my temper softened valour's steel." What does Romeo imply here?
Romeo's reflexes have been dulled and he is not capable of fighting Tybalt
Juliet's beauty is not as great as that of a good swordfighter
Loving Juliet has made Romeo less of a fighter
All of the above
Romeo contrasts the hardened steel of valour with the softness caused, he believes, by spending time with a woman. He feels responsible for Mercutio's death because he had been swayed by love of Juliet into not responding to Tybalt's taunts
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