Romeo and Juliet - Understanding the Text

At its most basic, this play is a story of thwarted and tragic love, the type of story well known in Shakespeare’s day and in ours.

As with any other text, pay close attention to the methods and techniques which all authors use to convey meaning. Spend time analyzing character, setting, plot, theme and dialog. Comprehension of a text works on several levels simultaneously. Ask yourself how context and setting relate to the events in the play. Consider the sequence of events, especially paying attention to shifts of scene, as well as to the differing lengths of scenes, some of which linger in one place for a while in this text.

Create a timeline of events in order to be able to picture the structure of the play. Although events occur chronologically in Romeo and Juliet, consider the impact of the swift pace of events, remembering that these take place in the space of only a few days. Creating act and scene summaries is useful in helping you remember and better understand the text.

Think about the words and actions of each character and what these reveal about their motivations. Do any clues in the text explain their behavior? Do we believe them to speak truthfully, or do they conceal the truth with their words? Do characters’ words and actions correspond to one another? Try to answer why or why not, justifying your views by referring in detail to the text.

Analyzing beginnings and endings will greatly benefit your understanding of the play. Why does the play begin where it does? What do we learn in the first scene? How do you know about previous events? What do we know about the characters and how do we learn it? Can you think of any future events which are foreshadowed? How is this accomplished? Use this same method to analyze individual acts and scenes. Undertaking detailed analysis of this sort will boost your knowledge and understanding of the text!

Read the questions below on Romeo and Juliet and test your knowledge and understanding of the text.