Lesson 3

Lesson Goals

Texts

Core

• • Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare, Folger Shakespeare Library, Simon and Schuster, 2004

• • Romeo and Juliet: The Fully Dramatized Audio Edition, William Shakespeare, Folger Shakespeare Library, Simon and Schuster, 2014

Materials

Tools

• Character Note-Taking Tool

• Romeo and Juliet: Text-Theme Note-Taking Tool

• Vocabulary Journal

• Romeo and Juliet: Vocabulary List

• Vocabulary in Context Tool

Question Sets

• Romeo and Juliet: Section 4 Question Set

Editable Google Docs

• Character Note-Taking Tool

• Romeo and Juliet: Section 4 Question Set

• Romeo and Juliet: Text-Theme Note-Taking Tool

• Vocabulary Journal

• Vocabulary in Context Tool

Activity 1: Read – Discuss – Write

We will read Act 3, Scene 2 and examine juliet’s reaction to the tragic events of the previous scene.

In Lines 1-34 of Act 3, Scene 2, Juliet delivers a soliloquy expressing her impatience to celebrate her wedding night with Romeo. The Nurse enters by Line 34 to deliver the news about Tybalt and Romeo. As you read Lines 34-157, pay attention to Juliet’s range of emotion as she processes the news.

Read and annotate Lines 34-157 of Act 3, Scene 2 of Romeo and Juliet. Respond to the following questions about Act 3, Scene 2 in your Learning Log:

1. What is Juliet’s initial misunderstanding of the news from the Nurse?

2. How does Juliet react when she understands the actual events?

3. How does Juliet react when the Nurse condemns Romeo?

4. How does Juliet reconcile her conflicting feelings?

5. What does Juliet threaten to do?

6. How might her emotions connect to a theme being developed in the play? What lines from the play support this interpretation?

Discuss your responses in groups. Capture your discussion in your Text-Theme Note-Taking Tool.

Activity 2: Read – Discuss – Write

We will gain a deeper understanding of juliet by engaging in a close reading of specific lines from the scene.

Step 1

Reread Lines 79-84 more closely. Notice Shakespeare’s use of oxymorons. As you reread for a second time, pay attention to how the oxymorons contribute to the reader’s understanding of Juliet’s state of mind.

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!

Just opposite to what thou justly seem’st

Respond to the following questions about Act 3, Scene 2 in your Learning Log:

1. What oxymorons do you notice in these lines?

2. What do they reveal about Juliet’s emotions?

Discuss your responses with a partner. Capture your discussion on your Character Note-Taking Tool for Juliet.

Step 2

Now, reread Juliet’s lines a third time. Compare Juliet’s use of oxymorons in these lines to Romeo’s use of oxymorons in Act 1, Scene 1, Lines 178-187.

ROMEO: What fray was here?

Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.

Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love.

Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate,

O anything of nothing first create!

O heavy lightness, serious vanity,

Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms,

Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health,

Still-waking sleep that is not what it is!

This love feel I, that feel no love in this.

Respond to the following questions about Act 3, Scene 2 and Act 1, Scene 1 in your Learning Log:

1. How are Romeo’s oxymorons similar to Juliet’s?

2. How are they different?

3. How does the characters’ use of oxymorons contribute to a theme in the play?

Discuss your responses with a partner. Capture your discussion on your Text-Theme Note-Taking Tool.

Activity 3: Read

We will read a summary of lines 1–155 of Act 3, Scene 3 of Romeo and Juliet.

In Act 3, Scene 3, Romeo is hiding in Friar Laurence’s chambers. He learns from Friar Laurence that the prince has banished him from the city of Verona for killing Tybalt. Romeo is distraught, lamenting that banishment is worse than death because with banishment he cannot see Juliet. Friar Laurence attempts to make Romeo see that banishment is a better punishment than death. The Nurse appears and tells Romeo that Juliet is also distraught but that she sends her ring as a symbol of her continued love for him, which provides some comfort for Romeo.

Activity 4: Read – Write

We will determine the meaning of Unknown words in Act 3, Scene 3 of Romeo and Juliet.

Read the following lines from Act 3, Scene 3:

FRIAR [to Romeo]: Go, get thee to thy love, as was decreed.

Ascend her chamber. Hence and comfort her.

But look thou stay not till the watch be set,

For then thou canst not pass to Mantua,

Where thou shalt live till we can find a time

To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends,

Beg pardon of the Prince, and call thee back

With twenty hundred thousand times more joy

Than thou went’st forth in lamentation. (3.3.156-164)

Review the following words with a partner. Use the Vocabulary in Context Tool for words you can decipher from the text; for others, you might use morphology or a reference material to help you determine their meanings.

• ascend

• blaze

• reconcile

• pardon

• lamentation

Write down your answers in your Vocabulary Journal. For each word, identify the vocabulary strategy (e.g., context, morphology, reference material) you used to determine its meaning.

With your partner, select one of the words and write two sentences using the word: one example sentence and one nonexample sentence.

Activity 5: Read – Discuss

We will read lines 156–164 in Act 3, Scene 3 of Romeo and Juliet and examine parallel structure used in the scene.

Reread Lines 156-164 from Act 3, Scene 3:

FRIAR [to Romeo]: Go, get thee to thy love, as was decreed.

Ascend her chamber. Hence and comfort her.

But look thou stay not till the watch be set,

For then thou canst not pass to Mantua,

Where thou shalt live till we can find a time

To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends,

Beg pardon of the Prince, and call thee back

With twenty hundred thousand times more joy

Than thou went’st forth in lamentation. (3.3.156-164)

Respond to the following questions about Act 3, Scene 3 in your Learning Log:

1. What is the Friar’s plan?

2. Where is parallel structure used in these lines?

3. What effect does it have?

Discuss your responses with a partner.

Activity 6: Listen – Discuss

We will listen to a summary of Act 3, Scene 4 of Romeo and Juliet.

Listen to a summary of Act 3, Scene 4 of Romeo and Juliet given by your teacher.

Respond to the following questions about Act 3, Scene 4 in your Learning Log:

1. What dramatic irony is present in this scene?

2. What effect does it create?

Discuss your answers with a partner.