creative writing task romeo and juliet

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Activity Toolkits

Here you can access and download our Activity Toolkits for independent and home learning, offering creative and exploratory activities for students.

The Activity Toolkits each contain a number of short 15 minute activities on each play. These are ideal for remote learning tasks, as a an extension to classroom or online work or for use as part of a blended curriculum. 

Each activity also contains some extension suggestions that will take longer than 15 minutes but provide lots of different ideas for exploring the texts creatively. You can watch RSC actors completing some of the tasks in their own homes as inspiration, and uncover a host of supporting materials from Adobe that will help students to complete some of the activities using their freely available Adobe Spark platform.   

Macbeth Activity Toolkit

Complete toolkit.

Download the complete Macbeth Activity Toolkit for all 20 activities. 

If you choose to work through in order, we recommend you watch the Macbeth Live Lesson  after activity 10, before completing the remaining activities.

Several activities also contain Primary versions with slight adjustments that may help younger learners.

Activity List

Below are links to simple instructions for each of the 20 individual activities on Macbeth. You can work through these in order or select the ones that feel most useful for you. Several also contain Primary versions of the activities with slight adjustments that may help younger learners. 

• 1 - The Witches
• 2 - The hero of the battle
• 3 - The prophecies
• 4 - The thane of Cawdor
• 5 - The letter
• 6 - The plan
• 7 - The doubts
• 8 - The murder of Duncan
• 9 - The bloody daggers
• 10 - The aftermath 

At this point we recommend you watch the Macbeth Live Lesson , exploring Lady Macbeth's character, before completing the remaining activities.

• 11 - The marriage
• 12 - Banquo
• 13 - The king and queen
• 14 - The second prophecies
• 15 - Macduff
• 16 - The alliance
• 17 - Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking
• 18 - Macbeth's journey
• 19 - The downfall
• 20 - A new king

Romeo and Juliet Activity Toolkit

Download the complete Romeo and Juliet Activity Toolkit for all 20 activities.

If you choose to work through in order, we recommend you watch the Romeo and Juliet Live Lesson  from 2019 after activity 10, before completing the remaining activities. 

Below are links to simple instructions for each of the 20 individual activities on Romeo and Juliet. You can work through these in order or select the ones that feel most useful for you.

• 1 - The Prologue
• 2 - The opening fight
• 3 - The Story
• 4 - The Characters
• 5 - The world of the play
• 6 - Romeo and Love
• 7 - The Capulets
• 8 - When Romeo meets Juliet
• 9 - The Balcony Scene
• 10 - Juliet's Language

At this point we recommend you watch the Romeo and Juliet Live Lesson from 2019, with the actors who play Juliet and Friar Lawrence, before completing the remaining activities. 

• 11 - The Dilemma
• 12 - The disobedient Daughter
• 13 - The Friar
• 14 - The Nurse
• 15 - The Feud
• 16 - The death of Tybalt
• 17 - The wedding night
• 18 - The Banishment
• 19 - The deaths
• 20 - The Proclamation

Watch RSC actors demonstrating the Toolkit activities

Hamlet activity toolkit.

Download the complete  Hamlet Toolkit for all 20 activities.

Please note this Toolkit is aimed at students working at KS4. Work may be suitable for both younger and older students. 

Below are links to simple instructions for each of the 20 individual activities on  Hamlet.  You can work through these in order or select the ones that feel most useful for you.

• 1 - The opening of the play
• 2 - The Story
• 3 - The Characters
• 4 - The World of the play
• 5 - The Backstory
• 6 - Hamlet's first Soliloquy
• 7 - Hamlet's language
• 8 - Ophelia and Polonius
• 9 - When Hamlet meets the ghost of his father
• 10 - To be or not to be
• 11 - When Ophelia breaks up with Hamlet
• 12 - Get thee to a nunnery
• 13 - An antic disposition
• 14 - Ophelia
• 15 - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
• 16 - The play within the play
• 17 - Claudius' confession
• 18 - When Hamlet confronts Gertrude
• 20 - The themes

The Merchant of Venice Activity Toolkit

Download the complete The Merchant of Venice Toolkit  for all 20 activities.

Please note this Toolkit is aimed at students working at KS3-4. Work may be suitable for both younger and older students. 

Below are links to simple instructions for each of the 20 individual activities on The Merchant of Venice .  You can work through these in order or select the ones that feel most useful for you.

• 1 - The Story
• 2 - The Characters
• 3 - The world of the play
• 4 - Antonio and Bassanio
• 5 - Portia's Suitors
• 6 - Prejudice
• 7 - Shylock and Antonio's Bond
• 8 - Lancelot Gobbo
• 9 - Jessica leaves home
• 10 - Gossip
• 11 - If you prick us...
• 12 - The casket scene
• 13 - Portia
• 14 - Cross Dressing
• 15 - The Venetian court
• 16 - The Trial
• 17 - The Quality of Mercy
• 18 - The Ring
• 19 - A happy ending
• 20 - The Themes

Adobe Digital Activities

Discover the basics of creating digital images, graphics and video with Adobe Spark. These creative activities complement the RSC Activity Toolkits and are perfect for independent and online learning.

Othello Activity Toolkit

Download the complete Othello Toolkit  for all 20 activities.

Please note this Toolkit is aimed at students working at KS5 .

Below are links to simple instructions for each of the 20 individual activities on Othello .  You can work through these in order or select the ones that feel most useful for you.

Please note this Toolkit is aimed at students working at KS5 . Work may be suitable for KS4 students who enjoy a challenge. 

• 1 - The Set up
• 4 - Tragedy
• 5 - The worlds of the Play (part 1)
• 6 - The worlds of the Play (part 2))
• 7 - The Secret Marriage
• 8 - Othello's Story
• 9 - Desdemona's Duty
• 10 - Iago's First Soliloquy
• 11 - Iago's Motives
• 12 - The Army and Cassio
• 13 - The Party
• 14 - Iago reels in Othello
• 15 - Power and Status
• 16 - Verse and Prose
• 17 - The Willow scene
• 18 - Cassio stabbed and Roderigo's death
• 19 - Othello's Language
• 20 - The Death scene

Much Ado about Nothing Activity Toolkit

Download the complete Much Ado about Nothing Toolkit  for all 20 activities.

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The RSC is a charity and our mission is to transform lives through amazing experiences of Shakespeare and great theatre. If you can, please consider supporting us by making a donation and Keep Your RSC.

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Romeo and Juliet Writing Tasks and Assignments for the Entire Play

Help your students truly understand and analyze Romeo and Juliet with these Romeo and Juliet writing tasks! There is a unique writing assignment for each Act of the play, and each writing assignment comes with a brainstorming organizer to use as you read each Act.

These Romeo and Juliet writing activities cover five different literary elements and include differentiated instruction and additional resources (graphic organizers and a suggested sentence starter resource sheet) that will help ESL, special needs, and struggling students.

This download addresses the three types of writing outlined by the Common Core: narrative, explanatory, and argumentative. There is one writing task for each Act, and each writing prompt (with the exception of the narrative writing prompt) includes a separate page of suggested sentence starters to help less proficient students complete each prompt. These tasks address writing standards 1, 2, and 3.

With this download, students will be able to write about their understanding of round and flat characters, blank verse, dramatic forms of speech (monologue, soliloquy, and aside), and dramatic irony.

This download includes:

– 5 writing prompts with built-in ESL support and differentiation

– 4 sentence starters handouts to accompany four of the writing tasks

– graphic organizers

– 1 blank verse worksheet

– 1 creative writing task

This resource is included in a bundle:

Ultimate Romeo and Juliet Differentiation Bundle

Other “Romeo and Juliet” differentiated products that might interest you:

Making Sense of Blank Verse and Iambic Pentameter

Romeo and Juliet Vocabulary Words, Activities and Quizzes Bundle

Romeo and Juliet Argumentative Essay with ESL support

Romeo and Juliet CLOZE summary passages

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• Jul 11, 2022

Free Resources for Romeo & Juliet

Updated: Jul 27, 2022

I have always been very lucky to work with smart and caring coworkers. On this blog, I only share materials that I created individually, so I don't have a ton of my own materials to share for Romeo & Juliet. This is because when I taught Romeo & Juliet , my best lessons came from my coworkers and the book Shakespeare Set Free. If you are teaching Romeo & Juliet for the first time, drop everything and go buy this book. Someone who had taught in my classroom before me had left it on the bookshelf, and I opened it in a planning panic. Besides my coworkers (both of whom had theater experience), this book was the most helpful in helping me enact active and fun lessons during my Romeo & Juliet unit.

SO, what this all means is that I cannot share my whole Romeo & Juliet unit, but below are some activities that I created that may be helpful to you.

Pre-Reading Activities for Romeo & Juliet

Action Ranking-Rank actions based on how serious of an offense they are

Agree/Disagree Discussion (You can also turn this into a more active activity by having kids move to one side of the room or other other based on whether they "agree" or "disagree" with the statement)

Character Cut-Outs (paid product) : Introduce the plot of Romeo & Juliet and the main characters by having students complete this "Character Cut-Out Activity." Basically, students cut representations of each character out of old magazines to help them start learning the characters. The TpT product has a PowerPoint and graphic organizers to walk you through the activity.

Romeo & Juliet Reader's Theater

One of the main pieces of feedback from my coworkers was to have the kids act out Romeo & Juliet using Reader's Theater. I was not comfortable with this at all at first since I have no theater background, but eventually, even I figured it out. Also, there are a million variations on Reader's Theater (ie: changing the scene and language, etc.), but I have stuck with the basics.

The handouts below are from a few years of trial & error. One page is directions for the kids on how to do Reader's Theater and the other pages are charts that show how I divided up Romeo & Juliet and assigned the scenes to kids. Overall, when we started an act, I would give the kids an overview of the act and then assign them a scene. Sometimes, some scenes were very long and some scenes were very short, so I would divide up the scenes as needed to try and give each group and equal amount of work. Then, students had to get into their groups and create the script for their scene, and lastly, they would have to present their assigned scene to the class. There is a rubric that you can use as a starting point for grading. You may want to add more detail to it, depending on your grading preferences. The charts below still have my student names on them so that you can see how I assigned kids; you just need to delete my kids and add yours and then you'll be good to go.

Basic Acting Techniques PowerPoint

Reader's Theater Directions

Reader's Theater Rubric

Romeo & Juliet Act II Group Assignments (I started with Act 2 for Reader's Theater because we read Act I together as a class to get used to the language. The page numbers were from the textbooks we had that-Holt Elements of Literature )

Romeo & Juliet Act III Group Assignments

Romeo & Juliet Act IV Group Assignments

Romeo & Juliet Act V Group Assignments

Romeo & Juliet Scene Summary Charts

After each group presented their scene, I would give the rest of the class time to summarize the scene on a graphic organizer. The kids who presented the scene had to field any questions from their classmates about plot points that their classmates were confused about. I always warned the presenters that if their classmates had no clue what happened in their scene, then they did not do a good job bringing the scene to life in their presentation. The q & a was also a good time for me to gauge who in the presentation group did all the work, as the kid who stepped up to answer the questions was typically the only one who understood what was going on, overall.

Act I Summary Chart

Act II Summary Chart

Act III Summary Chart

Act IV Summary Chart

Act V Summary Chart

Romeo & Juliet Handouts & Activities

Understanding Syntax

Act 1 Questions

Small Review Activities for the Balcony Scene (paid product)

Close Reading of Friar Lawrence's Soliloquy (Act 2, Scene 3)

Romeo & Juliet Character Review

Romeo & Juliet Act II Quiz

Written Conversations: For this activity, put students into groups of four and give each of them a different "question." This makes it so that when students pass their papers, they are discussing different questions all at once. Give the everyone 5-10 minutes to respond to their given question, and then have students pass their paper clockwise. The next student has to respond to the ideas of the first student. Repeat this one more time, and then have the students pass the "conversations" back to the original owner.

Literary Terms w. Examples from Romeo & Juliet

Intro to Puns

Romeo & Juliet Literary Terms PowerPoint

Romeo and Juliet Multiple Choice Unit Test (no answer key)- The formatting is all crazy and I don't know where the answer key is, but the questions are good. Mix of plot and analysis.

Other Books That Connect to Romeo & Juliet

There are so many great books that you can use in place of Romeo & Juliet OR as an extension of your Romeo & Juliet studies. Below are some of my current favorites.

Romeo & Juliet Movies

Again....there are so many. Here are just a few.

There's almost an endless amount of resources out there for Romeo and Juliet , but hopefully these are still helpful for someone. If you have any resources that you would like to share with others, please post them in the comments below.

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Romeo and Juliet Writing Tasks and Assignments for the Entire Play

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Description

Help your students truly understand and analyze Romeo and Juliet with these Romeo and Juliet writing tasks! There is a unique writing assignment for each Act of the play, and each writing assignment comes with a brainstorming organizer to use as you read each Act.

These Romeo and Juliet writing activities cover five different literary elements and include differentiated instruction and additional resources (graphic organizers and a suggested sentence starter resource sheet) that will help ESL, special needs, and struggling students.

This download addresses the three types of writing outlined by the Common Core: narrative, explanatory, and argumentative. There is one writing task for each Act, and each writing prompt (with the exception of the narrative writing prompt) includes a separate page of suggested sentence starters to help less proficient students complete each prompt. These tasks address writing standards 1, 2, and 3.

With this download, students will be able to write about their understanding of round and flat characters, blank verse, dramatic forms of speech (monologue, soliloquy, and aside), and dramatic irony.

This download includes:

- 5 writing prompts with built-in ESL support and differentiation

- 4 sentence starters handouts to accompany four of the writing tasks

- graphic organizers

- 1 blank verse worksheet

- 1 creative writing task

This resource is included in a bundle:

Ultimate Romeo and Juliet Differentiation Bundle

Other "Romeo and Juliet" differentiated products that might interest you:

Making Sense of Blank Verse and Iambic Pentameter

Romeo and Juliet Vocabulary Words, Activities and Quizzes Bundle

Romeo and Juliet Argumentative Essay with ESL support

Romeo and Juliet CLOZE summary passages

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Key stage three

Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet Creative writing Act Two Scene 2

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A Creative writing lesson based on Act Two, Scene 2 of Romeo and Juliet. The lesson was taught to a less able year 8 group, but could be slightly adapted for key stage 4. We have read the scene and watched a few different versions of it. The aim is to rewrite the scene in an exciting new setting in modern prose, including dialogue and description.

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June 30, 2020.

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Writing the wrongs

This resource offers a selection of writing tasks for students to complete, based on key events from Romeo and Juliet . The resource asks them to write either a front-page newspaper article describing a fight between the Montagues and Capulets, an article for a magazine covering the Capulet party or obituaries for Mercutio and Tybalt. 

There are pointers to help students with purpose, structure and language. 

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Romeo & Juliet: Themes KS3

In these lessons, students will engage with the themes and ideas at the heart of the text, including fate, love and violence. Tasks include: a close reading of Romeo and Juliet's sonnet in Act 1 Scene 5; exploring the idea of words as weapons and how characters like Tybalt wield them; and a card game which will help connect themes to characters and the text.

In order to benefit fully from these lesson plans, we recommend you use them in the following order:

• Text in Performance

If students are new to the play, we suggest you start with these introductory KS3 Lesson Plans. If you would like to teach the play in greater detail, use the advanced  KS4/5 Lesson Plans .

These lesson plans are available in the Downloads section at the bottom of this page.   To download resources, you must be logged in.  Sign up   for free  to access this and other exclusive features .  Activities mentioned in these resources are available in a separate downloadable 'Student Booklet', also at the bottom of this page. The 'Teachers' Guide' download explains how best to use Teach Shakespeare and also contains a bibliography and appendices referencing the resources used throughout.

Key Questions for Student:

Can I explain what is meant by ‘theme’?

Can I list some of the key themes of Romeo and Juliet ?

Key words: beauty, concealment, conflict, death, fate, family, friendship, love, secrecy, symbolism, theme, truth

Prologue: Opening Discussion

Display the ‘Props’ PowerPoint, which shows a montage of images connected to the plot of Romeo and Juliet . This is available in the Downloads section at the bottom of this page. Students should first of all identify as many items as they can from the montage (e.g. heart, rose, dagger, vial of poison). They should then pick out as many ideas, themes and issues as they that are suggested by the images (e.g. love, violence, war). 

Enter the Players: Group Tasks

1) Theme statues

Students are given pieces of paper which represent plaques for statues. They should write down the key themes of the play on these plaques, e.g. conflict, family, love, fate, time, beauty, death, friendship, etc. Imagine that Prince Escalus wants to erect statues around Verona for citizens to look at and learn from. Students should work in pairs or threes to sculpt themselves into thematic statues. Which statues would Prince Escalus choose? You could play the role of Escalus, selecting the statues and justifying ‘his’ choices. As an extension activity, students could embellish the plaques by having an appropriate quotation from the play engraved onto each plaque. There is a page to create some theme ‘plaques’ in the Student Booklet.

2) Text detectives: beauty and love at first sight

Romeo frequently comments on Juliet’s beauty. Explore with students Romeo’s first words when he sets eyes on Juliet, which can be found in the Student Booklet:

ROMEO: [to a Servingman] What lady’s that which doth enrich the hand Of yonder knight?  

SERVINGMAN:    I know not, sir.

ROMEO:    O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright. It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night As a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear, Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear. So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows As yonder lady o’er her fellow shows. The measure done, I’ll watch her place of stand And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand. Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight, For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.

Discussion points include:

• the immediacy and drama of Romeo’s reaction to seeing Juliet
• imagery of riches, jewels, etc.
• references to the sense of touch as well as the sense of sight
• the effect of Romeo’s use of rhyming couplets
• the idea that Juliet’s beauty is superior to all others
• how Romeo’s ‘love’ for Rosaline is eclipsed by Juliet, as seen in the last rhyming couplet

Now ask students to look for more quotations where Juliet’s beauty is described by Romeo. You could use an online concordance to begin with and search for the word ‘beauty’. You could also focus on scenes of courtship, such as Act 1 Scene 5 and Act 2 Scene 2. Also look at how Juliet praises Romeo and describes her attraction to him.

3) Pick a card...

Themes are important throughout a work of literature. To be able to write well about a theme in Romeo and Juliet , students need to track its importance at different points in the play. Have students randomly select a card from each pile: a character, a theme, and a section of the play. The template for these cards can be found in the downloadable Lesson Plans at the bottom of this page. This game could be used in the following ways:

• to support students in becoming more familiar with the play, and in moving more confidently around it and making quick connections
• as a revision tool without the text
• as the basis for detailed small group discussion involving close analysis of a specific passage, through the lenses of particular characters and themes
• to prepare students for exam questions which ask them to write about one part of the play in the context of the whole text

Exeunt: Closing Questions for Students

What would I say are the main themes in the Romeo and Juliet ?

What kinds of connections can I make between these themes?

How might a director draw out these themes on stage?

Suggested plenary activity…

In small groups, prepare a performance of the Prologue to Romeo and Juliet  accompanied by actions. How many of the play’s themes can students include in their performance?

Asides: Further Resources

• Students could make Valentine’s cards or love letters for Rosaline and Juliet, in the character of Romeo. Use some of Romeo’s quotations about attraction and beauty, and make a display of them. How do Romeo’s feelings for the two women compare?
• Students could also research the theme of beauty in other plays by Shakespeare.

Epilogue: Teacher's Note

Each of the themes mentioned in this suggested learning sequence has a dedicated lesson within these materials. In depth activities linked to ‘Conflict and violence’ and ‘Romantic Love’ follow here within the Key Stage 3 materials. Within the Key Stage 4 materials , there are activities linked to ‘Truth and secrecy, ‘Family’, ‘Age and Time’ and ‘Death, fate and tragedy’. You will also find detailed guidance on writing about themes. 

Key Questions for Students:

Can I investigate how Shakespeare establishes and develops the themes of conflict and violence in Romeo and Juliet ?

Key words: action, conflict, cue script, feud, insults, mindmap, opposites, prologue, reaction, theme, violence, war, weapons

In fan fiction, people create their own stories based on characters and locations from a well-known fictional world. Stories set at Hogwarts or in Middle Earth are popular examples! Give students a few minutes to brainstorm ideas about how they think the feud between the Capulets and Montagues might have started and share ideas. 

1) Insult generator

The Student Booklet provides students with copies of Rex Gibson’s Insult generator, from p. 199 of his book Teaching Shakespeare . Students could warm up by producing single insults and if they have time, they could prepare and rehearse a brief dialogue. Remind students that all the insults are Shakespeare’s. Can they identify which ones come from Romeo and Juliet ?

2) Words as weapons

This particular version of this activity was devised by Bill Buckhurst when he was directing Romeo and Juliet  in 2008 at the Globe. Pairs of students label themselves A and B and stand facing each other, so that all students are arranged in two lines. They pretend to send a weapon to their ‘enemy’, possibly adding a sound effect. Students take it in turns to hurl imaginary weapons - and to react to the weapons that hit or miss them - for no more than a minute. Students could then apply this technique to a piece of text and to the character who is most vocal in that conflict, e.g. Tybalt in Act 3 Scene 1. Assign a line from this character to each student, and then ask the students to identify the most hurtful or damaging word in that line. Students should now hurl that word to their opponent and vice versa. Discuss afterwards which words were the most effective weapons and why.

3) The brawl: working with a cue script

Sitting in groups of nine, students should be assigned a character from Act 3 Scene 1. They should also be given a ‘cue script’ for that part. This consists of only the lines that character speaks (in the order in which they are spoken), and the three cue words spoken by another character before each of their lines. students could even construct their own cue scripts using an online version of the play text that they can cut and paste as needed. Students should work together – without a director - to develop their understanding of and confidence with this scene. Every time they read their lines they should think more about how they should speak, how they should move and why, using the clues in the text itself.

To what extent is  Romeo and Juliet  a play about conflict and its consequences? 

How would you present the conflict in the play to audiences? 

Which non-violent scenes contain conflict? 

Can all of the violence of the play be explained by the conflict between the Montagues and the Capulets, or are there other causes?

Students should create a colourful, illustrated mindmap with the word ‘conflict’ or  ‘violence’ in the middle. As they read the play, they should add ideas relating the ideas of conflict and violence to the play’s characters, their situations and problems, their relationships and their motivations.

Aside: Further Resource

• At the time Shakespeare was writing Romeo and Juliet ,  England was divided following Henry VIII’s split from the Catholic Church in 1533. Bitter feuding between Protestants and Catholics would have been an everyday reality for young men like Shakespeare.

Students could develop their ideas about how the feud began into a piece of creative writing.

Can I investigate how Shakespeare establishes and develops the theme of romantic love in Romeo and Juliet ?

Key words: imagery, marriage, motifs, passion, romantic love, sonnet, staging, storyboard, tragic, youth

The video to Des’ree’s ‘Kissing You’ song from Baz Lurhmann’s Romeo + Juliet  could be playing as students enter the classroom for a lesson on this topic. Students could make a note of motifs and symbols that are associated with love in the video. Take feedback.

1) Text detectives: Romeo and Juliet’s sonnet

Elicit from students what they already know about the sonnet form: its length, iambic pentameter, rhyme scheme, association with love, Shakespeare’s own famous sonnet sequence. Explore closely the first words Romeo and Juliet exchange with each other in Act 1 Scene 5 lines 92-109, which can be found in the S tudent Booklet:

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.

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:    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. Give me my sin again.  [Kisses her.]

JULIET:     You kiss by th’ book.

Students could annotate these lines. Support them in their note taking, so that the following structural and language features are drawn in the discussion:

• the 14 line structure
• the rhyme scheme (ABABCBCBDEDEFF)
• religious imagery such as ‘pilgrims’, ‘saints’ and ‘sin’
• the physicality of the language (‘lips’, ‘hands’, ‘touch’)
• repeated words such as ‘prayer’, ‘hand’/’hands’ and ‘palm’/’palmers’
• the poem’s conclusion with a rhyming couplet and a kiss

Discuss with students the effect of Romeo and Juliet’s first words together forming a sonnet.

( Students  could also watch footage of this sonnet in the link below, as performed by Jade Anouka and Will Featherstone.)

2) Staging the balcony scene

As an introduction to this task, students could watch this scene in the Zeffirelli and/or the Lurhmann version. Take some brief feedback from students about what they have noticed and what they enjoyed. Then watch the footage of this scene below from the 2013 Globe production, starring Will Featherstone and Jade Anouka. Students could make notes in the Student Booklet about different ways in which the scene has been staged, how it could be staged, and the effects of different choices.

3) Marriage

In Act 3 Scene 5 lines 1-64, Shakespeare presents Romeo and Juliet’s short-lived happiness together as a married couple. Students could then discuss their own ideas about staging this scene and the effect they want this scene to have on the audience. Students should create either a storyboard with speech bubbles for quotations, or an annotated script to indicate their ideas about directing this scene. Students can draw on interests in drawing, collage, photography, dance, etc. to develop their personal responses to this task. There is a page for students on writing a commentary linked to their storyboards in the Student Booklet.

(One version of how to stage this scene can be viewed in the link below. Students could compare this with the version from the Globe DVD and/or from other film versions too).

How does Shakespeare convey the intensity and sincerity of Romeo and Juliet’s love for each other?

What are the factors that prevent Romeo and Juliet’s love story from having a happy ending? 

In Shakespeare’s comic play  A Midsummer Night’s Dream – written at around the same time as  Romeo and Juliet , and seen by many as a companion play to it – Lysander says ‘The course of true love never did run smooth’. Discuss the truth of this quotation in relation to  Romeo and Juliet  and, if students are sufficiently familiar with it, to  A Midsummer Night’s Dream  too. What do the two plays have in common?

• Shakespeare and his contemporaries often wrote action for the upper level of the stage. The use of the upper level in this scene means that Juliet is both safe at home and at the same time visible to Romeo, allowing for an extended moment of intimacy.
• The word ‘balcony’ might have been unknown to Shakespeare. Our first record of it in writing dates from two years after the play was written. Although Shakespeare says that Juliet appears ‘aloft’, the convention of Juliet appearing on a balcony only became commonplace after David Garrick used a balcony in his adaptation in the eighteenth century.

The storyboard/annotated script activity on Act 3 Scene 5 lines 1-64 could be accompanied by a commentary and used as an assessment piece.

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Romeo and Juliet Summary (by Act & Scene)

August 29, 2024

This article will give a scene-by-scene summary of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet . Like most of you, I was supposed to read Romeo and Juliet in high school – and like many of you, I watched Baz Luhrman’s Romeo + Juliet instead. While my laziness was understandable, I’m sad that I didn’t get to experience the beauty of Shakespeare’s language. 

All my quotes come from Project Gutenberg’s searchable The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet . 

Romeo and Juliet Story Summary

Scene 1 .

Scene one begins with a street fight. Sampson and Gregory, servants to the Capulet family, provoke Abram and Balthasar, servants of the Montague family, who are passing by. When Bevolio arrives, he draws his sword and tries to break up the fight. As he’s trying to break up the fight, Tybalt arrives, sees Benvolio with his sword drawn, and enters the fray. Even Lord Capulet and Lord Montague get involved. The fight only ends because the prince arrives and tells everyone that the next person who starts a fight is going to be put to death. 

Everyone disperses except Benvolio and Lord and Lady Montague, who are wondering where their son Romeo is. Benvolio says he’s seen Romeo on pre-dawn cry-walks. Romeo approaches and his parents leave. When Bevolio asks why he’s so sad, Romeo tells him that he is in love (with Rosaline). Unfortunately for Romeo, his interest isn’t reciprocated. Benvolio advises Romeo to search out other pretty ladies, but Romeo doubts this will change his love for Rosaline.

Scene two opens with Paris asking Lord Capulet for his daughter’s hand in marriage. While Lord Capulet thinks Juliet is too young (she’s 13!), he tells Paris to come try to woo Juliet at the party he’s throwing tonight. 

Benvolio and Romeo happen to run into a servant of the Capulets, who tells them about the party. Benvolio says they should sneak in so Romeo can meet other beautiful ladies. Romeo agrees to go, but only because he knows Rosaline will be there as well. 

Lady Capulet and Juliet’s maid enter Juliet’s room. Juliet’s mother asks her if she’s given any thought to marriage – Juliet says no. Lady Capulet tells Juliet that Paris is interested in her and asks her to go to the party tonight to see if she might like him. Juliet is skeptical, but tells her mother that she’ll give Paris a chance. 

Summary of Each Act in Romeo and Juliet (Continued)

Romeo, Mercutio, and Benvolio are on their way to the party. Romeo is still super depressed about Rosaline and is having second thoughts about attending the party. When Romeo says that he had a dream, Mercutio launches into his famous Queen Mab soliloquy . By the end of this scene, Romeo is worried that something fateful is going to start with tonight’s party. Just the same, he decides to go to the party, saying, “On, lusty gentlemen!” 

Scene 5 

Lord Capulet welcomes everyone to the party. When Tybalt notices Romeo, he calls for his sword. He is stopped by Lord Capulet, who tells him to leave Romeo alone. Tybalt is furious and declares that “this intrusion shall…convert to bitter gall.”

Meanwhile, Romeo has seen Juliet and forgets all about Rosaline. They kiss and Juliet declares that Romeo kisses “by the book.” When they part, each discovers the identity of the other. Juliet declares, “My only love sprung from my only hate!”

( IMHO, Baz Luhrman’s take on this scene is the definitive version. )  

Act II 

Having left the party, Romeo climbs a wall to access the Capulet’s garden. Benvolio and Mercutio do not see where he has gone, so they call to him. When they hear no response, they give up and go home. 

In what is the most famous scene in the play (perhaps in all of Shakespeare), Romeo stands beneath Juliet’s window and declares, “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?” Juliet appears but does not see Romeo. She declares her love and wonders why (“wherefore”) Romeo has to be a Montague. 

Romeo speaks and declares he would discard his name if it were possible. After a bit of lover’s banter, Juliet tells Romeo that if his “bent of love be honourable, / Thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow.” Juliet’s nurse calls from inside and interrupts their conversation. Juliet promises to send for Romeo the next day. 

The next morning, Romeo goes to Friar Lawrence to ask him to marry him to Juliet. Understandably, Friar Lawrence is surprised – what happened to the beautiful Rosaline? At the same time, he understands that a marriage between Romeo and Juliet would “turn your households’ rancour to pure love.” In other words, this marriage would end the conflict between the Montagues and Capulets. 

Romeo and Juliet Summary (Continued)

Benvolio and Mercutio have still not found Romeo. From them we find out that Tybalt has challenged Romeo to a duel. Romeo appears – he’s in a good mood after his conversation with Friar Lawrence. He jokes around with Mercutio and seems to be back to his old self. 

Juliet’s maid appears looking for Romeo. Romeo assures her that his intentions are honorable. He tells her that Juliet should meet him at Friar Lawrences’ cell to be married this very afternoon. 

Juliet waits impatiently for the return of her nurse. When she does arrive, she delays telling Juliet as long as possible. Finally, she tells Juliet to go to Friar Lawrence’s cell this evening where she will be married to Romeo. 

Romeo and Juliet meet in Friar Lawrences’ cell. As the three move off stage to get married, the friar declares that they “will make short work” of the ceremony. 

Benvolio tells Mercutio that they should get inside – it’s hot and the Capulets are out looking for a fight. Tybalt arrives, looking for Romeo. When Romeo arrives (newly married to Tybalt’s cousin), the former refuses to fight. This “vile submission” is more than Mercutio can bear – he challenges Tybalt to a duel. Romeo tries to stop the fighting but Mercutio is killed . (But not before yelling “A plague o’ both your houses”)

Romeo is bereft. When Tybalt returns, he can’t contain his anger. They fight, and Romeo kills Tybalt . Romeo flees just as the Prince arrives with the Montagues and the Capulets. After hearing the story from Benvolio, the Prices exiles Romeo from Verona. 

The nurse tells Juliet the news of Tybalt’s death and Romeo’s banishment. Understandably, Juliet is torn. She mourns the death of her cousin, but cannot bear to think bad of her new husband. The nurse tells Juliet that Romeo is hiding in Friar Lawrence’s cell. Juliet’s nurse goes to fetch Romeo and bring him to Juliet. 

Scene 3 

Romeo is hiding in Friar Lawrence’s cell when the latter arrives to tell him of his banishment. For the adolescent Romeo, this is a fate worse than death, as he’ll be separated from Juliet. When the nurse arrives, she tells Romeo that Juliet “weeps and weeps.” Romeo grabs a sword to kill himself but the friar intervenes. He tells Romeo to go to Juliet, but warns him not to stay long. He needs to be out of town by morning. 

Paris is at the Capulet house. Given the circumstances, he’s hesitant to woo Juliet. At first her father agrees – but then he changes his mind. He decides that Paris and Juliet shall marry in three days and directs his wife to “Prepare her…against this wedding day.” 

With the sun rising, Romeo bids farewell to Juliet. No sooner has he left than Juliet’s mother arrives. After telling Juliet that she’s going to try to have Romeo killed in Mantua, she informs Juliet that she is to marry Paris in three days. Juliet refuses. Her father arrives and threatens to disown her if she does not marry Paris. When they’re alone, Juliet’s nurse tells her she should marry Paris. Juliet, however, has other plans. She resolves to go to Friar Lawrence’s cell for remedy – after all, “If all else fail, myself have power to die.”

Meanwhile, Paris has gone to Friar Lawrence to arrange his marriage to Juliet. As he leaves, he sees Juliet and tries to get her to cheer up. Juliet claims to have come to Friar Lawrence for confession and asks Paris to leave. When Paris is gone, Juliet begs Friar Lawrence for help – otherwise, she says she’s going to kill herself. Seeing her desperation, Friar Lawrence hatches a plan – he will give her a potion that will make her look as if she’s dead. Thinking her dead, she will be taken to the family vault, where Romeo can come get her. Friar Lawrence will communicate the plan to Romeo in Mantua. 

Juliet returns to her family, overjoyed at the friar’s plan. When she gets home, she meets her mother and father, and begs their forgiveness, saying that, “Henceforward I am ever rul’d by you.” (Of course, she has no intention of marrying Paris.) Her father is thrilled at this change of heart and decides the marriage will take place the next day. 

As the marriage has been moved to the next day, Juliet has to take the friar’s potion that night. She begins to have doubts – what if the friar has actually given her poison to cover up his role in her marriage to Romeo? What if she wakes up before Romeo arrives? She wonders if she’ll go mad, surrounded by the bodies of her dead family members. All the same, she’s desperate to see Romeo and drinks the vial, saying, “Romeo, here’s drink! I drink to thee.” 

Scene 4 

The Capulets cook and prepare for the wedding. 

When the nurse arrives to wake Juliet for the wedding, she finds her “dead.” Next, Lord and Lady Capulet enter and are bereft at their daughter’s death. Paris comes in and is shocked to find his bride dead. Friar Lawrence plays the part, telling the assembled to weep not, for Juliet is now in heaven. The wedding preparations are now turned to mourning. 

Meanwhile, in Mantua, Romeo muses on a dream he had of Juliet. His friend Balthasar arrives and tells him that Juliet is dead. As Friar Lawrence’s letter has not arrived, Romeo is unaware of the plan. Romeo prepares to return to Verona to visit Juliet’s body. At the end of the scene, Romeo visits an apothecary to buy some poison so that he can kill himself in Juliet’s tomb. 

Friar Lawrence finds out from Friar John that his letter to Romeo was not delivered. He fears the consequences of this miscommunication. Meanwhile, he knows that Juliet is going to wake within the next few hours and goes to the Capulet crypt. 

Paris has gone to the Capulet crypt to place flowers on Juliet’s tomb. He hears Romeo approach and thinks that he has come “to do some villainous shame / To the dead bodies.” Outraged, he confronts Romeo and they fight. Romeo doesn’t realize who Paris is and hills him. Gazing on the body of his wife and the body of his cousin (by marriage), Romeo takes the poison and dies. 

Friar Lawrence arrives and sees the bodies of Romeo and Paris. As Juliet wakes, Friar Lawrence begs her to come with him before the watch comes. Juliet, seeing the body of her husband, refuses to leave. When Friar Lawrence leaves, Juliet kisses Romeo and then stabs herself. (“O happy dagger. / This is thy sheath.”) ( Here’s the Royal Shakespeare Company’s minimalist take on this scene .) 

Meanwhile, the watch has summoned the Prince. When Lord Montague arrives, we find out that Lady Montague has died of grief. They questioned Friar Lawrence, who gives a full account of what happened. Seeing the consequences of their enmity, Lord Montague and Lord Capulet shake hands and bury the hatchet. 

Romeo and Juliet Summary – Wrapping Up

I’ll admit, it can be hard to get on board with the adolescent drama of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet . However, considering its cultural importance, it’s crucial to be familiar with the plot of this iconic play. (This article calls Romeo and Juliet the “beating heart of pop culture” – I don’t disagree.) 

If you’ve found this article useful or interesting, you can also check out my summaries and analyses of 1984 , Frankenstein , The Great Gatsby , Hamlet , The Crucible , Beloved, Brave New World , The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , Macbeth , Jane Eyre , and Of Mice and Men . 

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Devon Wootten

Devon holds a bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing & International Relations, an MFA in Poetry, and a PhD in Comparative Literature. For nearly a decade, he served as an assistant professor in the First-Year Seminar Program at Whitman College. Devon is a former Fulbright Scholar as well as a Writing & Composition Instructor of Record at the University of Iowa and Poetry Instructor of Record at the University of Montana. Most recently, Devon’s work has been published in Fugue , Bennington Review , and TYPO , among others. 

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Edexcel IGCSE Model Coursework Responses - R&J, Poetry & Prose, AIC and Creative Writing

Last updated

30 August 2024

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Resources included (2)

30/30 Creative Writing Model Coursework Response - Edexcel IGCSE

An Inspector Calls Model Coursework Response on Sheila Birling - Edexcel IGCSE

All of these resource CANNOT be used to submit as your own work.

These response all achieved top band for both AOs of the coursework rubriks - contributing to a grade 9 in Literature and Language overall at GCSE.

These are by no means perfect, therefore it is recommended to be used in class as a sample answer for discussion on what it does well and improvements.

Although directed for the Edexcel IGCSE syllabus, other boards with the coursework option (CIE, AQA, WJEC etc) may find it useful.

These can also be used by those required to write similar essays for exams as a model response to potentially emulate during timed conditions.

Included: A response on theme of identity in Wilfred Owen’s ‘Disabled’, Moniza Alvi’s ‘An Unknown Girl’ and De Maupassant’s ‘The Necklace’ A response on the presentation of Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet A response to an open topic short story theme A response on the ways in which Sheila Birling has changed by the end of An Inspector Calls

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