Act 2 — Romeo and Juliet — Edexcel GCSE English Literature 1ET0
Edexcel GCSE English Literature · 1ET0
Act 2
The plot, part by part
What you need to know
The balcony scene, Friar Laurence agreeing to marry the lovers, Mercutio and the Nurse, and the secret wedding.
Key quotations: 'what light through yonder window breaks?', 'It is the east, and Juliet is the sun', 'wherefore art thou Romeo?', 'Deny thy father and refuse thy name', 'What's in a name? that which we call a rose', 'It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden', 'My bounty is as boundless as the sea', 'Parting is such sweet sorrow', 'Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here!', 'Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast', 'These violent delights have violent ends'.
Form: light and dark imagery in the balcony scene, Juliet's caution against Romeo's hyperbole, and the Friar's rhyming couplets.
Edexcel's Shakespeare question has two parts: part (a) on the printed extract marks only language, form and structure (AO2), so context earns nothing there; part (b) on the play elsewhere, from memory, marks the argument and its references (AO1, 15 marks) and context (AO3, 5 marks), not language analysis. Say which part each worked paragraph and exam tip is for.
