Act 3 — Romeo and Juliet — Edexcel GCSE English Literature 1ET0
Edexcel GCSE English Literature · 1ET0
Act 3
The plot, part by part
What you need to know
Mercutio's and Tybalt's deaths, Romeo's banishment, Juliet's reaction, the wedding night, and Capulet's fury when Juliet refuses Paris.
Key quotations: 'O calm, dishonourable, vile submission!', 'A plague o' both your houses!', 'you shall find me a grave man', 'Thy beauty hath made me effeminate', 'fire-eyed fury be my conduct now', 'O, I am fortune's fool!', 'Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds', 'Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical!', 'There is no world without Verona walls', 'It was the nightingale, and not the lark', 'I would the fool were married to her grave!', 'Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient wretch!', 'I think it best you married with the county'.
Structure: Mercutio's death as the play's turning point from comedy to tragedy, and Juliet's isolation as her parents and the Nurse turn against her.
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.
