Act 4 — Romeo and Juliet — Edexcel GCSE English Literature 1ET0
Edexcel GCSE English Literature · 1ET0
Act 4
The plot, part by part
What you need to know
The Friar's plan and the potion, Juliet's pretended obedience, her soliloquy before drinking it, and the discovery of her 'death'.
Key quotations: 'O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris', 'Take thou this vial', 'What if this mixture do not work at all?', 'Romeo, I come! this do I drink to thee', 'Death lies on her like an untimely frost', 'Death is my son-in-law'.
Dramatic irony: the audience knows Juliet is alive while her family mourns, and the wedding preparations turn into a funeral.
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.
