Act 2 — Romeo and Juliet — OCR GCSE English Literature J352
OCR GCSE English Literature · J352
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.
OCR's question on this play is one essay, from a choice of two, for 40 marks: an extract-based question on the printed extract and the play elsewhere, or a discursive question on a view of the play, using at least two moments. Response (AO1) and language, form and structure (AO2) carry the most weight and equal weight, context (AO3) counts as the play shows it, and 4 marks are for vocabulary, sentence structures, spelling and punctuation (AO4). An extract-based answer that never leaves the extract, or a discursive answer built on one moment, cannot go above Level 3. Each worked paragraph and exam tip is labelled with the question it is for.
