Act 5 — Romeo and Juliet — OCR GCSE English Literature J352
OCR GCSE English Literature · J352
Act 5
The plot, part by part
What you need to know
The news in Mantua, the apothecary, the undelivered letter, the deaths in the tomb, the Friar's account and the families' reconciliation.
Key quotations: 'Then I defy you, stars!', 'I do remember an apothecary', 'There is thy gold, worse poison to men's souls', 'Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath', 'Eyes, look your last!', 'Thus with a kiss I die', 'O happy dagger!', 'See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate', 'A glooming peace this morning with it brings', 'For never was a story of more woe'.
The undelivered letter and the timing of the tomb scene, and the ending as reconciliation bought with the children's deaths.
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.
