How Shakespeare presents Tybalt, and how the character develops across the text: the hot-headed defender of Capulet honour whose hatred drives the tragedy.
The key quotations for this character and how to analyse them, with the context that shapes them.
How to use the lesson's key quotations in an essay, with a short worked paragraph.
Key quotations: 'I hate the word, / As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee', 'This, by his voice, should be a Montague', 'To strike him dead, I hold it not a sin', 'Now seeming sweet convert to bitter gall', 'Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries', 'more than prince of cats'.
Context: honour, the duel and young men's violence, and Tybalt as a foil to Benvolio.
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.
