Notes & Quotes — AQA Paper 1: Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare's most widely studied tragedies and a common Shakespeare choice for both AQA and Edexcel GCSE English Literature, alongside Macbeth. Probably written around 1595, it follows two teenagers from feuding Veronese families whose secret marriage ends in both their deaths — a tragedy the Prologue tells the audience is coming before the play even begins. Its themes of love, fate, family conflict and youthful rebellion against parental authority make it rich exam material, especially around how Shakespeare uses dramatic irony, structure and extreme, compressed timescale (the action spans under a week) to build toward the 'star-cross'd' ending.
The ideas examiners expect you to track across the whole text.
Love vs Hate
The play repeatedly fuses love and violence — Romeo and Juliet's love exists only because of, and in spite of, their families' hatred. Exam questions often ask how Shakespeare presents love as inseparable from conflict rather than its opposite.
Fate
From the Prologue's 'star-cross'd lovers' onward, Shakespeare repeatedly signals the ending in advance, building dramatic irony into almost every scene. Useful for questions on how Shakespeare uses structure, not just language, to create tension.
Family and Patriarchal Authority
Capulet's shift from indulgent father to tyrant when Juliet disobeys him dramatises how little personal choice a Elizabethan daughter really had, even one apparently loved. Strong material for questions on parents, duty and rebellion.
Haste
The entire tragedy unfolds in under a week — a wedding, a banishment, a forced second marriage and a double suicide are all compressed into days. Shakespeare structures the play's speed itself as a warning, echoed directly in Friar Laurence's 'wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.'
Light and Dark Imagery
Romeo repeatedly describes Juliet using light imagery ('the sun', 'a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear') against a backdrop of night, secrecy and death — the lovers' brightest moments (the balcony scene, the wedding night) all happen in darkness, foreshadowing that their love cannot survive daylight and their families' scrutiny.
An essential set — not exhaustive. Know where each sits in the text and which theme or character question it could support, not just the words themselves.
“A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life”
“I hate the word, / As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee”
“O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!”
“My only love sprung from my only hate!”
“My grave is like to be my wedding bed”
“What's in a name?”
“These violent delights have violent ends”
“A plague o' both your houses!”
“Fire-eyed fury be my conduct now!”
“get thee to church a' Thursday, / Or never after look me in my face”
“Then I defy you, stars!”
“For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo”
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