This document summarizes Act IV of Romeo and Juliet. It provides questions and answers about each scene. In Scene 1, Paris explains he hasn't courted Juliet due to her grief over Tybalt's death. Juliet tells the Friar she would rather do horrible things than marry Paris. The Friar's plan is for Juliet to pretend to be dead for 42 hours using a potion, while Romeo is informed and they reunite in the crypt. In Scene 2, preparations for Juliet's rushed wedding to Paris on Wednesday continue throughout the night. In Scene 3, Juliet takes the potion, worrying about things that could go wrong. In Scenes 4-5, Juliet is

1. ROMEO and JULIET
ACT IV Questions & Answers
M. Riddell
March 2019

2. SCENE ONE
1. What reason does Paris give for not having
spent much time courting Juliet?
 She has been too filled with grief over Tybalt’s death, so Paris hasn’t had an
opportunity to really get to talk with Juliet about his interest in marrying her.

3. 2. Name three of the horrible things Juliet says
she would find preferable to marrying Paris
 She would rather leap off a tower to her death.

4. Be thrown in with snakes.

5. Be chained to a roaring bear.

6. Be locked in a charnel house.

7. Be in a tomb with a dead body.

8. Live with thieves and criminals

9. See ghosts.

10. 3. Describe the Friar’s plan in your own
words.
 Juliet should pretend to marry Paris
 then go to bed alone
 drink a potion which will make her appear dead

11.  be discovered and thought to be dead
 then after she is put into the family crypt the potion will wear off (after 42 hours)

12.  Father Laurence will have contacted Romeo by letter
 Romeo and Friar Laurence will be in the crypt when Juliet awakes
 Romeo will take her to Mantua

13. 4. How long with the Friar’s magic potion
work?
 42 hours

14. SCENE TWO
1. How do you know if you’re hiring a good
cook?
 A good cook will lick his fingers as he’s cooking to check for the quality/taste. A
bad cook won’t want to lick his own fingers because he food he makes doesn’t
taste good. This, obviously, is not a sanitary food service practice. Ewww, they
couldn’t use a spoon?

15. 2. Juliet was supposed to marry Paris on
Thursday, but what has her father decided?
 He’s so happy that Juliet is polite and respectful again that he moves up the
wedding date by a day. Instead of Thursday, they’ll now be married on Wednesday.

16. 3. Who will stay up all night to make sure the
wedding party preparations are complete?
 Juliet’s Dad, Lord Capulet says he will oversee everything himself. He says he’ll
“play the housewife for this once.”

17. SCENE THREE
1. In case the potion doesn’t work, what item
does Juliet keep with her in the bed?
 She places a dagger next to her in the bed. (Interestingly, none of the other
characters notice this when they find her body in the morning.)

18. 2. Describe three things Juliet thinks might
go wrong if she takes the potion.
 She wonders if the Friar might have given her a poison instead of a potion to cover
up the fact that he married them without their parents’ approval.
 She also worries that she’ll wake up in the Capulet’s tomb/vault before Romeo
arrives and that she’ll suffocate because there won’t be any “healthsome air.”
 Finally, she fears that she’ll awaken alone and might go insane, surrounded by the
dead and decaying bodies of Tybalt and her ancestors.

19. 3. Write down six words from Juliet’s speech
(Scene 3, lines 40-60) that show her feelings
about death.
 Terror
 Bloody
 Fest’ring
 Loathsome
 Hideous
 Mangled

20. SCENE FOUR
1. What time in the morning is it?
 It is 3 a.m. and the Capulet household is buzzing with wedding preparations.

21. 2. In the midst of all the cooking and prepping,
Paris arrives for his wedding date. Given the
answer to the previous question, what does this
arrival show us about Paris?
 He’s arrived before sunrise, so he’s very excited to be marrying Juliet.

22. 3. What does Capulet mean when he says the
Nurse should “go and trim her up” in Scene 4, line
28?
 He says that the Nurse should help Juliet get dolled up in her wedding dress.

23. SCENE FIVE
1. Who is the first to find Juliet’s body and think
that she’s dead in Scene 5?
 The Nurse

24. 2. Which character repeatedly refers to Juliet as
a “flower” after she’s discovered seemingly
dead?
 Her father

25. 3. In what three ways does Capulet say he
can tell Juliet is dead?
 Her body is cold,
 her blood is “settled,”
 and her limbs are stiff, as if rigor mortis has set in.

26. 4. What does the Friar advise Juliet’s
parents to do with her body?
 He tells them to get her dressed in her best apparel and have her body taken to
the church. The Friar is anxious to get Juliet’s body sequestered in case the potion
wears off early.

27. 5. In a sly way, the Friar actually blames Juliet’s
parents for her lifelessness. Write the lines in
which he says they are being punished by God.
 He says, “The heavens do low’r upon you for some ill; Move them no more by
crossing their high will.”

28. 6. Why does Shakespeare end this heavy,
emotionally wrenching scene with the odd
exchange between Peter and the musicians?
 He wants to lighten the mood here for two reasons.
 First, the light tone helps remind the audience not to really feel sad even in the face
of all of this woe. Juliet’s not really dead, so the audience shouldn’t end the act
feeling grief.
 Also, the musicians help us remember that the problems of the elite are not the
problems of the working class. This whole situation is only a problem because of
the ridiculous family rivalry. Other real-life, practical concerns, such as the
musicians wondering whether they’ll still get to have a free meal as they were likely
promised, fill their minds instead. This is something to which the “everyday man” in
the audience could definitely relate.