Romeo and Juliet Mind Map (GCSE)

A sonnet tells the audience that two "star-cross'd lovers" from feuding families will die, and that their deaths will end the feud.

A street fight ends with the Prince threatening death to anyone who fights again. Romeo is lovesick over Rosaline. At the Capulet feast Romeo and Juliet fall in love before learning who the other is, and Tybalt recognises Romeo.

In the balcony scene Romeo and Juliet declare their love and agree to marry. Friar Laurence marries them in secret, hoping it will end the feud, and the Nurse helps.

Tybalt kills Mercutio, and Romeo kills Tybalt in revenge. The Prince banishes Romeo to Mantua. Capulet orders Juliet to marry Paris, and threatens to throw her out when she refuses.

Friar Laurence gives Juliet a potion that will make her seem dead for 42 hours. Her family finds her and believes she is dead.

The Friar's letter never reaches Romeo. Believing Juliet is dead, Romeo kills Paris at the tomb and drinks poison: "Thus with a kiss I die." Juliet wakes, finds him dead and stabs herself. The families are reconciled.

A passionate, impulsive young Montague. His sudden switch from Rosaline to Juliet shows the intensity and haste of youth.

Not yet 14, she grows from an obedient daughter into a determined young woman who defies her parents for love. Her "What's in a name?" wishes their family names did not matter.

Romeo's witty friend, related to the Prince. His death is the turning point of the play.

Juliet's hot-tempered cousin, obsessed with family honour: "What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word".

A well-meaning friar whose plans to help the lovers, the secret marriage and the potion, go wrong.

Juliet's comic, loving nurse and confidante, who later lets her down by advising her to marry Paris.

Juliet's father, who turns from caring to controlling when she defies him.

Passionate romantic love, contrasted with Romeo's shallow infatuation with Rosaline and with Capulet's arranged marriage to Paris.

The feud and the young men's need to defend family honour escalate into duels that destroy the young.

The Prologue says the lovers are doomed, and Romeo blames fortune. Yet their own hasty choices also bring about the ending.

Parents arrange marriages and expect obedience, especially from daughters. The young pursue passion while the old make the decisions.

Everything happens too quickly, from love at first sight to the final deaths. The Friar warns that "they stumble that run fast".

The Prologue: "A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life". Fate, and a tragic ending revealed from the start.

Romeo, Act 2 Scene 2: "But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? / It is the east, and Juliet is the sun." Light imagery, as when he first sees her: "O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!"

Juliet, Act 1 Scene 5, on learning Romeo is a Montague. Love and conflict intertwined.

Friar Laurence, Act 2 Scene 6. A warning that passionate, hasty love can end in disaster, which foreshadows the tragedy.

Mercutio, Act 3 Scene 1, as he dies. He blames both families: the feud is responsible.

Romeo, Act 3 Scene 1, after killing Tybalt. He blames fate rather than himself.

Capulet, Act 3 Scene 5: "Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient wretch!" Patriarchal control when Juliet refuses Paris.

Fathers had legal control over their daughters, so Juliet's defiance of Capulet would shock the audience.

Wealthy families arranged marriages for status and money, not love.

Suicide was a mortal sin, which made the lovers' deaths all the more shocking to an Elizabethan audience.

Young men were expected to defend their family's honour, often with violence, which explains Tybalt and the duels of Act 3.

Many Elizabethans believed the stars controlled people's lives, so "star-cross'd" lovers really would seem doomed.

Reveals the ending at the start, so the audience watches everything with dramatic irony.

When Romeo and Juliet first speak, their lines form a sonnet together, showing they are made for each other.

The lovers describe each other as light in a dark world, and they mostly meet at night.

Romeo's "O brawling love, O loving hate" shows his confused, conflicting feelings.

The action takes only a few days, which adds to the sense of haste and inevitability.

Noble characters usually speak in verse, while the Nurse and servants often speak in prose, reflecting status and bringing humour.