Extract — the balcony scene

Question 2 (20 marks — extract)

Read the extract from Act 2, Scene 2 (the balcony scene). How does Shakespeare make this scene dramatically effective?

Romeo: "But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks? / It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. / Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, / Who is already sick and pale with grief..." Juliet: "O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? / Deny thy father and refuse thy name; / Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, / And I'll no longer be a Capulet."

Mark scheme (AO1 + AO2 + AO3, 20 marks):

• Romeo's extended metaphor: Juliet as the sun — light, warmth, life-giving; "kill the envious moon" — the moon associated with Diana (chastity); Romeo urges Juliet beyond chastity toward love (2 marks)
• "Wherefore art thou Romeo?" — not asking where, but why; why must he be a Montague? The name (identity, family loyalty) as the barrier to love (2 marks)
• "Deny thy father and refuse thy name" — Juliet's radicalism; she is asking Romeo to betray family loyalty; this is extraordinary for an Elizabethan woman (1–2 marks)
• Dramatic irony: the audience knows the prologue's promise of doom — this beautiful scene is shadowed by knowledge of what is to come (1–2 marks)
• Staging: Juliet above (on the balcony), Romeo below — hierarchy reversed; she speaks first; she is dominant in this scene (1–2 marks)
• AO3: Elizabethan theatre (no set — the language creates the scene); night scenes performed in daylight at the Globe — the language of stars, sun, moon does the work of lighting (1–2 marks)