1. This sounds complicated, but stick with it. From the first twenty lines of the balcony scene, select the three most powerful or important words. Then take the next twenty lines and do the same, and so on. It doesn't matter if you choose the same word in different sections. By the end of the scene you should have collected 27 words (if we can count).

Now carefully examine these words. What patterns do you see? Do some words belong to Juliet and others exclusively to Romeo? How do the patterns of words in this scene relate to the patterns of words you noted down for Act I?

2. Focus specifically on the words Romeo and Juliet exchange in the balcony scene. What differences do you see between the language of Juliet and the language of Romeo? Think of vocabulary, of sound, of sound patterning of the lines and of meaning in trying to develop this question.

3. Look at the animal imagery in the play. Which animals are mentioned, and who uses this animal imagery? What kind of meaning does the animal imagery add to the speeches of the characters who use it?

4. Choose three or four lines form this reading which you find powerful. Why does each appeal so strongly to you, and how does each relate to the material you have already read in the play? (Does it, for example, use familiar images or vocabulary - such as the vocabulary of sickness, of astrology, of sight, etc.?)

5. Choose the character you want to follow throughout the play. Write a paragraph in which you explain, with close quotation from the script, what you have learned about your character in this reading.

(questions 1, 3 & 4 above are adapted from Rex Gibson's writing prompts in the New Cambridge edition of Romeo and Juliet)

(image source: Shakespeare's Globe, Reading University, England)