GCSE Shakespeare | Themes Revision in Romeo and Juliet

English Literature Quiz - Romeo and Juliet - Themes (Questions)

This GCSE English Literature quiz explores the big themes in Romeo and Juliet, including love, conflict, fate, and the clash between private feelings and public duty.

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Fascinating Fact:

Individual desire versus social expectation is central, as Romeo and Juliet choose private love against the demands of family loyalty and arranged marriage.

In GCSE English Literature, you study how Shakespeare uses themes in Romeo and Juliet. The play explores passionate love, violent family conflict, pressure to obey parents and the idea that fate may control events, all shown through characters such as Romeo, Juliet, Tybalt and Lord Capulet.

Key Terms

Theme: An important idea that runs through a text, such as love, conflict, fate or family honour in the play.
Conflict: A struggle between characters or forces, including the feud between Montagues and Capulets and arguments inside each family.
Fate: The belief that events are guided by a power beyond human control, often suggested by dreams, warnings and references to the stars.

Frequently Asked Questions (Click to see answers)

What are the main themes in Romeo and Juliet for GCSE?

Main themes include romantic love between Romeo and Juliet, family conflict led by Tybalt and Capulet, friendship with Mercutio and Benvolio, and the tension between fate and personal choice.

How does Shakespeare show the theme of love in Romeo and Juliet?

Shakespeare contrasts Romeo’s early crush on Rosaline with his deep love for Juliet, shows family love through the Nurse and Lady Capulet, and hints at unhealthy love in Paris’s formal approach to marriage.

How can I write about themes in my Romeo and Juliet essay?

Choose a theme, such as conflict or fate, select short quotations from characters like Romeo, Juliet or Friar Laurence, then explain how language and context support your point about that theme.

Try These Related Quizzes

Romeo's sorrow at the beginning of the play is related to which of the following themes?

[ ]	Love
[ ]	Hatred
[ ]	Death
[ ]	Fate

The opening scene stages a fight which begins with the biting of a thumb by a servant, before drawing in the most senior members of the Montague and Capulet families and ends with the Prince's threat of death. Which of the following themes does this scene NOT introduce?

[ ]	Hatred and violence
[ ]	The shaping of behaviour by unthinking loyalty
[ ]	Nature
[ ]	The impulsiveness of youth

Capulet's Wife attempts to stop her husband from joining the fight in Act One, Scene One, saying: "A crutch, a crutch — why call you for a sword?" To which of the following themes does her mockery most relate?

[ ]	Marriage and family alliances
[ ]	Romantic love
[ ]	Youth and age
[ ]	Fate

Juliet's grave is mentioned throughout the play. With which of the following is it often linked?

[ ]	Her bridal bed
[ ]	A forest
[ ]	A nun's cell
[ ]	Her future husband

Which of the following statements by Capulet's Wife is filled with deadly irony?

[ ]	"This sight of death is as a bell / That warns my old age to a sepulchre"
[ ]	"Tonight she's mewed up to her heaviness"
[ ]	"Some grief shows much of love"
[ ]	"I would the fool were married to her grave"

Romeo repeatedly compares Juliet to which of the following?

[ ]	A musical instrument
[ ]	A flower
[ ]	A bird
[ ]	A source of light

Which of the following expresses Verona's displeasure with the long-running feud?

[ ]	Mercutio's curse
[ ]	The response of the citizens to the street fight in the first scene of the play
[ ]	The Prince's reference to the "thrice-disturbed quiet" of the streets
[ ]	All of the above

In the Prologue, the Chorus gives a brief summary of the play. Which of the following phrases used in the Prologue does NOT relate to the theme of fate?

[ ]	"Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean"
[ ]	"The fatal loins of these two foes"
[ ]	"A pair of star-crossed lovers"
[ ]	"Misadventured piteous overthrows"

The imagery of flowers is often used in the play to symbolise which of the following?

[ ]	The hidden dangers in the beautiful and fragile
[ ]	The beauty of youth
[ ]	The fleeting nature of life
[ ]	All of the above

10.

Which character frequently recalls the theme of nature as it is related to reproduction?

[ ]	Nurse
[ ]	Tybalt
[ ]	Capulet
[ ]	Capulet's Wife

You can find more about this topic by visiting BBC Bitesize - Themes

English Literature Quiz - Romeo and Juliet - Themes (Answers)

Romeo's sorrow at the beginning of the play is related to which of the following themes?

[x]	Love
[ ]	Hatred
[ ]	Death
[ ]	Fate

When the audience first encounters Romeo, he is sorrowful at Rosaline's refusal to return his love

[ ]	Hatred and violence
[ ]	The shaping of behaviour by unthinking loyalty
[x]	Nature
[ ]	The impulsiveness of youth

The various loyalties and ingrained behaviours would lead to death without the Prince's arrival on the scene

[ ]	Marriage and family alliances
[ ]	Romantic love
[x]	Youth and age
[ ]	Fate

She mocks her husband by implying infirmity. Interestingly, the stage directions at this point refer to him as "old Capulet", highlighting the contrast between the head of the family and its unruly younger members

Juliet's grave is mentioned throughout the play. With which of the following is it often linked?

[x]	Her bridal bed
[ ]	A forest
[ ]	A nun's cell
[ ]	Her future husband

Juliet describes her grave as her bridal bed in the first act of the play and Paris uses the same phrase in the final act

Which of the following statements by Capulet's Wife is filled with deadly irony?

[ ]	"This sight of death is as a bell / That warns my old age to a sepulchre"
[ ]	"Tonight she's mewed up to her heaviness"
[ ]	"Some grief shows much of love"
[x]	"I would the fool were married to her grave"

Juliet's mother's unthinking wish becomes dark truth

Romeo repeatedly compares Juliet to which of the following?

[ ]	A musical instrument
[ ]	A flower
[ ]	A bird
[x]	A source of light

Romeo compares Juliet not just to light, but to the brightest sources of light, beginning with his famous line, "But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? / It is the east, and Juliet is the sun." When he opens her tomb, he exclaims that it is filled with her light

Which of the following expresses Verona's displeasure with the long-running feud?

[ ]	Mercutio's curse
[ ]	The response of the citizens to the street fight in the first scene of the play
[ ]	The Prince's reference to the "thrice-disturbed quiet" of the streets
[x]	All of the above

Despite his own hot-headedness, Mercutio's curse reminds the audience that both families share equally in their responsibility for the violence. The citizens in the first scene shout, "Down with the Capulets. Down with the Montagues"

In the Prologue, the Chorus gives a brief summary of the play. Which of the following phrases used in the Prologue does NOT relate to the theme of fate?

[x]	"Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean"
[ ]	"The fatal loins of these two foes"
[ ]	"A pair of star-crossed lovers"
[ ]	"Misadventured piteous overthrows"

"Misadventure", "star-crossed", and "fatal" are various terms used to refer to fate, and particularly to ill, rather than good, fortune