Foreshadowing
Exercise Sheet
1. Identify the speaker in each quote.
2. Identify the part of the play the quote comes from.
3. Identify the foreshadowing in the quote.
4. Reflect on why foreshadowing is used in this moment.
I fear, too early: for my mind misgives
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night’s revels and expire the term
Of a despised life closed in my breast
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.
Go ask his name: if he be married
My grave is like to be my wedding bed
Do thou but close our hands with holy words,
Then love-devouring death do what he dare;
It is enough I may but call her mine.
These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which as they kiss consume.
A plague o’ both your houses.
O God, I have an ill-divining soul.
Methinks I see thee now, thou art so low
As one dead in the bottom of a tomb.
Either my eyesight fails, or thou look’st pale.
Give me some present counsel, or, behold,
‘Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife
Shall play the umpire, arbitrating that
Which the commission of thy years and art
Could to no issue of true honor bring.
I dreamt my lady came and found me dead—
Strange dream, that gives a dead man leave to think—
This document accompanies “Romeo and Juliet Analysis and Exercise: Part One”
Visit http://tfolk.me/rj3 for more.
Foreshadowing
Answer Key
1. Identify the speaker in each quote.
2. Identify the part of the play the quote comes from.
3. Identify the foreshadowing in the quote.
4. Reflect on why foreshadowing is used in this moment.
I fear, too early: for my mind misgives
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night’s revels and expire the term
Of a despised life closed in my breast
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.
Romeo, Act 1, scene iv
Romeo has a feelings something bad is going to happen and
the sequence of events will happen tonight. Which is true.
Go ask his name: if he be married
My grave is like to be my wedding bed
Juliet, Act I, scene v
Juliet is being figurative, “I’ll die if he’s married” but marrying
Rome leads directly to her grave.
Do thou but close our hands with holy words,
Then love-devouring death do what he dare;
It is enough I may but call her mine.
Romeo, Act II, scene vi
Romeo is saying that if he’s married he doesn’t care what
happens next, it could be death. Which it is.
These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which as they kiss consume.
Friar Lawrence, Act II, scene vi
Friar Lawrence is warning that sudden loves end suddenly.
They blow up and flame out like fire and gunpowder together.
Romeo and Juliet’s love will end so.
A plague o’ both your houses.
Mercutio, Act III, scene i
Mercutio curses the Montagues and the Capulets, which will
come true as both families must deal with the death of their
children.
O God, I have an ill-divining soul.
Methinks I see thee now, thou art so low
As one dead in the bottom of a tomb.
Either my eyesight fails, or thou look’st pale.
Juliet, Act III, scene v
Juliet imagines she sees Romeo dead in a tomb which he
soon will be.
Give me some present counsel, or, behold,
‘Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife
Shall play the umpire, arbitrating that
Which the commission of thy years and art
Could to no issue of true honor bring.
Juliet, Act IV, scene i
Juliet is threatening to kill herself with a knife if the Friar
doesn’t help her, and that’s exactly how she later dies.
I dreamt my lady came and found me dead—
Strange dream, that gives a dead man leave to think—
Romeo, Act V, scene i
Romeo dreamed Juliet found him dead and soon she will find
him dead.
This document accompanies “Romeo and Juliet Analysis and Exercise: Part One”
Visit http://tfolk.me/rj3 for more.