QUESTION 2 - 30 MARKS
Here is an opportunity for you to practise answering on Studied Drama for the Junior Cert. Explore all the links provided here and then attempt to answer the question. This page was prepared by an English teacher working in a Dublin school.
For the purpose of this answer we’ll use Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5.
The 2006 question 2, 1a & b, asks about a character that experiences a significant time of either good luck or bad luck. Remember, this type of question comes up from time to time in different ways so you will be preparing yourself well here.
1. Look at the exact question for Junior Cert English 2006 here.
Question 2, 1a & b (page 6 of the paper).
2. Read through the
marking scheme the correctors were told to use (page 14), and you will see clearly what's expected of you.
3. Before you go digging and reading do this
Scoilnet quiz on Act 3, Scene 5 to find out what you actually know already.
4. Watch the following extract from a production of
Romeo and Juliet (YouTube - may not be accessible in school). In Act 3, Scene 5 we see Juliet's run of bad luck as her father tries to force her to marry Paris.
5. Read through the text of the scene and make some notes on how specifically, Juliet's luck has run out. You can also get your
quotations here.
6. A
scene summary is provided here along with a helpful analysis and a glossary.
7. More
information on the scene is provided here.
8. You will need to look at Act 4, Scene 1 to
show how Juliet deals with all her bad luck.
9. Tips and advice for answering the question:
In relation a significant time of good luck or bad luck for a character, the marking scheme says that the significant time is to be interpreted broadly – it can mean a scene, a section of the play or even the full play. The scene we have chosen here, Act 3, Scene 5, is perfect because Juliet’s luck has run out at this point and she is left with very few choices. Also, this scene is full of dramatic irony and tension.
(a) Briefly describe this experience of good luck or bad luck
The marking scheme says all you have to do is to describe; no further discussion is required. Marks are for accuracy and general quality of description. So here, you will need to be familiar with the details of the scene, the who, what, when, where, why and how of it.
A few key quotations will help your description along, providing you keep that description tied in to the ‘bad luck’ mentioned in the question.
For example, Lady Capulet becomes so frustrated with Juliet’s refusal to marry Paris that she says to her husband: “I would the fool were married to her grave”. It’s monstrous for a mother to wish such misfortune on her own daughter, and it is only surpassed by the bad luck that Lord Capulet assures Juliet she will encounter if she does not marry Paris. He says, “An you be mine, I'll give you to my friend; and you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets”. He treats her as his property here, something to give away or else discard in the street. Undoubtedly, Juliet’s luck has run out. Her earlier marriage in secret to Romeo seems now doomed. Even the nurse, Juliet’s confidante, who helped set up the marriage with Romeo, turns her back on her when she says, “I think it best you married with the county [Paris]. O, he's a lovely gentleman! Romeo's a dishclout to him…..” Effectively, Juliet is abandoned in this scene by three people – her mother, father and the nurse – it’s the ultimate run of bad luck.
You will have 10/11 minutes to answer part (a).
(b) Discuss how the character deals with it in the play.
The marking scheme says the key word here is discuss. Description is not enough. Avoid mere summary. Focus on character’s actions/reactions as way of dealing with his/her bad/good luck.
In this instance you need to focus on how Juliet reacts to her parents’ ultimatum.
Initially, she is forthright with her mother saying, “[Paris] shall not make me there a joyful bride”. Whatever chance she may think she has of gaining her mother’s understanding, she will not win her father’s mercy. It is he who must be obeyed; when he becomes bullish with her she is left begging, “Good father, I beseech you on my knees, hear me with patience but to speak a word”. But he will not listen. On a personal level, he really comes across as a brute in this scene, as he tries to intimidate, threaten and belittle his own daughter into submission. But there is also a political agenda involved.
Mantua is a mess, with Mercutio dead, Tybalt dead, Romeo banished and the probability of the family feud escalating. It would seem that Capulet is trying to resolve things somewhat and win favour with the Prince by making Juliet marry Paris. Paris is a relation of the Prince, so if Juliet married him the Capulet’s and the Prince would effectively be related. Really, Juliet is a victim of this political agenda. It’s unsurprising then that she reacts by asking, “I wonder at this haste; that I must wed?” when her mother delivers the news. She is unaware to the bigger picture, unaware that she is a political pawn. But like her father, she is quite stubborn and extreme, determined not to settle for what she does not want. She tells her mother to delay the marriage or else “make the bridal bed in that dim monument where Tybalt lies”. In other words, they must lay off or else see her dead. Her reaction to her bad luck is extreme.
As an audience, we can feel her sense of despair and aloneness as she wonders is there no ‘pity sitting in the clouds that sees into the bottom of [her] grief?” The only option open to her is to go to the Friar ‘to know his remedy’. But of course, the sequence of events emanating from the Friar’s plan compounds Juliet’s bad luck; she awakens out of her drugged sleep to find Romeo dead beside her in the tomb. At this point she goes ahead with the last resort to which she committed earlier when she said, “If all else fail, myself have power to die”.
You could end your answer with an overall comment about how Juliet’s bad luck was a consequence of family feuding, parents who refused to listen and a well intended remedy on the Friar’s part which went horribly wrong. She was a victim of misfortune all the way, a young girl who spent inordinate (more than enough) time trying to work around the obstacles created by her own family and the family of her star crossed lover, Romeo.
You could also comment on how absolute her misfortune was and indeed how fittingly the Prince’s final words summed it up when he said, “For never was a story of more woe, than this of Juliet and her Romeo”.
This scene is full of drama, conflict, tension, suspense, explosive emotion and dramatic irony. It would work well for other questions you might be asked in the Junior Cert, e.g. to outline how you would produce a scene on stage, or to discuss a scene in which there was conflict between two characters.
The most important thing is to keep answering the question you are asked. Don’t worry if your answer is not as long as the ideas presented above; it does not have to be. Stay within the timeframe (10/11 minutes for each part) and move on when it’s up.