ACT II - Scene V Practice Quiz — Romeo and Juliet
by William Shakespeare — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: ACT II - Scene V
Where does Act 2, Scene 5 take place?
Capulet's orchard
What time did Juliet send the Nurse to meet Romeo?
Nine o'clock in the morning
How long has Juliet been waiting for the Nurse when the scene opens?
Three hours (from nine until noon)
What news does the Nurse finally bring Juliet?
Romeo is waiting at Friar Laurence's cell to marry her that afternoon
What excuse is Juliet told to use for going to Friar Laurence's cell?
She should say she is going to shrift (confession)
What does the Nurse say she will fetch for Romeo?
A rope ladder so Romeo can climb to Juliet's chamber that night
How does Juliet characterize old people in her opening soliloquy?
"Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead" — she says they feign as if they were dead
What excuses does the Nurse give for not delivering Romeo's message immediately?
She complains of aching bones, breathlessness, a headache, and a backache
How does the Nurse describe Romeo's physical appearance?
She says his face is better than any man's, his leg excels all men's, and he is "gentle as a lamb"
What is the central theme of Act 2, Scene 5?
The contrast between youth and age — Juliet's youthful impatience versus the Nurse's physical slowness and exhaustion
How does the motif of time function in this scene?
Juliet tracks every hour from nine to twelve, feeling each minute as an eternity, foreshadowing how time will ultimately work against the lovers
What is the dramatic irony in Juliet's line "Hie to high fortune"?
Juliet believes fortune is on her side, but the audience knows the marriage will ultimately lead to tragedy and death
What literary device is the Nurse's stalling an example of?
Comic relief — her delays provide humor between the intense balcony scene and the solemn wedding scene
Identify the similes in Juliet's opening soliloquy.
Love's heralds "ten times faster glide than the sun's beams"; old folks are "pale as lead"; she would be "as swift in motion as a ball"
What wordplay does Juliet use to mock the Nurse's evasiveness?
She mimics the Nurse: "Your love says, like an honest gentleman, 'Where is your mother?'" — turning the Nurse's digression into an absurd punchline
What does "nimble-pinion'd doves" refer to?
Doves with swift wings that draw Venus's (Love's) chariot — Juliet wishes the Nurse could move as quickly
What does "shrift" mean in this scene?
Confession to a priest — Juliet's cover story for visiting Friar Laurence's cell
What does "jaunce" (or "jauncing") mean?
A tiring journey or trudging walk — the Nurse uses it to describe her exhausting trip across Verona
"How art thou out of breath when thou hast breath / To say to me that thou art out of breath?"
Juliet uses the Nurse's own logic against her: if the Nurse can speak, she has enough breath to deliver the message
"Then hie you hence to Friar Laurence' cell; / There stays a husband to make you a wife."
The Nurse's climactic revelation — Romeo waits at the Friar's to marry Juliet