York Notes’ GCSE Study Notes and Revision Guides will help you get to grips with aspects of Shakespeare’s tragic love story including the plot, characters, themes, symbols and motifs and use of language. Familiarising yourself with these aspects of the play will give you your best opportunity of gaining high marks for your GCSE exam answers and essays.

In order to impress an examiner you are likely to need to demonstrate, with appropriate quotes from the play, your understanding of, for example, the significance of stars to the play’s theme of fate, how Romeo’s feelings for Rosaline compare and contrast with his feelings for Juliet, the importance and meaning of the role that Mercutio plays and the way in which Shakespeare depicts the relationship between parents and their children.