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Shakespeare Essay Drafting Worksheet

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Shakespeare Essay Drafting Worksheet

Plan and draft an analytical essay about how Shakespeare presents love as a powerful but dangerous force in Romeo and Juliet. Use the self-contained quotation bank below as your evidence. Write in present tense and explain how Shakespeare’s choices shape the audience’s response.

Quotation bank

Use these short quotations from Romeo and Juliet. 1. The Prologue calls the lovers “star-cross’d”. 2. Romeo describes Juliet as “the sun”. 3. Friar Laurence warns, “These violent delights have violent ends”. 4. Juliet says, “My only love sprung from my only hate!”

Build your argument

Move from a clear argument to well-chosen evidence and explanation.

1.Essay question: How does Shakespeare present love as both powerful and dangerous in Romeo and Juliet? Identify the subject of the question and the command word that tells you what to do.

2.Which thesis answers the question and makes a clear, debatable argument?

A. Romeo and Juliet is a play by William Shakespeare.
B. Shakespeare presents love as an intense force that offers hope but becomes dangerous when it is trapped by family hatred and impulsive choices.
C. The play has many characters and events.
D. Romeo and Juliet fall in love.

3.Write your own one-sentence thesis answering the essay question. Include Shakespeare’s view of love and at least one reason love becomes dangerous.

4.Match each quotation with the idea it most strongly supports.

“star-cross’d”
“the sun”
“These violent delights have violent ends”
“My only love sprung from my only hate!”

The Friar warns that intense passion may lead to harm.
The lovers’ future seems doomed from the beginning.
Juliet recognises the painful conflict between love and family hatred.
Romeo presents Juliet as a radiant source of hope.

5.Plan one paragraph supporting this idea: Shakespeare shows that love becomes dangerous when it grows within a climate of hatred. Write a topic sentence, choose one quotation from the bank, and state what you will explain about it.

6.Rewrite this clumsy evidence so the quotation is grammatically integrated into your own sentence: “Juliet says, ‘My only love sprung from my only hate!’ This shows love and hate.”

7.In “These violent delights have violent ends”, what does the repeated word “violent” suggest? Explain how this warning connects love with danger.

8.True or false: After giving a quotation, an analytical writer should explain how its words or dramatic effect support the paragraph’s argument.

True
False

9.Improve this weak analysis by explaining what the metaphor suggests: “Romeo calls Juliet ‘the sun’. This is a metaphor.”

10.Write a short introduction of about three sentences. Name the play and playwright, give brief context, and finish with your thesis answering the essay question.

11.Complete a final linking sentence for your body paragraph. Begin: “Ultimately, Shakespeare’s presentation of love as both hopeful and dangerous…”