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Year 11
AQA

'Romeo and Juliet': using tentative language to write about writer's intentions

I can use tentative language to write about Shakespeare’s intentions in ‘Romeo and Juliet’.

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New
New
Year 11
AQA

'Romeo and Juliet': using tentative language to write about writer's intentions

I can use tentative language to write about Shakespeare’s intentions in ‘Romeo and Juliet’.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Arguably, Shakespeare shows Juliet as both exerting agency and assuming a passive role in ‘Romeo and Juliet’.
  2. A writer’s intentions can reveal their overall message - what are they saying about society or humanity.
  3. Using tentative language is important because we can never truly be sure of a writer’s intentions.

Keywords

  • Intentions - something that you want and plan to do; an aim

  • Agency - the capacity of an individual to act independently from others and to make their own free choices

  • Conform - to behave according to the usual standards of behaviour that are expected by a group or society

  • Contemporary discourse - the current discussions and conversations happening in a specific field or context

  • Tentative - not definite or certain

Common misconception

We can get a definitive idea of the writer's intentions from the text.

We can never truly know what the writer's intentions were but we can tentatively explore ideas.


To help you plan your year 11 english lesson on: 'Romeo and Juliet': using tentative language to write about writer's intentions, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

You might like to make the discussions around whether Juliet has agency and Shakespeare's intentions whole class discussions to help pupils understand a range of different ideas.
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Equipment

You may wish to have a copy of Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' for this lesson.

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Content guidance

  • Depiction or discussion of discriminatory behaviour
  • Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
  • Depiction or discussion of mental health issues
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Supervision

Adult supervision required

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Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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6 Questions

Q1.
Starting with the first, put the following events from Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' in chronological order.
1 - Lady Capulet brings up Juliet's potential marriage to Count Paris.
2 - Juliet meets Romeo at the Capulet ball.
3 - Romeo and Juliet marry in secret.
4 - Lord Capulet demands that Juliet marry Paris.
5 - Juliet fakes her death.
Q2.
Stereotypically, women in a patriarchal society were expected to be which of the following?
Correct answer: obedient
controlling
authoritative
Correct answer: submissive
Q3.
To be 'submissive' means to be which of the following?
speaking clearly and with authority
Correct answer: willing to do what others tell you to do
unwilling to do what others tell you to do
dictating the actions of other people
Q4.
To 'criticise' something means to do which of the following?
find things to praise
Correct answer: indicate the faults
approve of something
Q5.
'Doing, or willing to do, what you have been told to do by someone in authority' is the definition of which word beginning with 'o'?
Correct Answer: obedient, obey, obeying, obedience
Q6.
'The capacity of an individual to act independently from others and to make their own free choices' is the definition of which word beginning with 'a'?
Correct Answer: agency

6 Questions

Q1.
Which of the following decisions does Juliet make in Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet'?
to disobey her parents and marry Romeo
Correct answer: to marry Romeo secretly
to argue with her father about marrying Paris
Correct answer: to fake her death
Q2.
'Something that you want and plan to do; an aim' is the definition of which word beginning with 'i'?
Correct Answer: intention, intentions, intent
Q3.
To write 'tentatively' means which of the following?
to be certain
Correct answer: to not be definitive
to be definite
to not be cohesive
Q4.
Which of the following words are tentative?
must
Correct answer: may
absolutely
Correct answer: potentially
Q5.
'To behave according to the usual standards of behaviour that are expected by a group or society' is the definition of which word beginning with 'c'?
Correct Answer: conform, conforming, to conform
Q6.
'The current discussions and conversations happening in a specific field or context' is the definition of __________ discourse.
tentative
Correct answer: contemporary
intentional