Romeo

1
Romeo Juliet A Cultural Ideal

• I get the feeling that hes never read Romeo and
  Juliet
• Im getting tired of these one night stands,
• But if you wanna make a real romance, Im that
  kind of girl.
• Patti Lovelace

2
The Experience of Falling in Love

• Inspires us to move beyond the
• family/familiar (outside ourselves)
• O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
• Deny thy _____ and refuse thy ____!
• Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
• And Ill no longer be a _____. (2.2.33-37)

3
Love at First Sight Truth or Fiction?

• Juliet
• Ill look to ______, if looking liking move,
• But no more deep will I endart mine _______
• Than your consent gives strength to make it _____
  
• (1.3.98-100)
• Friar Lawrence
• Young mens love then lies
• Not truly in their hearts but in their _____
• (2.3.67-68)

4
The History of Romantic LovePlato (428-327
B.C.E.)

• People were once quadrupeds, male and female
  joined in one animal.
• Angry gods separated us,
• each from his other self.
• Forever, we search
• and long for the lost part
• of ourselves.
• From the Symposium

5
More History of Romantic Love The Troubadours
of France (1100-1300)

• New concept Fin amour (true love)
• Idealization of the woman
• Debasement of the man
• Deliberate cultivation of desire
• Enhancement of desire through obstacles such as
  distance (anticipation heightens desire)

6
More History of Romantic Love Francesco
Petrarch (1304-1374)

• Love enters at the eyes.
• Love found me all disarmed and saw the way
• Was clear to reach my heart down through the eyes
• Which have become the halls and doors of tears.
• Petrarchs canzone.
• The beloved is unattainable.
• She is cold and unresponsive.

7
Love at First Sight Powerful Fantasy with
Centuries of Cultural Conditioning

• Response to an ongoing search for a soul mate
• Product of psychological conditioning through
  literature and media
• Involves an unconscious surrender to the fantasy
  of the soul mate or dream lover.

8
Romeo Rosaline The Miserable Petrarchan Lover

• I have a soul of lead
• So stakes me to the ground I cannot move . . .
• I am too sore enpierced with his shaft
• To soar with his light featurers, and so bound
• I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe.
• Under loves heavy burden do I sink.
• (1.4.15-22)

9

• The Petrarchan
  lover is melancholy,
• frustrated,
• obsessed and
  depressed
• Alas poor Romeo! He is already dead, stabbed
  with a white wenchs black ______ (2.4.13-14)
• His lovesick poetry is melodramatic

10
Petrarch, Pleasure, and Pain

• Woman is placed on a pedestalbut immobilized and
  de-personalized an ideal, not a real woman
• Melancholy lover wallows in self-absorbed
  torment, taking pleasure in the image of himself
  as romantic victim.
• Romeo In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman
  (1.1.191)
• Benvolio Why, Romeo, art thou mad?
• Romeo Not mad, but bound more than
• a madman is
• Shut up in prison, kept without my food,
• Whipped and tormented . . . (1.2.53-55)

11
Romeo Juliet Reciprocal Relationship

• Palmers Sonnet --Equal dialogue
• ROMEO If I profane with my unworthiest ______
• This holy shrine, the gentle _____ is this
• My lips, two blushing _______, ready stand
• To smooth that rough touch with a tender ______.
• JULIET Good pilgrim, you do _____ your hand
  too much,
• Which mannerly devotion shows in this
• For ______ have hands that pilgrims' hands do
  touch,
• And ____ to ____ is holy palmers' kiss.
• ROMEO Have not saints _____, and holy palmers
  too?
• JULIET Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in
  _____.
• ROMEO O, then, dear saint, let lips do what
  hands do
• They ______, grant thou, lest faith turn to
  despair.
• JULIET Saints do not move, though grant for
  prayers' sake.
• ROMEO Then move not, while my ______ effect I
  take.
• Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged.
  (1.5.90-103)

12
Juliets Development

• Infancy to Independence
• Achieves agency
• Speaks her feelings
• Initiates marriage
• Topples Petrarchan ideal
• of silent, unapproachable
• woman on a distant pedestal

13
Marriage in Elizabethan England A Hot Topic

• 1 Arranged Marriage
• Legal documentation of property and cash
  transactions between the 2 families
• Paris What say you to my suit?
• Capulet But saying oer what I have said
  before
• My child is yet a _________ in the world
• She hath not seen the change of fourteen years.
• Let two more ________ wither in their pride
• Ere we may think her ripe to be a _______.
  (I.2.6-11)

14

• Dowry or Portion property, jewels,
  pewterware, etc. from brides family to couple
• Jointure settlement (usually land) grooms
  family agrees to award to bride if she is widowed
• Dowry Jointure 5 1
• O brother Montague, give me thy hand.
• This is my daughters jointure, for no more
• Can I demand.
• But I can give thee more,
• For I will raise her statue in pure gold
  (5.3.296-99)

15

• 2. Enforced Marriage
•   How now, how now, chop-logic! What is
  this?'Proud,' and 'I thank you,' and 'I thank
  you not'And yet 'not proud,' mistress minion,
  you,Thank me no _______, nor, proud me no
  ________,But fettle your fine joints 'gainst
  Thursday next,To go with Paris to Saint Peter's
  _________,Or I will drag thee on a hurdle
  thither.Out, you green-sickness carrion! out,
  you baggage!You tallow-face!(3.5.149-157)

16
3. Free Marriage

• Three words, dear Romeo, and good night
  indeed.If that thy bent of love be ________,Thy
  purpose _______, send me word to-morrow,By one
  that I'll procure to come to thee,Where and what
  time thou wilt perform the riteAnd all my
  fortunes at thy foot I'll layAnd follow thee my
  lord throughout the _______.(2.2.142-49)

17
Tools Make the Man The Role of Violence in
Romeo and Juliet
Draw thy tool . . . My naked weapon is out . . .
Draw, if you be men. (1.1.26-2750)

• The Broadsword
• Capulet What noise is this? Give me my long
  sword, ho! (1.1.62)
• The Rapier
• Newly available in Elizabethan England
• Lightweight and portable
• Fashionable for gentlemanly attire

18

• Violence preserves clan/kinship groups

19

• Violence preserves male dominance of women
• SAMPSON   A dog of that house shall move me to
  stand I will take the wall of any man or maid of
  Montague's.GREGORY   That shows thee a weak
  slave for the weakest goes to the
  wall.SAMPSON   True and therefore women, being
  the weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the _____
  therefore I will push Montague's men from the
  wall, and thrust his maids to the
  wall. (1.1.10-21)

20
Verbal Abuse of Women Preserves Male Dominance
An old hare hoar, And an old hare hoar, Is very
good meat in Lent. But a hare that is hoar Is too
much for a score, When it hoars ere it be
spent (2.4.108-13)
21
Romeo and Mercutio Male-Male vs. Male-Female
Bonding

• You gave us the counterfeit fairly last night
  (2.4.38)
• If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.Now
  will he sit under a medlar tree,And wish his
  mistress were that kind of fruitAs maids call
  medlars, when they laugh alone.Romeo, that she
  were, O, that she wereAn open et caetera, thou a
  poperin pear!Romeo, good night I'll to my
  truckle-bedThis field-bed is too cold for me to
  sleep(2.1.34-41)

22
Romeos DevelopmentRejecting the World of Men
Boys in Verona

• Thy beauty hath made me effeminate
• And in my temper softened valors steel!
  (3.1.101-102)
• Mercutio dies because Romeo marries
  and declines to accept Tybalts
  challenge.

23
The Religion of Love

• Romeo What shall I swear by?
• Juliet   Do not swear at all
• Or, if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self,
• Which is the god of my idolatry,
• And I'll believe thee.
• Compare Language of Palmers Sonnet

24
Shakespeares Asks His Audience . . .

• Is there such a thing as love at first sight?
• Is it compatible with reciprocal relationships?
• Can love between a man and a woman characterized
  by equality, passion, and honorable commitment
  last in this world?
• Do prevailing notions of manhood require
  aggressive displays and the verbal abuse of
  women?
• Can young men reconcile the need for male bonding
  and the requirements of heterosexual love?
• Does the journey toward independence for young
  women cause an emotional rift with parents?

25
Bibliography

• Callaghan, Dympna. Introduction and Between Men
  in William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet Texts
  and Contexts. Ed. Dympna Callaghan. Boston
  Bedford/St. Martins, 2003.
• Richards, Stanley. The Troubadors and Courtly
  Love. Archetypal Psychology. lthttp//www.hermes.g
  en.nz/troubadors.htmgt
• Stoner, Kay. The Enduring Popularity of Courtly
  Love.
• lthttp//www.millersv.edu/resound/court.htmlgt
• Pictures
• 1968s Romeo Juliet. Univ. of Illinois at
  Urbana/Champagne. lthttp//www.students.ed.uiuc.edu
  /bach/ rnj24/rj1968.htmlgt
• Shakespeare in Love Its a Mystery. Scotland a
  la carte. ltwww.cinetropic.com/shakespeare/
  page2.htmlgt
• William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet. Twentieth
  Century Fox. ltwww.foxhome.com/ rj/pic.htmlgt
• Moviecostumes.com (Dressmakers site with
  Shakespeare in Love images) ltwww.moviecostumes.com
  / Shakespeare.htmgt