Romeo and Juliet

1
Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeares The Tragedy of

• Introduction and
• Background

2
William Shakespeare

• Shakespeare was born in
• 1564 and died in 1616.
• He grew up in a town called Stratf0rd-on-Avon and
  later moved to London to become an actor and
  playwright.

3
The Plays

• Shakespeares plays include comedies,
  historiesand tragedies such as Romeo and Juliet.
• Some of his other famous plays include Julius
  Caesar, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, and A Midsummer
  Nights Dream.
• In addition, Shakespeare wrote love poems called
  sonnets.

4
Will the real Shakespeare please stand up?

• Some scholars have suggested Shakespeare, who had
  little formal education, could not have written
  such powerful and creative plays.

• However, nobody in Shakespeares day thought to
  question his authorship. Apparently, he was just
  a genius!

5
Elizabethan Theater

• Shakespeares time period was during the reign of
  Queen Elizabeth I. Literature was used and taught
  very often in London because they thought it was
  important for them to write. They began to value
  writing and theater.
• Elizabethan theaters were makeshift, dirty, and
  loud, but nevertheless they attracted audiences
  as large as 3,000 from all social classes.

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Elizabethan Theater

• Since Ancient Greece, theater had gained
  popularity and now was a common event and form of
  entertainment.
• Theater was still extremely political. It
  addressed hot topics that the country was
  facing.
• Being an actor was not a highly regarded
  profession actors were looked down upon in
  society. Actors were looked down upon by the
  church because they used profanity, heresy, or
  politics.

7
The Globe

• Shakespeares plays were performed in a theater
  called the Globesometimes called The Wooden
  O because of its circular shape.

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The reconstructed stage of the Globe

• Theaters had no lighting, so performances took
  place during the day.
• There were few special effects or props
  Shakespeare used detailed verbal description to
  paint a picture of his scenes.

9
Context

• The time period in which Shakespeare
  livedElizabethan England, named for the
  queeninfluenced the content of his plays as well
  as the way in which they were performed.

• Elizabethans believed the earth was flat.

10
Marriage

• In Shakespeares day, marriages were generally
  contracts set up by the parents.
• When Juliets parents arrange a marriage for her,
  it seems strange to us Shakespeares audience
  would have thought it was completely normal.

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Vocabulary

• Soliloquy speech where a character speaks to him
  or herself and inadvertently the audience as a
  way to reveal thoughts and feelings
• Romeo But, soft! what light through yonder
  window breaks?
• It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
• Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
• Who is already sick and pale with grief,
• That thou her maid art far more fair than she
• Be not her maid, since she is envious
• Her vestal livery is but sick and green
• And none but fools do wear it cast it off. (2.2)
  

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Vocabulary

• Aside remark by a character in a play intended
  to be heard by the audience but not by other
  characters
• Juliet O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
  
• Deny thy father and refuse thy name
• Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
• And I'll no longer be a Capulet.
• Romeo Aside. Shall I hear more, or shall I
  speak at this? (2.2)

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Vocabulary

• Monologue long speech by a character
• Prince Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,
• Profaners of this neighbour-stained steel,--
• Will they not hear? What, ho! you men, you
  beasts,
• That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
• With purple fountains issuing from your veins,
• On pain of torture, from those bloody hands
• Throw your mistemper'd weapons to the ground,
• And hear the sentence of your moved prince.
• Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,
• By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,
• Have thrice disturb'd the quiet of our streets,
• And made Verona's ancient citizens
• Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments,
• To wield old partisans, in hands as old,
• Canker'd with peace, to part your canker'd hate
• If ever you disturb our streets again,
• Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.
• For this time, all the rest depart away

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Vocabulary

• Prologue an introduction or preface
• Chorus Two households, both alike in dignity,
• In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
• From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
• Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
• From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
• A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life
• Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
• Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
• The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
• And the continuance of their parents' rage,
• Which, but their children's end, nought could
  remove,
• Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage
• The which if you with patient ears attend,
• What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to
  mend. (1.1)

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Vocabulary

• Oxymoron figure of speech that combines
  contradictory terms
• Romeo Heres much to do with hate, but more with
  love
• Why, then, O brawling love, O loving hate,
• Oh anything of nothing first create
• O heavy lightness, serious vanity
• Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms
• Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick
  health
• Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
• This love I feel that feel no love in this.
  (1.1)

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Tragedy

• In Shakespeares tragedies, the main characters
  make decisions that upset the proper order of
  their world and so affect them and everyone
  around them. The situation is resolved only when
  others learn lessons from the main characters
  deaths.

• Shakespeares tragedies also follow a pattern
  that would have made sense to his audience.
• Elizabethans believed that peoples decisions and
  mistakes always had consequences, and that people
  sometimes had to pay a high price for their
  mistakes.

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Why we read

• So why do we still read plays like Romeo and
  Juliet? When Shakespeares world was so
  different from ours, what can we learn from his
  plays?
• Well, the plays are not only great, powerful
  storiesthey also teach lessons about life that
  apply to people in all cultures and time periods,
  and those lessons can help us when we come across
  hard times in our own lives.

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Keep in Mind

• Dont be alarmed by the old-fashioned language
  this is really a play about people who are a lot
  like us, and the difficult words, when you look
  at them carefully, express emotions anyone can
  understand.

• And remember, the play is POETRY its not
  supposed to be written exactly the way people
  talk. The poetry is part of what makes it
  beautiful and powerfuland worth reading.

19
Reading the Play

• Two things to know
• Sometimes a character will give a long speech all
  by herself, revealing her secret thoughts to the
  audience this is called a soliloquy.
• Sometimes a character will just make a brief
  comment to the audience that the other characters
  dont hear this is called an aside.

• Shakespeares plays were meant to be
  performedthey were some of the most popular
  entertainment of their time. So when we read the
  play, the point is to try and imagine it
  happening onstage!

Because of the minimal props and scenery, the
action in Shakespeares plays had to be conveyed
through words and conversations. A conversation
between characters is called DIALOGUE.
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So Whos Who Here?

• First of all, all of the characters in
• Romeo and Juliet
• are arranged around a central conflict between
  two rival families the Montagues and the
  Capulets.

• Shakespeares plays can have LOTS of characters.
  Lets try to get them straight in our minds

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The Montagues
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The Capulets
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The Peacemakers

• The Prince of Verona
• This ruler tries to mediate between the feuding
  families.
• He is pretty tired of all the bloodshed caused by
  their ancient grudge.

• Friar Lawrence
• This religious leader is respected as a holy man
  by both sides, and would like to see them
  reconciled.
• As a friar, hes interested not only in religion,
  but also in medicinal herbswhich becomes
  important later.

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And finally

• One other character
• The Chorus
• The Chorus is not a part of the action, but a
  speaker who comes onstage to make comments on the
  action. The Chorus is kind of like a TV
  announcer in contemporary lifeas far as the
  characters know, the chorus doesnt exist, but he
  helps explain things to us.