Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet

Who’s Who? Montagues Romeo – son to Montague. Benvolio – nephew to Montague & friend to Romeo. Balthasar – servant & friend to Romeo. Mercutio – friend to Romeo. Lady Montague – wife to Lord Montague. Montague – Romeo’s father and head of the family. Friar Lawrence – a local priest, friend of Romeo.

Who’s Who? Capulets Paris – a young nobleman. Juliet – daughter to Capulet. Capulet – Juliet’s father and head of the family. Lady Capulet – wife to Lord Capulet. Nurse – servant & Nurse to Juliet. Tybalt – nephew to the Capulets.

A Tragic Pattern: How the Play is Built Tragedy: A narrative about serious and important actions that end unhappily. Usually ends with the death of main characters Sometimes innocent characters are affected Sometimes the main characters are responsible for their downfall

Shakespeare’s Tragic Plays Five-Part Pattern ACT III Crisis / Turning Point ACT II Rising Action ACT IV Falling Action a ACT I Exposition ACT V Climax & Resolution

Exposition (ACT I) Establishes the setting Introduces the main characters Explains background Introduces the characters’ main conflict

Romeo and Juliet (Exposition) Verona, Italy

Rising Action (ACT II) Consists of a series of complications Occurs when main characters take action to resolve their problems

Romeo and Juliet (Rising Action and Complications) Forbidden Love

Crisis or Turning Point (ACT III) Moment when a choice is made by one of the main characters that determines the direction of the action Upward = happy ending (comedy) Downward = sad ending (tragedy) Dramatic and tense moment when the forces of conflict come together

Romeo and Juliet (Crisis/Turning Point) Fight between Romeo and Tybalt

Falling Action (ACT IV) Presents events that result from the action taken in the turning point Events usually lock characters deeper into disaster With each event we see each character falling into tragedy

Romeo and Juliet (Falling Action) Juliet taking poison to avoid Paris at all costs

Climax & Resolution (ACT V) Highest point of emotional intensity of the story The greatest and final event that takes place (death) RESOLUTION: The loose parts of the plot are tied up and resolved Any questions are answered Signifies the end of the play

Romeo and Juliet (Climax) “ O happy dagger!”

Romeo and Juliet (Resolution ) “For never was there a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”

The Main Themes in R&J Love at first sight – common 16th century belief that if you didn’t fall in love at first sight then you weren’t really in love.

Hate – the two families hate each other and are constantly fighting, causing many deaths. No one really knows why they are fighting as they fell out so long ago. Are they right to continue to hate even though they don’t know why?

Fate – another common belief was that your future was mapped out in the stars and you couldn’t influence the future in anyway. Just like us reading our horoscopes really. Do you believe in fate? Why?

Loyalty – Some characters have certain loyalties, like the Nurse to Juliet, the Friar to Romeo and The Montagues and Capulets to their own blood relatives. These loyalties become hard to maintain when certain decisions have to be made. Do you think you have to be loyal to someone just because it is expected of you?

Honesty – Many of the characters lie and deceive to get what they want such as The Friar, Romeo and Juliet. How far would you go to get what you wanted in life? Do a few lies here and there matter?

Literary Terms Foil - A foil is a character whose personality or actions are in striking contrast (the opposite of) to those of another character.

Literary Terms Foil Example: In J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels, the character of Lord Voldemort, the primary antagonist of the stories, is a foil for both Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore.

Literary Terms Soliloquy - A soliloquy is a speech that a character gives when he or she is alone. Its purpose is to let the audience know what the character is thinking.

Literary Terms Oxymoron - a figure of speech that combines two usually contradictory terms, as in the word bittersweet or the phrase living death.

Literary Terms Soliloquy and Oxymoron Example: Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate, O 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!

The Play The Prologue – Remember the play was written to be performed, not read. Also, the majority of the audience weren’t as intelligent as you so they needed a bit of a helping hand. The Prologue, (meaning ‘before speech’) gave them a few hints about what they were about to see and asked them to try and understand even if it didn’t all make perfect sense. Just what I’m asking you to do!

The Montagues & Capulets Both very wealthy & powerful families. Italian city The old feud between the families. No one knows the reason why they fell out. The feud continues with new generations of Montagues & Capulets 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. Suggesting that many civilians are guilty for killing others.

Loins are your privates Loins are your privates! What they do with their loins results in their death. enemies Their meeting was destined to happen through fate. It was an adventure that went wrong suicide From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life; Whole misadventured piteous overthrows Do with their death bury their parents' strife. But one good thing came from it in that it stopped all the hate & bloodshed

The time they had together was very dangerous Suggests they died at the hands of fate. Rage at the other families. Their parents never knew of the romance until they were dead. Only the death of their own children would make them stop hating the other family & make them call a truce. 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,

The play lasts for two hours You need to listen & be patient If you don’t quite understand what I’ve just said in this prologue... I’ll work hard to help you understand in the action that’s about to happen! 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.