Romeo and Juliet By William Shakespeare

Summary Romeo and Juliet is a story about two teenagers who fall in love but are forbidden to see each other by their parents. They meet one night at a party (Romeo is actually there to check out another girl, Rosaline) and quickly fall in love. Unfortunately, Juliet’s parents already have a husband picked out for her. So, the two decide to get married and enlist the help of Juliet’s nurse to act as a messenger between the two and Friar Laurence who agrees to marry them. However, plans go awry after Romeo is banished from Verona and doesn’t get filled in on the plans that Juliet has for them to live happily ever after…

Setting The story is set in the late 1500’s mostly in the town of Verona, Italy. However, there are a few acts set in Mantua, Italy a smaller town just a few miles away.

Timeline Sunday – Act One Monday – Act Two Tuesday – Act Three Wednesday – Act Four Thursday – Act Five

The Feud Romeo’s family, the Montagues, have a long standing feud with Juliet’s family, the Capulets. While the audience never learns about the source of the ancient quarrel, we do learn that it has recently grown stronger.

Comedy and Tragedy Elements of a tragedy Must have a tragic hero/heroine Ends in the death of many of the main characters Romeo and Juliet begins as a comedy but ends as a tragedy Elements of a comedy The shift from comedy to tragedy is what sets Romeo and Juliet apart from the rest of Shakespeare’s plays A struggle of young lovers to overcome difficulty that is often presented by elders Separation and unification Heightened tensions, often within a family

Themes Love The power of love Love as a cause for violence Fate The inevitability of fate Hate Hate as a forced emotion

Plagiarism!? Shakespeare did not invent the story of Romeo and Juliet. A poet named Arthur Brooks wrote the story of Romeus and Juliet as a long poem that was itself not original, but rather an adaptation of adaptations that stretched across nearly a hundred years and two languages. Many of the details of Shakespeare’s plot are taken directly from Brooks’ poem, including the meeting of Romeo and Juliet at the ball, their secret marriage, Romeo’s fight with Tybalt, the sleeping potion, and the timing of their suicides.

Interesting… “Star-crossed lovers” refers to two people who are in love but have conflicting astrological signs. In Shakespeare’s times, people believed the course of their lives was determined by the exact second they were born. The Italian city of Verona, where Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet every Valentine's Day.

Verona Today Today, Verona has an incredible amount of graffiti, which is legal, provided that you are writing about your love for someone.

Writing Style Parts of Romeo and Juliet are written as a sonnet, a poem of 14 lines written and rhymed in iambic pentameter. Each sonnet ends with a couplet. In a Shakespearean sonnet the rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG A couplet is two consecutive lines that rhyme. Iambic pentameter refers to the rhythm of each line. It is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one. “Bŭt sóft! Whăt líght throŭgh yóndĕr wíndŏw bréaks?”

Shakespeare’s Meter Meter: the set rhythm of a piece of writing Iamb: an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, marked “u/” Iambic Pentameter: 5 iambs in a row –“u/u/u/u/u/” Blank Verse: Unrhymed iambic pentameter

Shakespearean Sonnet Sonnet: 14 line lyric poem with a complicated rhyme scheme and defined structure Shakespearean Sonnet: uses iambic pentameter and has 3 quatrains (group of 4 lines) and a couplet –1 st quatrain introduces the situation –3 rd quatrain often shows a shift in thought –Couplet resolves the situation

Shakespearean Language Couplet: two lines of poetry that rhyme, usually at a character’s exit or at the end of a scene End-stopped lined: punctuation indicates the reader to pause at the end of each line Run-on line: no punctuation at the end of the line; meaning is completed in the line or lines that follow

Shakespearean Language (cont.) Allusion: Reference to something else; for our purposes, a reference to something from a work of literature in modern culture (song, movies, etc.) Rhyme: Repetition of accented vowel sounds and the sounds following them (cat, hat, mat) Assonance: Repeated vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds (cat, bag, late) Alliteration: Repeated consonant sounds, usually at the beginning of words (sally, sells, sea,)

Shake-a-spear Activity Your task is to break down the Shakespearean sonnet with your partner. Mark the unstressed and stressed syllables Identify the rhyme scheme (abab…) Highlight alliteration Highlight assonance Highlight any and all similes, metaphors, and personification

Romeo: If I profane with my unworthiest hand This hold shrine, the gentle sin is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. Juliet: Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, Which mannerly devotion shows in this; For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch, And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss. Romeo: Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too? Juliet: Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer. Romeo: O then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do. They pray: grant thou, lest faith turn to despair. Juliet: Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake. Romeo: Then move not while my prayer’s effect I take. (He kisses her)