1. A Star-crossed Romance
Romeo and Juliet
A Star-crossed Romance

2. Some notes
Romeo and Juliet was written by Shakespeare in 1594 or 1595.
Romeo and Juliet was an experimental stage piece, featuring several radical departures from long-standing conventions.
The themes of the play include the antithesis between love and hate, the use of a light/dark polarity, the use of time, and the use of Fate in the dreams, omens and forebodings that foreshadow the play’s tragic conclusion.

3. WHAT’S IN A NAME?

4. The Montagues Lord and Lady Montague – Romeo’s parents Romeo Montague
Balthasar and Abram – servants to the Montagues
Benvolio – cousin and friend to Romeo

5. Lord and Lady Capulet – Juliet’s parents Juliet Capulet
The Capulets
Lord and Lady Capulet – Juliet’s parents
Juliet Capulet
Nurse – Juliet’s attendant
Tybalt – cousin to Juliet
Sampson and Gregory – servants to the Capulets

6. Prince – ruler of Verona Paris – a close relative of the Prince
The OTHERS
Prince – ruler of Verona
Paris – a close relative of the Prince
Mercutio – Friend of Romeo and relative of the Prince

7. A Very Brief Plot Summary
Act I – Shakespeare establishes an on-going feud between two families, the Montagues and Capulets.
Juliet’s father decides that even though Juliet is only 13 it is time to find her a husband.
Romeo (a Montague) and Juliet ( A Capulet) meet and fall in love.

8. Act II – One of the Capulets challenges Romeo to a duel
Act II – One of the Capulets challenges Romeo to a duel. Romeo’s friends fear for his safety.
Friar Laurence conspires with Romeo to arrange a secret marriage.
By the end of Act II, Romeo and Juliet are married.

9. Act III – The duel between Romeo and Tybalt takes place after all, and Romeo kills Tybalt.
The Prince spares Romeo’s life, but banishes him from Verona.
Juliet’s father announces that she shall wed Paris in 3 days.
Juliet makes plans to seek the advice of Friar Laurence where unbeknownst to her Romeo is hiding.

10. Act IV -- Juliet threatens to commit suicide rather than marry Paris.
Friar Laurence convinces her to fake her death in order to be with Romeo.
Juliet follows the Friar’s plan, and her corpselike body is discovered by her nurse.

11. Act V – Romeo receives word that Juliet is dead.
He buys a fast-acting poison and travels to Juliet’s tomb so that he may die beside her.
Paris is also at the tomb. He and Romeo fight, and Paris is killed.
Romeo drinks the poison. Juliet awakens and stabs herself to death with Romeo’s dagger.
The feuding families end their feud and plan to raise up golden statues for the lovers.

12. Oxymoron Oxymoron: contradictory terms are combined.
Example: “Brawling love”, “loving hate”, “heavy lightness”

13. Onomatopoeia
Definition: When a word expresses the sound. Example: Plunk, hist!, splash

14. Allusion
Definition: a reference to a character, place, or situation from another work of literature, music, or art. Example: reference to mythological characters such as Diana, goddess of chastity, and Phaeton the son of the sun god are literary allusions

15. Foreshadowing
Definition: the use of clues by an author to prepare readers for events that will happen later in the story. Example: Juliet sees Romeo “at the bottom of a grave” when he leaves her to flee to Mantua

16. Verbal Irony
Definition: A contradiction of expectation between what is said and what is meant Verbal irony is implied and refers to spoken words only Example: "Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honourable man“ (Julius Caesar) Mark Antony really means that Brutus is dishonourable

17. Shakespearean Sonnet
Definition: A 14-line verse form having 3 quatrains (sets of four lines that go together), ending with a couplet (a pair of lines), and having an ababcdcdefefgg rhyme scheme. Example: The Prologue in Romeo and Juliet

18. Simile
A figure of speech in which two fundamentally unlike things are explicitly compared, usually in a phrase introduced by like or as Example: She was as white as snow

19. Personification
Definition: representation of a thing or abstraction as a person or by the human form Example: Juliet: By whose direction found’st thou out this place? Romeo: By love, that first did prompt me to inquire. He lent me counsel, and I lent him eyes. ( )

20. Imagery
Definition: Words or phrases that appeal to the five senses Juliet: “… in a vault, an ancient receptacle Where for this many hundred years the bones Of all my buried ancestors are packed; Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth Lies festering in his shroud…” ( )

21. Dramatic Irony
Definition: In literature, this is a plot device in which the audience’s or reader’s knowledge of events or individuals surpasses that of the characters. The words and actions of the characters therefore take on a different meaning for the audience or reader than they have for the play’s characters. This may happen when, for example, a character reacts in an inappropriate or foolish way or when a character lacks self-awareness and thus acts under false assumptions. Example: Romeo’s suicide while Juliet is still really alive. Capulet’s plan to arrange Juliet’s marriage when she is already married. Juliet’s balcony scene speech when Romeo is listening

22. Blank Verse
Definition: unrhymed verse; specifically : unrhymed iambic pentameter verse Example: The dialogue between Juliet and Romeo during the balcony scene (Act II, scene ii)

23. Assonance
Definition: repetition of vowels without repetition of consonants Example: stony and holy “But passion lends them power, time means, to meet, Temp’ring extremities with extreme sweet.”

24. Aside
Definition:
an utterance meant to be inaudible to someone; especially : an actor's speech heard by the audience but supposedly not by other characters
Example:
Romeo:“They laugh at scars who ne’er have felt a wound.”

25. Apostrophe
Definition: the addressing of a usually absent person or a usually personified thing Example: “O Liberty, what things are done in thy name!”

26. Alliteration
Definition: the repetition of usually initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables Example: wild and woolly, threatening throngs Called also head rhyme or initial rhyme.

27. Romeo and Juliet: Themes

28. Theme One: Love
“Romeo and Juliet” has become forever associated with love.
The play has become an iconic story of love and passion, and the name “Romeo” is still used to describe young lovers.
Shakespeare’s treatment of love in the play is complex.
He uses love in its many guises to thread together the key relationships in the play.

29. Fickle Love
Some characters fall in and out of love very quickly in Romeo and Juliet.
For example, Romeo is in love with Rosaline at the start of the play, which is presented as an immature infatuation.
Today, we might use the term “puppy love” to describe this. Romeo’s love for Rosaline is shallow and nobody really believes that it will last, including Friar Laurence:

30. Fickle Love
Romeo. Thou chid'st me oft for loving Rosaline. Friar Laurence. For doting, not for loving, pupil mine.

31. Paris and Juliet
Similarly, Paris’ love for Juliet is borne out of tradition, not passion. He has identified her as a good candidate for a wife and approaches her father to arrange the marriage.
Although this was the tradition at the time, it also says something about Paris’ staid attitude towards love.
He even admits to Friar Laurence that in his haste to rush the wedding through he hasn’t discussed it with his bride-to-be:

32. Friar Laurence. On Thursday, sir. the time is very short. Paris
Friar Laurence. On Thursday, sir? the time is very short. Paris. My father Capulet will have it so; And I am nothing slow to slack his haste. Friar Laurence. You say you do not know the lady's mind: Uneven is the course, I like it not. Paris. Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt's death, And therefore have I little talked of love;

33. Romantic Love
Our classic idea of romantic love is embodied in Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare presents this as a force of nature, so strong that it transcends societal conventions.
This idea is established in the play’s prologue with the line “a pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life.”

34. Romantic Love
Perhaps Romeo and Juliet's love is fate - there love is given cosmic significance which can therefore overturn the social boundaries of “fair Verona.”
Their love is disallowed by the Capulet and Montague households, and Juliet is to marry Paris – Yet, they inevitably find themselves drawn together.

35. Other Types of Love
Many of the friendships in the play are as sincere as Romeo and Juliet’s love for one another.
The close relationships between Juliet and her Nurse, and between Romeo, Mercutio and Benvolio are meaningful and heartfelt.
They care deeply for another and protect each others honor – this ultimately costs Mercutio his life.

36. Theme Two: Hate The Capulet’s hate the Montagues and vice versa.
We don’t know why though the Prince says their grudge was the result of an “airy word” (an insult)
The Younger generation of both families continue this feud.
It is this hatred that leads to tension and conflict in the play

37. Tybalt’s Hate Tybalt is unreasonably hateful.
The mere sight of Romeo at the Capulet party angers him to the point of murder
It is Ironic that the party which brings the two lovers together sows the seeds that destroy their lives.
Perhaps Shakespeare is showing the paradoxical relationship between the two emotions.
Just as Romeo chooses Juliet as the object of his romantic desire, Tybalt chooses Romeo as the object of his murderous desire.

38. Does Love or Hate triumph?
Does love or hate conquer in the play?
Romeo’s love for Juliet and hopes for happiness are destroyed by Tybalt’s hatred of Romeo, Mercutio’s hatred of Tybalt and Romeo’s failure to make amends through love (Act 3 Scene 1)
The families hatred forces the two to end their lives.
The love that prompted their rash actions however brings an end to the families hatred.
Once again Shakespeare shows us that Love and Hate are intertwined.

39. Theme Three: Fate
In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare explores the theme of fate by allowing the audience to be party to his characters’ destiny.
In the opening lines of the play the audience is told what is going to happen to the lovers: “a pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life.”
Throughout the story, the audience is put in an omnipotent, god-like position from the start encouraging them to think about fate and to what extent our actions are free.
Because we know Romeo and Juliet’s fate from the outset we are constantly hoping that they will take a different course – perhaps that Romeo will arrive just after Juliet has woken.
However, their fate is sealed and we are forced to question our own destiny and ability to make free choices.

40. Theme Three: Fate
When Mercutio shouts “a plague on both your houses” in Act 3, Scene 1, we are reminded of the protagonists’ fate.
This bloody scene in which characters are killed gives us a glimpse of what fate has in store, marking the beginning of Romeo and Juliet’s tragic downfall.
Is it fate that Friar Lawrence’s plan to inform Romeo of Juliet’s faked death is not realized due to unforeseen circumstances?
Is it fate that Romeo kills himself when he does?
Romeo and Juliet see omens throughout the play, continually reminding the audience of their fate.
Their death is a catalyst for change in Verona: the dueling families are united in their grief creating a political shift in the city.
Perhaps Romeo and Juliet were fated to love and die for the greater good of Verona.