1. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare

2. DIALOGUE The conversation between characters
Provides the substance of a play
Can further the plot
Provide clues about character or theme (indirect characterization)
Heighten the overall dramatic effect

3. STAGE DIRECTIONS
The written instructions that explain how to perform a play
Stage directions contain crucial information that will help you visualize the action
Includes how the characters should look, speak, move, and behave
Stage directions can also specify details of the setting and scenery
Usually written in italics & within parentheses

4. Structure
Play
Act I
Act 2
Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3

5. Prologue Establishes the setting Introduces main characters
Explains background
Introduces character’s main conflict
Spoken by the chorus

6. Chorus
During the Elizabethan era in England, the chorus was portrayed by one actor
Spoke the prologue and epilogue to the play
Spoke directly to the audience

7. Exposition Establishes the setting and the characters
Introduces the conflict

8. Rising Action Consists of a series of complications
These occur as the main characters take action to resolve their problems

9. Crisis
Turning point
Moment when a choice is made by the main character
Determines the direction of the action
Dramatic and tense moment when the forces of conflict come together

10. Falling Action
Presents events that result from the action taken at the turning point
Usually lock the characters deeper and deeper into disaster

11. Climax Occurs at the end of the play
Usually ends in tragedy with the death of the main characters
Play ends with the resolution immediately follows & ties up the loose ends of the play

12. Tragedy A play in which the main character suffers a downfall
In most tragedies, the main characters are in some ways responsible for their downfall
Tragic hero
Tragic Flaw

13. Aristotle’s Six Elements of Tragedy
Plot
Diction/Language/Dialogue
Music/Rhythm
Theme
Spectacle
Character

14. Elements of Tragedy: Plot
Plot: what happens in a play

15. Elements of Tragedy Diction/Language/Dialogue
The playwrights’ word choices and the actor’s enunciation while delivering the lines

16. Elements of Tragedy Music/Rhythm
Not music as we think of it, but rather the sound, rhythm, and melody of the speeches

17. Elements of Tragedy Theme:
What a play means, as opposed to what happens

18. Elements of Tragedy Spectacle
the scenery, costumes, and special effects in a play

19. Elements of Tragedy
Character
The person an actor represents in a play

20. Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is based on a long narrative poem by Arthur Brooke
Published in 1562
Based on popular Italian stories

21. Romeo and Juliet Romeo was a very young man
Juliet was a 14-year-old girl
They fall in love at first sight
Caught up in an idealized, almost unreal, passionate love
In-love with love

22. Star-crossed lovers
Shakespeare presents Romeo and Juliet as “star-crossed lovers”
Doomed to disaster by fate
In Shakespeare’s time, they believed in astrology
(Zodiac signs)

23. Fate More than mere victims of fate
Romeo and Juliet make decisions that lead to their disaster