Romeo & JulietAn Introduction

While no one is sure when Romeo and Juliet was first performed, it is believed that it was 1594 or 1595.

Romeo and Juliet was first printed around 1597.

The story of Romeo and Juliet was based on real lovers from Verona who died for each other in the year 1303.

The Capulets and Montagues really did live in Verona.

Romeo & Juliet – page 697

The main character (tragic hero) suffers great sorrow or is brought to ruin or death.

A tragedy is usually the consequence of a person’s tragic flaw, moral weakness, or an inability to cope with a bad situation.

In a tragedy, the ending is unhappy, yet has purpose or meaning. There is a lesson to learn from the events in the story.

Who do you think is the tragic hero in Romeo & Juliet?

Genre: Tragedy

Romeo & Juliet

Elizabethan LanguageThe Age of Shakespeare(1558-1603)

Language changes throughout time. English of the 16th century sounds quite foreign to us.

Here are some common terms:"Hello" is an exclamation of

surprise, not greeting.“Good morrow” and “How

now?” are the basic hello greetings.

“Anon” and “God save you” are ways of saying goodbye.

Elizabethan English (1)

It's "Aye" or "Yay" not "Yes”

"Nay" or "Indeed Not" for "No”

"You" can be either "thee/thou" or even "you/ye” (plural)

"You would" or "You should" best heard as "Thou would'st" or "Thou should'st”

“Hence” means “here”

Elizabethan English (2)

Anon: soonAye: yesBetimes: right now!E’en: evenE’er: everEre: beforeHence: away from hereHie: hurryHither: hereMarry: indeed!

Common Vocabulary (1)

Hark: listenPrithee: please (pray thee)Sooth: trulyThither: thereWithal: in addition; moreoverWont: used to; accustomedWherefore: why or thereforeArt: are

“Wherefore art thou Romeo?” means what?

Common Vocabulary (2)

Questions and negatives can be

formed without using do or did.

A crutch, a crutch! Why call you for a sword? (Ii63)

Put up your swords, you know not what you do (Ii52)

What say you?

She loves me not.

Forming Questions

You is used if more than one person is being addressed: “If ever you disturb our streets again your lives shall pay the forfeit of peace.”

You also indicates respect. Whenever characters are of the same status and have the same esteem for each other, they use you.

Using Thou vs. You

Thou is often used by a person in power to a child or to an adult as an insult.

Example: When Tybalt speaks to Romeo in (IIIi62-63): “Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries that thou hast done to me, therefore turn and draw.”

Using Thou vs. You (2)

Elizabethan English is a colorful language full of evocative words and phrases.

Elizabethans used colorful and unique insults.

Combine two colorful adjectives with one colorful noun.

Example: Thou art an unmuzzled, onion-

eyed footlicker!

Elizabethan Insults

Elizabethan Insult GeneratorIn order to use this insult generator choose one word from each column and combine them using "Thou art a(n)..."

Column 1 Column 2 Column 3

Artless Base-court Apple-johnBawdy Bat-fowling BaggageBeslubbering Beef-witted BarnacleBootless Beetle-headed BladderChurlish Boil-brained Boar-pigCockered Clapper-clawed BugbearClouted Clay-brained Bum-baileyCraven Common-kissing Canker-blossomCurrish Crook-pated Clack-dishDankish Dismal-dreaming Clot-pole

Blank verse is poetry that doesn’t rhyme, but is written in iambic pentameter.

Iambic pentameter is when an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable. 5 per line

Pentameter means the iambic pattern is repeated five times in the line.

Example: A las that love, whose view is muf fled still

Blank Verse (not Free Verse)

And if you leave me so, you do me wrong.

A word ill urg’d to one that is so ill.

A right good markman. And she’s fair I love.

O Lord, I could have stay’d here all the night.

Go hence; good night; and here stands all your state.

That may be, sir, when I may be a wife.

Blank Verse (Examples)

Setting & ExpositionRomeo & Juliet

Time period: 13th or 14th century

Place: in Verona and

Mantua, northern Italy.

Many of the characters in the play fight in the streets of Verona.

In fact, a lot of fighting takes place there.

Setting

•Verona

Today, because of the popularity of Romeo and Juliet, many tourists come to Verona to see the Casa di Giulietta or The House of Juliet.

A lot of action takes place inside Juliet’s home.

The masquerade ball (at the beginning of the play) is in Juliet’s home.

The famous balcony scene takes place outside Juliet’s bedroom.

Setting

The House of Juliet

Shakespeare borrowed the story from an old tale of two feuding families – the Montagues and the Capulets.

In the 1300’s such family feuds were common. Italian families were extended to include cousins and even servants.

The families became involved in a vendetta, a feud between two families often ignited by a murder and perpetuated by acts of revenge.

The Italian Vendetta

V is for Vendetta

Lord and Lady Capulet are Juliet’s parents.

They were a noble family, which meant they were wealthy and important in Verona’s society.

The Capulets were ruthless and liked things to be done their way.

Characters: Lord and Lady Capulet, Juliet, Tybalt, Nurse, Peter, Sampson, Gregory

The Capulets (Juliet) p. 697

Lord Capulet

Lord and Lady Montague are Romeo’s parents.

They were a noble family, and one of the richest and most powerful families in Verona’s society.

The Montagues were nice, but looked down on the Capulets.

Characters: Lord and Lady Montague, Romeo, Benvolio, Balthasar, and Abram

The Montagues (Romeo)

Lady Montague

Reading & UnderstandingRomeo & Juliet

Most importantly: Read it out loud Do a different voice for each character Look up definitions for unknown words Write summaries of what you have read Get family and friends to read with you Use play summaries (with the original text

– No Fear Shakespeare) Make a list of the characters with a

description of each Assign a unique color to each character

Example: Romeo is blue, Mercutio is red, Benvolio is white, Tybalt is black, etc.

Read some passages more than once

How should I read Shakespeare?

ACT I PROLOGUE – Sonnet form (page 698)

Reading to the line

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 foesA pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;Whole misadventured piteous overthrowsDo 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.

Reading Iambic Pentameter

Romeo & Juliet

Da-DUMDa-

DUMDa-

DUMDa-

DUMDa-

DUM

ACT I PROLOGUE – p. 698

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 foesA pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;Whole misadventured piteous overthrowsDo 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.

Reading to the Sentence

ACT I PROLOGUE – p. 698

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 foesA pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;Whole misadventured piteous overthrowsDo 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.

Reading to Punctuation

ACT I PROLOGUE – p. 698

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.

Two families of equal worthiness

In beautiful Verona, where our play is set,

From a longstanding grudge open up a new fight

That spills the blood of some citizens, making the other citizens’ hands dirty.

Paraphrasing

households = familiesdignity = worthiness, meritfair = beautifulancient = longstandingmutiny = public fightcivil = relating to the community

ACT I PROLOGUE – (page 698)

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 foesA pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;Whole misadventured piteous overthrowsDo 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.

Paraphrasing

Now it’s your turn…Memorization & Recitation Project – Romeo & Juliet

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