Romeo and JulietWilliam Shakespeare

What is a tragedy?

• Think of some examples of real life tragedies.

• What is “tragic love”?

What’s with the stars?

Star cross’d

• “From forth the fatal loins of these two foesA pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life”

• What do stars symbolize?

• Horoscope

• “Written in the stars” Higher powers approve

• Forces out of human control are working against the two.

More Stars

• Cassius:"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,But in ourselves, that we are underlings.“

Julius Caesar ACT I Scene ii

And More Stars

• “Doubt thou the stars are fire,Doubt that the sun doth move,Doubt truth to be a liar,But never doubt I love.”

Hamlet ACT II Scene ii

Setting:

• Verona, Italy (Manchua)

• Late 1500’s

Characters:

The Capulets

• Juliet Capulet – a 13-year-old girl

• Lord and Lady Capulet – Juliet’s parents

• Count Paris – the man Juliet’s father wants her to marry

• Tybalt – Juliet’s cousin

• Nurse – Juliet’s nurse, who has taken care of her since she was a baby

Characters

The Montagues

• Romeo Montague: A young man, probably about 17 years old

• Lord and Lady Montague: Romeo’s parents

• Benvolio Montague: Romeo’s cousin

• Mercutio: Romeo’s best friend

• Friar Laurence: A priest and friend of Romeo

Summary:

• A family feud

• Falling in love

• A secret marriage

• A fight

• A banishment

• A match-making father

Summary

• A desperate plan

• Some deadly gossip

• The death of Romeo and Juliet

• A lesson learned

Prologue

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;Whose 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.

Sonnet

• A sonnet is poetic format which allows the poet to examine the nature and ramifications of two usually contrastive ideas, emotions, states of mind, beliefs, actions, events, images, etc., by juxtaposing the two against each other, and possibly resolving or just revealing the tensions created and operative between the two.

The English (or Shakespearian) Sonnet

• The English sonnet has the simplest and most flexible pattern of all sonnets, consisting of 3 quatrains of alternating rhyme and a couplet:

• a b a b

• c d c d

• e f e f

• g g

Conceit

• Conceit is a figure of speech in which two vastly different objects are compared with the help of similes or metaphors.

• Conceit develops a comparison which is extremely unlikely but intellectually imaginative and creative.

Romeo: If I profane with my unworthiest handThis holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready standTo 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 touchAnd 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 no move, though grant for prayers’ sake.Romeo: Then move not while my prayer’s effect I takeThus from my lips, by thine my sin is purged.Juliet: Then have my lips the sin that they have took.Romeo: Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urged!Give me my sin again.Juliet: You kiss by th’ book.

Essential Questions

• What makes a person who he or she is?

• What role does family play in a person’s identity?

• What is love?

• What extreme measures are people willing to take for love?

• Are Shakespeare's views on love, loyalty, friendship, and fate still relevant today?

Denotation and Connotation

• Denotation refers to the literal meaning of a word, the "dictionary definition.”

▫ For example, if you look up the word snake in a dictionary, you will discover that one of its denotative meanings "any of numerous scaly, legless, sometimes venomous reptiles, having a long, tapering, cylindrical body and found in most tropical and temperate regions."

• Connotation, on the other hand, refers to the associations that are connected to a certain word or the emotional suggestions related to that word.

▫ The connotations for the word snake could include evil or danger.

• The connotative meanings of a word exist together with the denotative meanings.

Love

• Denotation: an intense feeling of deep affection

• Connotation: family, romance, loyalty, friendship

A play on words, either on different senses of the same word or on the similar sense or sound of different words.

Types of puns

• Homophonic puns are created by substituting one word for a similar-sounding word.

▫ A good pun is its own reword.

▫ I bet the butcher the other day that he couldn’t reach the meat that was on the top shelf. He refused to take the bet, saying that the steaks were too high.

▫ I would like to go to Holland someday. Wooden shoe?

Types of puns

• Homographic puns are created by using a word that has two different meanings.

▫ Corduroy pillows are making headlines.

▫ The motorist says to the cop, "Why can't I park my car here? The sign says 'Fine for Parking'!"

Foil

• A foil character is a character who contrasts with the main character, and therefore brings attention to the main character’s personality.

• In Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio is a foil for Romeo.

• Mercutio is witty, funny and mocks love.

• Romeo is serious and pathetically and dramatically in love.

Drama

• A prose or verse composition, especially one

telling a serious story, that is intended for representation by actors impersonating the

characters and performing the dialogue and action.