Romeo and JulietBackground Notes

Introduction

Theme•Tragic young love

•Star-crossed lovers

1595•The year the play was written

Shakespeare “borrowed”

from a lot of sources

•Tragedical History of Romeo and Juliet

•Arthur Brooke•Brook borrowed the idea

from an old Italian poem

(just like the other writers of his day)

Shakespeare and his times

Actor

Other actors included:

•Richard Burbage•Cuthbert Burbage•Will Kemp•John Hemminges

1594•Lord Chamberlain’s Men

1603

•The King’s Men

Theatres

•Sets were not elaborate•Before theatres, taverns and town halls hosted plays

•$$$ meant you could afford to sit in the balcony

•Groundlings paid one penny to stand in the pit

• No artificial lighting

• Plays were usually performed in the afternoon

• Stage was a platform

• Groundlings threw garbage

• Familiarity with the plots help the audience appreciate the performances

• Women were not allowed to be actresses so young boys played the female roles

•Theatre troupes usually had 12 men

•Actors needed to be versatile (multi-talented)

swordsmen

acrobats

singers

dancers/musicians

The Playwright’s Art

Staging

No outside curtains

•Actors’ lines helped the audience understand the setting

This is the forest of Arden.

Prologue•an introductory speech

•spoken by a narrator also known as a chorus

Romeo and Juliet•takes place is less than one week

Romeo and Juliet•is set in Verona, Italy

•contrasted in –characters – mood– setting

Romeo and Juliet

Important Influences in Romeo and Juliet

•chance/fate•time•love

Languageمسالم paz

paixpace

MNPruhe

pokójpeace

•action + language = good show

•pun

Iambic Pentameter•five stressed beats and five unstressed beats per line

Shall I compare thee to a summers day?

∕ ∕∕∕∕

Literary Criticism•Shakespeare was popular with the people but not with the critics

Shakespeare broke the Rules of Good

Writing

Instead of writing for the king and queen…

…Shakespeare wrote for the “common folk”

Rather than avoiding the

realities of life and notshowing crime…

…Shakespeare showed murder on stage

Instead of keeping genres of theatreseparate…

…Shakespeare combined comedy and

tragedy to create a different form of entertainment

Rather than agreeing with other playwrights that theatre was to be serious and straight-laced…

…Shakespeare ignored the rules of decorum and made theatre fun and accessible for all