Romeo and Juliet

The play’s the thing
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.
(Shakespeare, Hamlet)
Catching the conscience, raising the consciousness, alerting
an audience to the awareness of what it means to be
human, fallible, vulnerable, subject to the twists and knots
of life – these are all reasons for play-going, play-reading,
play-acting.
The performance aspect of a play heightens our
identification with the characters and their moral
dilemmas. The choices – or lack of choices – facing
characters become ‘real’ to us in the unfolding of the
drama, and inform our understanding of the characters on
stage, of the people who fill our lives, and, ultimately, of
ourselves.

The ‘public’ themes have a private face, and the
‘private’ concerns of ordinary people have a
universal resonance.
What do you think is meant by this comment?

Prior Knowledge
Why might someone of your age empathise with
the play’s main characters?
Have we seen similar themes, characters and
events in modern fiction?

High School Musical
Disney's High School Musical made use of
Romeo and Juliet's plot, placing the two young
lovers in rival high school cliques instead of
feuding families

What does the story of ‘Romeo and
Juliet’ mean to us?
What do you think of these statements made by people when asked that
question?
· Intensity and passion (young love which doesn’t last)
· Youth
· It has cultural relevance (we all know young people from different ethnic
groups whose parents want to either arrange a marriage, or prevent a
relationship)
· The division and opposition of generations (the conflict between parents
and children)
· Girls finding their independence and standing up for themselves
· Gang warfare
· Young people having to carry the burden of ancient quarrels
· Universal theme of love and passion

Baz Luhrmann
Romeo + Juliet (1996)

Setting
Verona + Mexico
Although the film isn't set against an Elizabethan backdrop, the
social, religious and political aspects of Shakespeare's time
certainly influenced the play.
Pearce explains the process: "When we started to describe the
created world we considered Shakespeare's views on Verona. In
the research we found that he was not historically or
geographically accurate in his depiction of Verona. To
Shakespeare and to Elizabethan audiences, Verona was a hot,
sexy, violent, Catholic country.
So we needed to find a place that exists in an equivalent way
for our audience. It didn't necessarily have to be naturalistic but
we wanted it to ring true.

Mexico
There are textual facts in 'Romeo and Juliet' connected
with Elizabethan society that exist in Mexico. For instance,
during Shakespeare's time religion was involved in politics
and there was a very small percentage of great wealth
with a large population of poor. It was violent and people
were openly armed.
Baz Luhrmann interpreted all of these Elizabethan things
in the context of the modern created world. In fact, much
of this occurs in modern-day Mexico,

However….
This isn’t Mexico.
Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet is set in an non-
naturalist setting.
As mentioned earlier, even to an Elizabethan
audience Verona was a foreign and mysterious
setting.
Having considered why the play is so popular to this
day, why do you think both Shakespeare and
Luhrmann chose to divorce their setting from their
audiences everyday reality.

A Play for All
Shakespeare’s Audience
During an interview, Luhrmann explains:
"I've always wanted to do 'Romeo and Juliet'. The themes it
explores, the tragedy that is born of a prohibited love in a world of
learned hate is one of those primary myths that appeals to all people.
'Romeo and Juliet', like all of Shakespeare's plays touched everyone
from the street sweeper to the Queen of England. Everything that's in
the movie is in the play. Violence, murder, lust, love, poison, even
drugs that mimic death - it's all in there.

"He is just such an extraordinary storyteller" says
Luhrmann. "What I really loved is that he had this
dilemma in terms of audience. He had to knock dead
those people selling pigs, the prostitutes and the nobles
because they were all in the same theatre. They had to
have a different experience of the material but enjoy it
equally.“
"That's what is so phenomenal about it - everyone can
experience his work albeit in different ways. That's an
incredible accomplishment. Everyone, from a child to an
adult can have a very rich experience from 'Romeo and
Juliet' and I think that's why it's still performed and why
it's worth doing. Shakespeare had an amazing genius for
capturing who we are and revealing it to us. My job is just
to re-reveal it."

Structure
The Prologue
What information is provided in the prologue? Summarise the information
given with reference to the text.
What do you think is the function of the prologue?
What effect do you think this information has on the audience?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/romeo-and-juliet-
prologue/9892.html
Consider this idea of fate: ‘the star-crossed lovers’. The pair are destined to
die tragically as is revealed immediately in the prologue. What then might
be said about the structure of the play?

The Prologue
The Sonnet
Rhythm
Come in and have a cup of coffee, Kate.
There is a weak syllable followed by a stressed
syllable. Syllables are weak or stressed in words,
such as in the work technique or defeat.

Iambic Pentameter
Try this one yourself:
I went to town to see a girl I love.

Iambic Feet
Come in/ and have/ a cup/ of cof/fee
The weak/stressed pattern is called an iambic
foot. The sentence above is made up of 5 iambic
feet. These 5 beats are called pentameter

Now try to identify the weak/stressed syllables
in this line and break it down into feet:
Shall I compare thee to a summers day?

Shakespeare and Iambic Pentameter
Shakespeare uses iambic pentameter a great deal in
his poetry and in his plays.
Sometimes he exploits the rhythm to create special
effects or to draw attention to certain words.
Try these lines from Macbeth.
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.

Rhyme
Rhythm and rhyme can be used to create sound images. Read
the poem below and consider what image is being created.
Faster than fairies, faster than witches,
Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;
And charging along like troops in a battle,
All through the meadows, the horses and cattle:
All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;
And ever again, in the wind of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by.

Rhyme
Rhythm and rhyme can be used to create sound images. Read the poem
below and consider what image is being created.
From a Railway Carriage
Faster than fairies, faster than witches,
Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;
And charging along like troops in a battle,
All through the meadows, the horses and cattle:
All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;
And ever again, in the wind of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by.
Now pick out all the rhymes.

Rhyme
Rhythm and rhyme can be used to create sound images. Read the poem
below and consider what image is being created.
From a Railway Carriage
Faster than fairies, faster than witches,
Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;
And charging along like troops in a battle,
All through the meadows, the horses and cattle:
All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;
And ever again, in the wind of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by.
Now pick out all the rhymes.

Shakespeare’s sonnets
Shakespeare’s sonnets are made up of:
• 14 lines
• In three quatrains (a quatrain has four lines)
• Followed by a couplet
• Each quatrain has an a b a b rhyme
In his sonnets Shakespeare sets out to:
• explore a chosen topic or theme in the three quatrains
• and the couplet provides a conclusion or a twist on the
theme.

The Prologue
Step 1: Break it down into its 3 quatrains and
couplet.
Step 2: Identify its rhyming scheme.
Step 3: Write a brief description of what each
quatrain is about.
Step 4: Has Shakespeare drawn your attention using
rhythm and rhyme to any words in particular?

The Prologue
A1 Two house holds, both alike in dignity,
B2 In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
A3 From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
B4 Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
C5 From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
D6 A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
C 7 Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
D 8 Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
E9 The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
F 10 And the continuance of their parents' rage,
E 11 Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
F 12 Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
G 13 The which if you with patient ears attend,
G 14 What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

Real Life Love
In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare creates a world of
violence and generational conflict in which two
young people fall in love and die because of that
love. What is so striking about this play is that,
despite its extraordinary setting, it has become the
quintessential story of young love.
BUT!
Do you agree with his representation of young love?

Characterisation
1. We first hear of Romeo from Benvolio in lines 118 on page 27.
What impression are we given of him from what Benvolio says.
Romeo comes across as melancholy and insular.
• He hides from Benvolio, rather than converse with him: ‘And gladly shunned
who gladly fled from me’ (1.i.129). He has been seen, ‘With tears
augmenting the fresh morning’s dew’. In other words he cries early in the
morning and adds to the mornings moist air.
• Montague also describes how, ‘Away from light steals home my heavy son’.
Dark and light are recurring motifs in the play and are symbolic of joy and
love and death and despair. ‘Heavy son’ reveals how Romeo is burdened with
his thoughts.
It all seems rather dramatic and immature to react in such a fashion merely
because a girl does not return his admiration.

Characterisation
3. Love vs Hate: We meet Romeo on page 29. He appears to be
in a right state.
• What do his comments reveal about love and hate?
O me, what fray was here? Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all. Here’s much
to do with hate, but more with love.’
These lines from Romeo seem to foreshadow later events in the play as the
families feud will result in the destruction of the two young lovers. The
comment seems to suggest that they cannot be separated; to hate is to feel
pain ‘brawling love’ and so often people relish in hate ‘loving hate’.
• There is a literary technique used here, what is it and what effect do you
think it has?
The use of oxymoron here suggests that Romeo is confused. The ‘chaos’ he
describes, ‘feather of lead’, ‘bright smoke’ and ‘cold fire’ add to the sense of
confusion. It also works to create a sort of nightmare state in which Romeo
believes himself to be in because of his love for Rosaline.

For Romeo, love causes the, ‘Mis-shapen chaos
of well-seeming forms’
Why might this comment seem relevant later in
the play?
Again, we could interpret this line as a form of foreshadowing.
The ‘well-seeming forms’ are Romeo and Juliet, whose love is
warped through the hate of others.

Act 1: ii
Romeo’s Broken Heart
Francesco Petrarch (1304-74) was responsible for
establishing certain ideas about love-relationships.
He wrote more than 300 sonnets addressed to an
idealized lady named Laura, with whom he had
never even had a conversation.
These sonnets were enormously popular, and poets
in Shakespeare's day were still using Petrarch's
sonnets as models.
One key Petrarchan notion is that the lover's love
for a beautiful woman is not returned and he suffers
as if from a bad flu (freezes and burns).

“Yeah but that was back in the
day……..”
Or is it???
Do you know of any popular songs about being
crazy in love with someone who didn't know you
existed?

Romeo
• Could we describe Romeo as a Petrarchan
lover?
• Please provide examples from the text to
support your answers.

Romeo
• Could we describe Romeo as a Petrarchan
lover?
There is no other woman as beautiful than Rosaline: ‘The all-
seeing sun/Ne’er saw her match since first the world
begun’(1.ii.93-94).
Rosaline is out of Romeo’s reach, in fact even Cupid’s powers are
powerless on her and she does not return his love:
‘From love’s weak childish bow she lives uncharmed’
1.i.210‘Out of her favour where I am in love’ 1.i.167

Characterisation
Benvolio and Mercutio’s efforts at making
Romeo see sense further strengthens our
suspicions that Romeo is rather immature and
egocentric.

Homework
You should complete the questions on:
• Act 1: III
• Act 1: IV
We will go over the answers as a class on
Wednesday.

Act 1.iii
Characterisation
1. What kind of character is the nurse?
Go girl, seek happy nights to happy days’ (1.iii.107).
2. What does Juliet’s reply at the end of the scene
tell us about her? Juliet: ‘I’ll look to like, if
looking liking move./ But no more deep will I
endart mine eye/Than your consent gives strength
to make it fly’ (1.iii.97- 99).
3. Language: Lady Capulet’s attitude towards Paris.

Act 1.IV
Theme
1. Language: Examine Romeo’s speech (107 – 113) noting
the reference to fate. Does this add to our picture of
Romeo’s character? Explain the image in the last two lines
of this speech.
I fear too early, for my mind misgives
Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars,
With this bright night’s reveals, and expire the term
Of a despised life closed in my breast,
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.
But he that hath the steerage of my course
Direct my suit. On lusty gentlemen. (1.IV.107 -113)

Act V
1. What important plot developments take
place in this scene?
2. This scene is full of contrasts. Can you
identify any of these?

Act V
Structure and Theme
This is an important scene in revealing the theme of
love and hate. The two emotions are presented in
juxtaposition through the soliloquies of the
characters Tybalt and Romeo.
Activities on page 74 - 75
Love, hate and fate
Juliet – Has she stuck to her word? Juliet: ‘I’ll look
to like, if looking liking move./ But no more deep
will I endart mine eye/Than your consent gives
strength to make it fly’ (1.iii.97- 99).

Love, Hate and Fate
LOVE
Explain Romeo’s speech on first sighting Juliet (Act
1.V.45-52).
‘O she doth teach the torches to burn bright’ (…)
‘Light a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear; (…) ‘She
shows a snowy dove trooping with crows’ (…) For I
ne’er saw true beauty till this night’

Love, fate, hate
Hate
Look at the comments of Tybalt. How do they contrast
with that of Romeo’s?
DISSONANCE - harsh sounds that are frequently
introduced for poetic effect - b, d, p, k, hard g (like "God,"
not "George")
For example. black cat
‘What dares the slave/Come hither, covered with an antic
face,/To fleer and scorn at our solemnity? (…) To strike
him dead I hold it not a sin.’

Juliet
Back to the Petrarchan sonnet…..
We discussed how Romeo was a Petrarchan
lover.
Can the same be said of Juliet?
Please find evidence from the text to support
your answers.

Act 1
Take an opportunity to look over the whole of act one. A
number of key themes have been introduced:
Youth and Age
Love
Hatred
Fate
For each of these themes make a list of occasions when:
• People talk about it, directly or indirectly
• People’s actions tell you something about it
• The language in the play contains images that refer to it.

Structure
Tragedy and Comedy
Shakespeare often juxtaposes tragedy/love in the play
with comedy.
In Act 1: Scene I for instance, there is a punning exchange
between Benvolio and Mercutio just before Tybalt arrives.
Or the contrast between Act 1: Scene i in which Romeo is
in a melancholy mood and Scene iii in which the Nurse’s
rambling stories cannot be silenced.
What effect do you think this might have on the
audience?

Act 2:Scene 1
Consider both the themes and the structure of the
play.
What is the purpose of Mercutio’s crude
references?
To structure:
To theme:

Act 2: II
The Balcony Scene
Shakespeare and sentence structure.
‘He jests at scars that never felt a wound’
1. What does Romeo mean by this?
2. How would you order the words in this sentence so that it made
more sense to you?
Identify the predicate and the subject.
1. The lion roared
2. He writes well
3. She enjoys going to the cinema
4. The girl in the blue dress arrived late

Echoes
Task:
Boys - Every time Romeo says the word 'love', you should echo
the word.
Girls - Every time Juliet asks a question, you should echo the
question.
What do they notice from this exercise about the type of
language that Romeo and Juliet are using here?
What is the difference between their choices of language?
Why does Romeo choose to say the word 'love' so many times?
Why does Juliet ask so many questions?
What does this say about their characters?

Dramatic Techniques
and Literary Techniques
Which dramatic technique is used by both
characters in the opening of this scene?
What is its effect?
Assonance: vowel sounds.
Read the scene again. What vowel sound is
dominant? What emotion is described by the vowel
sounds?

Motifs
Light and Dark
Shakespeare uses light and dark imagery in this scene to
describe the blossoming of Romeo and Juliet's romance.
Light represents the lovers as they see one another in the
darkness of their troubles; darkness also as the shroud of
secrecy; also light as lightning and therefore transitory
and easily burnt out.
Task: Read over the balcony scene discussion and identify
and evaluate any references made to light and dark.

Light
Juliet is the light that frees him from the darkness of his
perpetual melancholia. In the famous balcony scene Romeo
associates Juliet with sunlight, "It is the east and Juliet is the
sun!" (2.2.3), daylight, "The brightness of her cheek would
shame those stars/As daylight doth a lamp" (2.2.20-1), and
the light emanating from angels, "O speak again bright angel"
(2.2.26).
In turn, Juliet compares their new-found love to lightening
(2.2.120), primarily to stress the speed at which their romance
is moving, but also to suggest that, as the lightening is a
glorious break in the blackness of the night sky, so too is their
love a flash of wondrous luminance in an otherwise dark
world.

Religious Imagery
Religious imagery is also used in this scene.
Task: Identify these images.
Consider love and religion as a concept.
Question: What do you think is the effect of the
religious imagery?

Juliet and Romeo
The development of Character
Romeo has noticeably matured in this scene. He has moved away from
the melodramatic and melancholy expressions of love. His declarations
of love are now in blank verse, which adds realism and a more natural
quality to their love.
However, regardless of her youth, Juliet is clearly the more mature of
the two.
Identify examples of Juliet’s maturity in the scene.
Romeo: ‘Love goes towards love as school boys from their books, But
love from love, towards school with heavy looks’ (Act 2. ii. 159-160).
What do you understand from this line? What does it reveal about
Romeo’s character?

Act 2: Scene 3 (2:3)
Foreshadowing
1. Look closely at Friar Lawrence’s opening speech in this scene.
Copy down any words or phrases which include examples of
foreshadowing/dramatic irony.
2. What effect does Shakespeare have on his audience by using
foreshadowing in his play?
3. Friar Lawrence’s last line in this scene is a warning to Romeo.
Wisely and slow, they stumble those who run fast’ What does this
mean? How is it another example of foreshadowing?

Act 2: Scene 3
Character
1. Now look for oppositions in his speech. What do these
balanced ideas reveal about the Friar’s character?
2. Identify the rhyming scheme used by Shakespeare. Having
considered the Friar’s character. What does this pattern
add?
3. When Romeo tells Friar Lawrence that he loves Juliet and
not Rosaline, Friar Lawrence says: ‘Young men’s love then
lies not truly in their hearts but in their eyes’. What does
Friar Lawrence mean by this? Why might his comments
continue to resonate with a modern audience?
4. Why does Friar Lawrence agree to marry the pair? Is this
important to the plot? Why might it be described as ironic?

Homework
1. What is your impression of Friar Lawrence in this
scene and why do you think this is?
In your answer you should comment on
Shakespeare’s use of language and structure.
2. Read Act 2: Scene 6. In this scene the Friar offers
us another view of ‘love’. Look at lines 9 – 15. What
do these comments reveal about the Friar?

The Feud
The love of Romeo and Juliet is set in a context of
hate.
Question: When were we first introduced to this
feud?
Questions: Does the audience know how the feud
began?
Question: Which character reminds us of the feud
both in 1.I and 1.V?

Act 3, Scene 1 (3:1)
This scene occurs immediately after the
marriage of Romeo and Juliet – which can
account for Romeo’s wish not to fight Tybalt.
Themes: The contrast between love and hate is
again explicit in this scene.

Wordplay
Puns
• She got fired from the hot dog stand for putting
her hair in a bun.
• No matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll
still be stationery.
• Mercutio: That dreamers often lie
• Romeo: In bed asleep, while they do dream
things true.

Mercutio
• Mercutio: Consort? What dost thou make us
minstrels? And thou makes minstrels of us, look
to hear nothing but discords. Here’s my fiddle
stick, here’s that shall make you dance’ (3.I.47-
50).
• Mercutio (on being fatally wounded): ‘Ask for
me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave
man’ (3.I.100).

THE DOUBLE ENTENDRE
The double entendre is a play on words one
meaning of which is lewd:
Did you hear about the sleepy bride who couldn't
stay awake for a second?

Language
Look at the beginning and the end of the scene.
Can you identify where each of these language
forms is used?
Blank verse is poetry written in unrhymed
iambic pentameter.
Prose has no rhyming or metric scheme and has
the qualities of everyday language.

Function of Prose
• •To make dialogue more realistic
Many short, functional lines like “And I, my lord,” and “I pray you leave me” are
written in prose to give the play a sense of realism. In some longer speeches,
Shakespeare allowed the audience to identify more closely with his characters by
using the everyday language of the time.
• •To create comic effect
Some of Shakespeare’s low-class comic creations aspire to speak in the formal
language of their superiors, but do not have the intelligence to achieve this and
therefore become objects of ridicule. For example, the uneducated Dogberry in
Much Ado About Nothing attempts to use more formal language, but keeps
getting it wrong. In Act 3, Scene 5, he informs Leonato that “Our watch, sir, have
indeed comprehended two auspicious persons.” He means “apprehended” and
“suspicious”.
• •To suggest a character’s mental instability
In King Lear, Lear’s verse deteriorates into prose as the play unfolds to suggest his
increasingly erratic mental condition. We can also see a similar technique at
work in the above passage from Hamlet.

Language used for Dramatic Effect
1. Explain how Mercutio tries to upset Tybalt in various
ways.
2. Consider attitudes towards the lower classes. Why
does Tybalt call Romeo ‘villian’ and why does Romeo
deny this?
He also refers to Romeo as ‘my man’ and Mercutio
challenges this. Why?
3. Identify whether characters refer to each other as
‘you’ (formal) or ‘thou/thee’ (informal).
4. Tybalt usually refers to Mercutio using ‘you’ but
chances to ‘thou’ when he accuses him of consorting
with Romeo. Why?

Act 3, Scene 1 (3:1)
Figurative Language
‘That late thou gavest me, for Mercutio’s soul
Is but a little way above our heads,
Staying for thine to keep him company.
Either though or I, or both, must go with him’ (Romeo 3:1)
Explain this image and its effect on the audience.
Romeo’s last words in this scene are:
‘O I am fortune’s fool!’ (Romeo 3:1).
What does he mean by this? What is the effect on the audience
and how does it help reflect the themes in the play?

Patterns
An elaborate pattern is formed between Romeo
and Mercutio. Can you identify this?

Patterns
An elaborate pattern is formed between Romeo
and Mercutio. Can you identify this?
Antithesis is a counter-proposition and denotes
a direct contrast to the original proposition.

Homework
Question: How does Shakespeare use dramatic devices in
Act 3 Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet in order to make it an
interesting, exciting and pivotal scene?

Romeo and Juliet
Character Development
• Working as a group, you are going to design
and create posters for the classroom wall.
These posters are going to become very useful
revision aids for when you come to write
about Romeo and Juliet.

Poster
• Your poster should trace the development of
Romeo or Juliet through the play.
• What are they like at the beginning
• Their first meeting
• The balcony scene
• On finding out he has been banished.
( Remember to include DETAILED close analysis of
the language)

Act 3: Scene 5
The key to this scene is in what each character
knows:
• Capulet thinks he knows why his daughter is upset (over Tybalt’s death).
• Lady Capulet knows as little as her husband.
• Juliet knows about her marriage to Romeo, but cannot tell her parents.
• Juliet doesn’t know, for some time, about her parent’s plan for her to marry
Paris.
• The nurse knows, at this point, Juliet’s secrets.
Only the audience has a full understanding of what is
going on. In the scene Juliet speaks ambiguously –
with one meaning for the person to whom she
speaks and another to herself and the audience.
1. What is this dramatic technique called?
2. Find an example and explain both its meanings.

Point Act III. Scene 5Technique, analysis
Evidence
and explanation
Motifs Antithesis – a balanced
contrast - References to a
growing ‘dark’ strengthen the
impression of impeding
tragedy and contrast with
earlier images of hope.
Theme Juliet fears that she will never
The lovers are victims of their again see Romeo. References
own fate, a destructive force such as this increase the
which is never far removed sense of foreboding in the
from the audience’s play.
consciousness.
Theme
Juliet asks fate to change its
mind.

Act III. Scene 5
Point Evidence Technique, analysis and explanation
Motifs Juliet: O now be gone; more Antithesis – a balanced
light and light it grows. contrast - References to a
Light and Dark growing ‘dark’ strengthen the
Romeo: More light and light, impression of impeding
more dark and dark our woes’ tragedy and contrast with
(35-36) earlier images of hope.
Theme O god, I have an ill-divining Juliet fears that she will never
The lovers are victims of their soul!/ Me thinks I see thee, again see Romeo.
own fate, a destructive force now thou art so low,/ References such as this
which is never far removed As one dead in the bottom of increase the sense of
from the audience’s a tomb’ (III.5.54-56) foreboding in the play and
consciousness. increase the audiences
sympathy for Juliet through
the use of dramatic irony.
Theme Be fickle, fortune;/For then I Her futile requests lead the
Juliet asks fate to change its hope thou wilt not keep him audience to feel yet more
mind. long,/But send him back. sympathy for Juliet

Point Evidence Technique, analysis and explanation
Capulet shows great affection for Earth hath swallowed all my Here earth has been personified.
his daughter and hopes that she hopes but she, / She is the It may be suggesting that
will have a good future. hopeful lady of my earth. Capulet’s other children have
Act I.2.15-16 died.
He believes that she grieves over Sir Paris, I will make a desperate Capulet believes that his daughter
the death of her cousin, Tybalt tender/ Of my child’s love. I think will obey his authority and do as
and marrying Paris will make her she will be ruled. he asks of her.
happy. Act III.4.12-13
He is angry when Juliet refuses to Hang thee young baggage, Baggage is an Elizabethan word for
marry Paris. disobedient wretch! a shameless or promiscuous
Act III.5.160 woman.
The hard constants used in this
Capulet informs Juliet that if she line add to Capulet’s anger at this
refuses to marry Paris she can point.
‘hang, beg, starve, dies in the Capulet unwittingly in his refusal
streets’ to listen to Juliet sets the lovers
Act III.5.193 fate.
Capulet grieves over his ‘Death lies on her like an A simile is used here to suggest
daughter’s death. untimely frost/ Upon the that Juliet’s death is sudden and
sweetest flower of all the field’ brings a chill. The audience is
(28 – 29) encouraged to feel sympathy for
Act IV.5 Capulet, who only strived to do
the best by his daughter.
As rich shall Romeo by his lady
lie, / Poor sacrifies of our emnity The use of the word ‘our’ reveals

Juliet’s Character Development
Study these short extracts from the scene:
Lines 60 - 64, 116 – 123, 205 – 211, 234-241
How do you think Juliet has changed from the
girl we met in Act 1: Scene 3?

Act 4: Scene 3
1. Which of the following is not one of Juliet’s anxieties
about taking the potion?
• Romeo will not receive word of the plan in Mantua.
• She may suffocate in the foul air of the tomb.
• The mixture may not work at all.
• Friar Lawrence may be concealing his role in her marriage.
2. Why is this ironic?
3. What is revealed about Juliet’s character through her
soliloquy?
4. What is the effect of the use of rhetorical questions?
– On the audience
– Reveals about Juliet’s character

Rhetorical Questions
• The question "Can you do anything right?" is
asked not to gain information about the ability
of the person being spoken to, but rather to
insinuate that the person always fails.
• They can suggest dialogue or an internal
conflict.

Act V
Scene 1
1. What news does Balthasar bring Romeo?
2. What do you think Romeo means when he says, “I
defy you, stars!”? (line 24) Hint: Think back to the
Prologue.
3. Who does Romeo visit before he leaves? Why?
What does he purchase?
4. Why doesn’t the apothecary want to give it to
Romeo? Why does he consent?
5. What poison does Romeo say he gave to the
apothecary? Why does he think it is poison?

Foils
• In fiction, a foil is a character who contrasts with another
character (usually the protagonist) in order to highlight
particular qualities of the other character.
• The action in Romeo and Juliet involves two carefully
balanced groups of characters.
For instance, at the head of each of the feuding families
is a lord and a lady. Juliet has a cousin and Romeo has a
cousin. However, many of these characters also
contrast.
• Task: Can you identify the pairs and the contrasts? Use a
table like the one found on p. 297 of the play to record your
pairs.

Survey Homework
•http://www.surveymo
nkey.com/s/9XDSQVH

Adaptations
The Killers
Rome and Juliet
• http://www.sanjuan.edu/webpages/mikeberr
y/resources.cfm?subpage=49094

Act 4: Scene 5
Act 5: Scene 1
The language of Death
• We have already witnessed how love is presented
through language in the play.
• We have also established that many of the characters
in the play have a different interpretations of love.
• Similarly to love, death is presented as multifaceted.
• Task: complete the activities on page 286. This task
focused on imagery and should give you a great deal of
text to analyse.
• Task 2: Return to 4.5. Read through the play as a group
of four complete task 2 on page 284.

ROMEO:
Why I descend into this bed of death, / Is
partly to behold my lady's face;
ROMEO:
Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death,
Gorged with the dearest morsel of the earth,
Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open,
And, in despite, I'll cram thee with more food!

Death and Love
• The family tomb becomes a symbol of both
birth and death. It is, on the one hand, the
womb from which Juliet should emerge alive
— and hope be born anew. However, the
tomb is also a dark and fateful vortex that
consumes life, light, and hope.

Light and Dark
In his final speech, Romeo once again uses light
and dark imagery to describe Juliet as she acts as a
source of light in the darkness of the tomb. "her
beauty makes / This vault a feasting presence full of
light."
Such images simultaneously make the audience all
the more aware of how close the lovers come to
finding joy — making their end in darkness all the
more tragic.

For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes
This vault a feasting presence full of light.
Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interr'd
Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath,
Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty:
Thou art not conquer'd; beauty's ensign yet
Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,
And death's pale flag is not advanced there.

METAPHOR a comparison of two unlike things which are connected by one
similarity:
Her eyes are jewels; You are my sunshine; “All the world’s a stage.”
SIMILE a comparison of two unlike things using ‘like’ or ‘as’:
She is like a rose; “So are you to my thoughts as food to life.” “Death lies
on her like an untimely frost.”
PERSONIFICATION is a figure of speech that gives an inanimate object or abstract idea
human traits and qualities, such as emotions, desires, sensations, physical
gestures and speech:
The flowers were suffering from the intense heat; Death smiled; The sun
waved to the moon.
OXYMORON a figure of speech that combines two contradictory terms:
Cruel love; deafening silence; pretty ugly; alone together
HYPERBOLE deliberate exaggeration of a person, thing, quality, event to emphasise a
point external to the object of exaggeration; intentional exaggeration for
rhetorical effect:
These books weigh a ton; I could sleep for a year; I would rather die than
eat that.

Romeo: Why then, O brawling love, O loving
hate,/ O anything of nothing first create! /O heavy
lightness, serious vanity, / Misshapen chaos of
well-seeming forms! / Feather of lead, bright
smoke, cold fire, sick health.
(Act I, scene 1)
Type(s) of figurative language: OXYMORON
Analysis: The oxymorons show contradictions in
love: Romeo “loves” Rosaline but she does not feel
the same.

Tragedy
Shakespeare was a highly educated man and widely
read. He had read Aristotle, who wrote in the 4th
Century BC.
Aristotle wrote that the tragic hero in a play had in
some way to bring about his own downfall. He
discussed the concept of hamartia or tragic
flaw, which has influences tragedians to this day.
For Aristotle, tragedy did not involve accident but
was brought about by some flaw in the character.

Tragedy
Character flaw explained:
If a character walked under a ladder and is killed by a
falling brick, that may be unfortunate but it is not tragic.
It was an accident.
Whereas if a character, having been warned not to walk
under a ladder, then insists that nothing will happen to
him and is consequently killed by a falling brick, then that
is tragedy.
Basically, a flaw in his character (his unwillingness to
listen to the advice of others) caused his own death.

Romeo and Juliet
Tragedy?
Are Romeo and Juliet flawed characters.
What does Shakespeare suggest is the cause of
their tragic ends?

Mistakes and Mischance
There are a number of coincidences in the
play, all unfortunate.
Working with a partner, list as many of these
unfortunate happenings as you can.

Structure
Previously we have discussed Consider the
structure of the play and Shakespeare’s
juxtaposition of comedy and tragedy, hope and
despair. Why has Shakespeare done this?

• Identify events in these scenes that warrant
hope and despair?
• These shifts from hope to despair, reprieve,
and new hope, serve to emphasise the
tragedy when the final hope fails and both the
lovers die at the end.

Structure
Tragedy
Aristotle, in his definition of tragedy, stated that at
the end of a tragedy there had to be what he called
catharsis, a cleansing or purifying of emotions in
the audience after the huge build up to the final
catastrophic climax.
The death at the end of the play provide relief from
the tensions of the drama.
Is there retribution and redemption at the end of
Romeo and Juliet?

Redemption
The last few lines of the play may seem
anticlimactic. However, rather than ending with
the deaths of Romeo and Juliet, it ends with the
triumph of love.
Although we have had a variety of
representations of love throughout the play, it
finally demonstrates loves ability to heal old
wounds, and to create piece and harmony.

Themes
• Love and Hate
• Fate, Chance and Foreboding
• DARKNESS AND LIGHT IS NOT A THEME BUT A
MOTIF – A RECURRING IMAGE WHICH COMES TO
REPRESENT SOMETHING ABOUT THE THEME OR
THE CHARACTERS SITUATION IN THE PLAY.

Answers to questions on drama should address relevantly the central
concern(s)/theme(s) of
the text and be supported by reference to appropriate dramatic
techniques such as: conflict, characterisation, key scene(s), dialogue,
climax, exposition, dénouement, structure, plot, setting, aspects of
staging (such as lighting, music, stage set, stage directions . . .),
soliloquy, monologue . . .
1. Choose a play in which a main theme is made clear early in the
action.
Show how the dramatist introduces the theme and discuss how
successfully he or she goes on to develop it.
2. Choose a play which explores the theme of love in difficult
circumstances.
Explain how the dramatist introduces the theme and discuss how in the
course of the play he/she prepares you for the resolution of the drama.

3. Choose a play in which an important part is played by one of the
following: crime, punishment, retribution.
Show how the dramatist explores the issue and discuss its importance
to your understanding of character and/or theme in the play as a
whole.
4. Choose from a play a scene which you find amusing or moving or
disturbing.
Explain how the scene provokes this response and discuss how this
aspect of the scene contributes to your understanding of the play as a
whole.

5. Choose a play in which the dramatist creates tension at the
beginning or at the end.
Explain how the tension is created and discuss how it
contributes to an effective introduction or conclusion to the
play.
6. Choose from a play a scene in which tension builds to a
climax.
Explain how the dramatist creates and develops this tension,
and discuss the extent to which the scene has thematic as well
as dramatic significance.

• Choose a play in which a main theme is made clear early in
the action.
• Show how the dramatist introduces the theme and discuss
how successfully he or she goes on to develop it.
• Introduction - William Shakespeare’s play ‘Romeo and Juliet’
is a play in which the main themes of love, hate and fate are
made clear early on in the action.
• Shakespeare introduces the theme of love through the
sonnets structure.( Introduces us to setting, characters and
their fate and the dramatists aim).
• The themes of hate are also presented through the rhyming
scheme and the rhythm. (iambic pentameter and the stress
on certain words).
• Word choice ……
• Theme is developed later in the play…..

Themes
Love
In the play love develops and transforms the
characters of Romeo and Juliet.
For Romeo, love causes the, ‘Mis-shapen chaos
of well-seeming forms’
What is Romeo like as a character at the
beginning of the play?

Romeo as a Petrarchan Lover
Romeo is, at the beginning, a rather tiresome character. He is melancholy with love.
He speaks in the elaborate language of love, fashionable at the time of the plays production.
He regards Rosaline as beyond all women in beauty:
‘The all-seeing sun / Ne’er saw her match since the world begun’
Romeo is very much in love with the idea of being in love.
Why the, O brawling love, O loving hate,
O anything, of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness, serious vanity,
Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms,
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health,
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is! (1.1.176-81).
‘O me, what fray was here? Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all. Here’s much to do with hate, but more
with love.’ p.29
These lines from Romeo seem to foreshadow later events in the play as the families feud will result in the
destruction of the two young lovers. The comment seems to suggest that they cannot be separated; to
hate is to feel pain ‘brawling love’ and so often people relish in hate ‘loving hate’.

However, Romeo’s language changes when he meets Juliet.
ROMEO:
Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear,
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear.
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows
As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.
The measure done, I’ll watch her place of stand,
And, touching hers, make blessèd my rude hand.
Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!
For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.
The balcony scene suggests a change from shallow affection and lust to a
binding love.

Juliet
Love also changes the character of Juliet.
At the beginning she is obedient and subdued:
I’ll look to like, if looking liking move.
But no more deep will I endart mine eye
Than your consent gives strength to make fly.