Common Mistakes

1
Romeo and Juliet

• Common Mistakes

2
Theme

• The theme should not be a paragraph unto itself.
  The theme is what you are proving overall. You
  are using literary devices to discuss how they
  help develop a theme within the play.
• The theme should be mentioned in your body
  paragraphs when you explain how the devices you
  discussed help develop the theme or what they
  reveal about the theme and character.
• The theme MUST be mentioned and referred to in
  your essay.

3
Introduction

• Not mentioning the title of the play or the
  playwright. Romeo and Juliet by William
  Shakespeare.
• Not giving a brief summary of the play overall
  (2-3 sentences).
• Not putting the scene in to context (what has
  happened just before the scene takes place).
• Not providing a summary of the passage itself and
  where it comes from.
• Not mentioning its significance
• Not mentioning the theme and literary devices
  that will be discussed in the body paragraphs.

4
Example Introduction

• Romeo and Juliet, a play written by William
  Shakespeare, is the tragic story of two
  star-crossed lovers who are trapped between the
  feuding of their families. After getting married,
  Romeo and Juliet decide to run away together.
  However, as Juliets parents have arranged a
  marriage for her that is inescapable, she, along
  with Friar Lawrence devise a plan that involves
  her faking her death by taking a temporary
  poison. In a passage from Act 4 Scene 3, Juliet
  delivers a monologue and expresses her doubts and
  uncertainty about the plan she wonders if the
  poison will work, if it is actual poison meant to
  kill, and if she will awake in the burial vault,
  but ultimately decides to drink the vial down.
  This passage is significant as it is the point in
  the story where everything begins to go wrong and
  inevitable leads to Romeo and Juliets death.
  Through rhetorical questioning, diction, imagery,
  and mood/tone, Shakespeare explains how love
  comes with sacrificesit can be risky and
  petrifying but the feeling of love is strong and
  will in the end triumphs all other emotions. 

5
Do you remember PEE?

• Point Shakespeare created a confused, fearful
  and anxious mood through the use of rhetorical
  questions.
• Example Juliet contemplates the morality of the
  friar, What if it be a poison, which the
  friar/Subtly hath ministerd to have me dead
• Explain Juliet reveals her fear about the
  decision she is contemplating and the mood of
  doubt she has in terms of the holy friars
  intentions. This shows how she is questioning God
  and her religious beliefs as the friar has been
  tried a holy man.
• Point Shakespeare creates conflicting moods for
  Juliet to show us she is unsure of what she
  believes and unsure of those around her.
• Example Juliet fears it is and yet, she
  thinks, it should not.
• Explain She is fully aware of the possible
  repercussions of her choices and fears the worst
  outcome. She trusts yet questions her trust in
  authority figures as she has just been condemned
  by her father if she does not follow through with
  her marriage to Paris.
• Example She continues to ask, And, in rage,
  with some great kinsmans bone/As with a club,
  dash out my desperate brains.
• Explain

6
Body paragraphs.

• Not making a clear point to start you body. Your
  first sentence should be the overall point you
  intend to prove.
• Example Shakespeare created a confused, fearful
  and anxious mood through the use of rhetorical
  questions. Juliet asks herself What if it be a
  poison, which the friar/Subtly hath ministerd to
  have me dead revealing her fear about the
  decision she is contemplating and the mood of
  doubt she has in terms of the holy friars
  intentions. This shows how she is questioning God
  and her religious beliefs as the friar has been
  tried a holy man. Her conflicting moods show us
  she is unsure of what she believes and she
  fears it is and yet, she thinks, it should
  not. She is fully aware of the possible
  repercussions of her choices and fears the worst
  outcome. She continues to ask, And, in rage,
  with some great kinsmans bone/As with a club,
  dash out my desperate brains. Through this image
  Juliet is reveals she is overwhelmed by her
  terror that if she wakes in the sepulcher before
  Romeo comes to get her out she will succumb to
  the death that surrounds her, being trapped in
  the burial vault. This reveals Juliets perplexed
  state as she is struggling with her decision to
  take the poison that will make her appear dead.
  It shows us she is thoughtful and thinking of the
  consequences of her actions. It reveals a
  maturity that is beyond her 13 years despite the
  rashness of all her other choices. Through the
  use of rhetorical questions and Juliets mood we
  are meant to understand that love supersedes all
  other emotions ,Romeo, I come! This do I drink
  to thee. She drinks the potion despite her fears
  because her love for Romeo is greater.