The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

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The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William
Shakespeare

• Kim Romero
• Jack Britt High School

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Literary Terms

• Tragedy a play about a serious subject
• Chorus introduction or summary of each act
  usually a sonnet
• Stage Directions information that helps the
  reader visualize the play
• Pun play on the sounds and meanings of words
• You have nimble soles, but I have a soul of lead

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Literary Terms

• Comic Relief humor used to lift the mood of a
  serious scene
• Couplet two lines that rhyme
• Motif a recurring image, idea, object or
  situation
• Solar/lunar (sun, moon, stars)
• Day/night
• Light/darkness
• Love as a religion

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Literary Terms

• Allusion a reference to historical or fictional
  people, places, and things
• Oxymoron two opposite words used together to
  mean on thing jumbo shrimp
• Foil a character whose personality traits
  highlight the opposite traits in another
  character (nurse and Lady Capulet)

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Literary Terms

• Parallelism repetition of a grammatical
  structure
• Her traces, of the smallest spider web
• Her collars, of the moonshines watry beams
• Aside when a character turns to speak to the
  audience

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Literary Terms

• Soliloquya long speech given by a character who
  is alone on the stage
• Monologue a long speech
• Paradox to seemingly contradictory ideas that
  together express a truth
• Within the infant rind of this weak flower
• Poison hath residence and medicine power

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Literary Terms

• Extended Metaphor a metaphor or comparison that
  is extended over several lines
• Juxtaposition of ideas placing ideas side by
  side to make a point
• Dramatic irony the audience knows something the
  characters do not know

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Themes

• Impulsivity
• Romeo and Juliet are both ruled by their emotions
• Their decisions are impulsive and have dreadful
  consequences
• Romantic Love
• Romantic love is a violent, overpowering force
  that supersedes all other values, loyalties and
  emotions

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Themes

• Death and violence connected to passion
• Passionate love
• Passionate hate
• Individual vs. society
• Family loyalty
• Father as head of family
• Honor must be defended (Romeo kills Tybalt)

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Themes

• Inevitability of Fate
• Star-crossed lovers
• Romeos dreams
• Juliets vision
• Hostility and its effects on the innocent
• The feud
• Decision making

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Themes

• The Generation Gap
• Use of deception and its consequences