Shakespeare

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Shakespeares

• Romeo and Juliet

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Shakespeare A Brief Biography

• Born in April 1564 at Stratford-on-Avon
• John Shakespeare (father)
• tanner, glover, dealer in grain
• town official (alderman, and later mayor)
• Mary (mother)
• daughter of Robert Arden, a prosperous
  gentleman-farmer.

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Shakespeare A Brief Biography

• Married Anne Hathaway in 1582
• Three children born Susanna, Judith, and Hamnet
  
• By 1590, he was an actor and playwright
• Leader of the Lord Chamberlains Men and the
  Kings Men
• died April 23, 1616

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Shakespeare A Brief Biography

• He was buried in Stratford the inscription on
  his tombstone reads. . .

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Shakespeare A Brief Biography

• Good Friend, for Jesus sake, forbear
• To dig the dust enclosed here
• Blest be the man that spares these stones
• And curst be he that moves my bones.

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Best Known For

• 37 plays, including Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear,
  Julius Caesar, Midsummer Nights Dream, and of
  course, Romeo and Juliet
• The exact year in which William Shakespeare wrote
  Romeo and Juliet is unknown, but it is definitely
  one of his earlier works, and one of only two
  tragedies written in the period from 1590 to 1595
  
• 155 poems, all written in the same style, known
  as The Shakespearean Sonnet

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The Shakespearean Sonnet

• 14 lines
• Rhyme Scheme abab cdcd efef gg
• Iambic pentameter
• The last two lines are a rhyming couplet
• Shakespeares plays are also written in couplets
  and iambic pentameter, except for when the
  servants or comical characters speak. There are
  even sonnets in his plays.

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All the Worlds a Stage

• Shakespeare wrote hundreds of poems, but he is
  best known for his plays.
• The playwright develops a story through dialogue,
  monologues, and staging.
• The director helps actors perform the play the
  way it was intended.

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The Globe Theater
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The Globe Theater

• He wrote his plays to be performed in the Globe
  Theater.
• It was built in 1599 and burned down 14 years
  later in 1613.
• It was an 8 sided building with a central yard.

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The Globe Theater

• Spectators price of admissions was
• one penny - to stand in yard around stage (these
  were called the groundlings)
• two pennies - to sit in 2nd and 3rd floor
  galleries
• three pennies - to sit in the first floor
  galleries

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The Globe Theater

• Stage
• 1/3 of yard was filled with 6ft high platform
• no curtain
• no artificial lighting
• back wall had at least two doors
• balcony was used for hilltops, walls of cities,
  or second story scenes.
• trapdoors were used to raise or lower actors and
  props.

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The Globe Theater

• Take a tour of the new Globe Theater. . . .
• Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

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Romeo and Juliet

• The plot was based on a fourteenth-century
  Italian short story, or novella, written by
  Matteo Bandello, that included elements of
  history, tradition, romance, and fable.
• Both the short story and the play bear many
  similarities to the myth of Pyramus and Thisbe
  from ancient Greece

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Review of Important Literary Terms

• Plot (exposition, rising action including
  internal and external conflict, climax, falling
  action, resolution)
• Characterization (round, flat, dynamic, static,
  protagonist, antagonist)
• Foreshadowing
• Epithet
• Irony (situational, dramatic, verbal)
• Figurative language (including hyperbole, simile,
  metaphor, personification, etc)
• Imagery

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New Terms We Need to Know

• Foil a secondary character who has enough in
  common to serve as a contrast to point out traits
  of a primary character
• Example Who would be Atticuss foil?
• PunA play on two words similar in sound but
  different in meaning.
• Example I work as a baker because I knead
  dough.
• See punoftheday.com
• Oxymoron term formed by joining words that seem
  to contradict one another
• Example deafening silence, bittersweet

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• Extended Metaphor metaphor extended throughout a
  stanza or an entire poem, usually by using
  multiple comparisons between the unlike objects
  or ideas (also called conceit)
• Couplet Two lines -the second line immediately
  following the first- of the same metrical length
  that end in a rhyme
• Enjambment running over from one line to the
  next without a pause / punctuation break
• Shakespearean Sonnet 14 line poem with an
  ABABCDCDEFEFGG rhyme scheme
• Iambic Pentameter see later handout
• Blank Verse see later handout

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• Asidea short passage spoken by one character to
  the audience while the other actors on stage
  pretend their characters cannot hear the
  speaker's words.
• Tragedy a narrative about serious and important
  actions that ends unhappily (usually w/ the
  deaths of the main characters).
• Soliloquy a speech that a character gives to
  himself no other characters are onstage
• Dialogue lines spoken between characters
• Monologue a speech that a character gives alone
  but others may be onstage
• Stage Directions parts of the script written by
  the playwright as unspoken directions for the
  characters

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CHARACTERS The Montagues
The Capulets Lord Montague
Lord Capulet Lady Montague
lady Capulet Benvolio,
nephew Juliet,
daughter Romeo,
son
Tybalt, nephew Servants Nurse (Juliets
nanny) Servants The Others Mercutio,
Romeos best friend Escalus, Prince of
Verona Paris, count of Verona Friar Lawrence,
spiritual leader of Verona Friar John, friend of
Friar Lawrence Apothecary
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Romeo and Juliet

• Romeo and Juliet is as much about hate as love
• Although Romeo and Juliet is considered one of
  the worlds greatest love stories, it can be
  argued that the love story is only a vehicle for
  the resolution of the story about hate, that is,
  the feud between the two families.

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Themes in Romeo and Juliet

• Themes are the fundamental and often universal
  ideas explored in a literary work.
• Unit Essential Question How can literature
  explore universal themes of love and loss?

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Themes in Romeo and Juliet

• 1. The Forcefulness of Love and Attraction
• Focus on romantic love
• Nature of infatuation vs. lasting love
• Love is blind (for better and worse)
• Love as overpowering force
• Family
• Friends
• Can lead to violence

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Themes in Romeo and Juliet

• 2. The Individual Versus Society
• Romeo and Juliet against. . .
• Family
• Law
• Religion
• Honor

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Themes in Romeo and Juliet

• 3. The Inevitability of Fate
• Straight path or series of crossroads?
• Star-crossed Lovers
• Feud
• Series of Unfortunate Events
• Bad Timing

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Themes in Romeo and Juliet

• 3. The Generation Gap
• Parents just dont understand
• Youth is pure

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Prologue

• CHORUS In the beautiful city of Verona, where
  our story takes place, a long-standing hatred
  between two families erupts into new violence,
  and citizens stain their hands with the blood of
  their fellow citizens. Two unlucky children of
  these enemy families become lovers and commit
  suicide. Their unfortunate deaths put an end to
  their parents' feud. For the next two hours, we
  will watch the story of their doomed love and
  their parents' anger, which nothing but the
  children's deaths could stop. If you listen to us
  patiently, we'll make up for everything we've
  left out in this prologue onstage.