Lesson on Romeo and Juliet

​Romeo and Juliet

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​by William Shakespeare

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Open Ended

What do you know about Romeo and Juliet?

What effect do our choices have on our lives and the lives of others?

Why do we still study Shakespeare today?

Essential Questions:

​William Shakespeare

• Widely regarded as the greatest writer in English Literature

• Actor for Lord Chamberlain's Men (a theater company in London)

• Principal playwright for LCM

• 1599: LCM built The Globe Theater, where most of Shakespeare's plays were performed

• Wrote comedies, histories, and tragedies

Poll

What type of play would you rather read?

• Comedy

• History

• Tragedy

Stratford-Upon-Avon, England

Shakespeare's Birthplace

• Plays produced for the general public

• Roofless ("open air")

• No artificial lighting

• Courtyard surrounded by three levels

The Globe Theater

• Wealthy used benches, poorer people ("groundlings") stood and watched from the courtyard ("pit")

• Only the wealthy were educated (literate)

• Actors interacted with the audience

• No scenery (the setting was referenced in the play), but there were elaborate costumes & props

• Plays were fast-paced (less than two hours long)

• Women were not allowed to act - young boys were used to play female roles

Multiple Choice

The name of the theater in England where Lord Chamberlain's Men performed Shakespeare's plays:

• The Louvre

• The Globe

• The Garden

• The Performing Arts Center

Drag and Drop

In Shakespeare's time, theater was for ​

Placeholder

Drag these tiles and drop them in the correct blank above

everyone

rich people only

poor people only

people who could read

Dropdown

In Shakespeare's time, all roles in a play were performed by ​

Select answer

​

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​Romeo & Juliet is a tragedy.

​In literature, "tragedy" refers to a series of unfortunate events by which one or more characters in a story undergo several misfortunes, which finally culminate into a disaster of "epic proportions".

1. happy times

2. introduction of a problem

3. problem worsens to a crisis

4. characters are unable to prevent the problem from taking over

5. problem results in some catastrophic, grave ending - this is the tragedy culminated

​Tragedy is generally built up in five (5) stages:

Cast of Characters

Dropdown

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Select answer

characterization tells the audience what the personality of the character is while ​

Select answer

characterization shows the audience what the personality of the character is.

Shakespeare uses both:

​Indirect Characterization:

• The author directly tells the audience the personality of the characters.

• For example: The patient boy and the quiet girl were both well mannered and did not disobey their mother.

​Direct Characterization:

• The author shows things that reveal the personality of the characters.

• Use STEAL to remember the five types of indirect characterization:

  • Speech

  • Thoughts

  • Effect on others

  • Actions

  • Looks

Match

Match the following literary devices (that you will find in Romeo & Juliet) to their definitions:

• comparison of unlike things using "like" or "as"

• direct comparison of unlike things

• descriptive language that appeals to the 5 senses

• the feeling created in the reader by a text

• a message conveyed by the text to the reader

simile

metaphor

imagery

mood

theme

• simile

• metaphor

• imagery

• mood

• theme

Match

Just a few more . . . Match the following literary devices (that you will find in Romeo & Juliet) to their definitions:

• using a thing to represent an idea

• referencing a well-known person, event or thing in a text

• characters that act as contrasts to one another

• hinting at something to come in the story

• can be dramatic, situational or verbal

symbolism

allusion

foil

foreshadowing

irony

• symbolism

• allusion

• foil

• foreshadowing

• irony

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New literary terms for Romeo & Juliet

Pun:

A play on two words similar in sound, but not in meaning.

Ex: a fatally stabbed character says, "tomorrow . . . you shall find me a grave man."
Grave = serious AND grave = place to bury the dead

Double entendre:

A pun in which one word or phrase can be understood two ways, especially when
one meaning is risque.

Juxtaposition:

Purposefully placing a person, idea, place, or theme parallel to another to highlight
the contrast between the two.

Oxymoron:

Pairs of contradictory words.

When the main characters are leaving each other, Juliet says, "Parting is such
sweet sorrow." Sweet and sorrow are contradictory terms that form an oxymoron.

Match

Match the following new literary terms with their examples:

• All's fair in love and war.

• Children make nutritious snacks.

• O anything of nothing!

• I was struggling to figure out how lightning worked, but then it struck me!

juxtaposition

double entendre

oxymoron

pun

• juxtaposition

• double entendre

• oxymoron

• pun

Dramatic Terms:

​Soliloquy

A monologue spoken when the character believes himself to be alone. It provides necessary, but otherwise inaccessible info for the audience.
Reveals a character's innermost thoughts, feelings, state of mind,
motives or intentions.

More Dramatic Terms:

Dramatic Monologue

Dialogue where one speaker addresses either himself or an internal listener at length. Like a soliloquy, a dramatic monologue often reveals the innermost thoughts and feelings of the speaker.
Unlike a soliloquy, the speaker does not address the audience directly.

Final Dramatic Term:

Aside

A few words or a short passage spoken by one character to the audience while the other actors on stage pretend their characters cannot hear the speaker's words.

• Fate controls the outcome of your life

• Rules are meant to be broken

• Good women become wives and mothers

• Love causes violence

• Love transcends all limitations

​Themes in Romeo & Juliet

Open Ended

Referencing something you learned from our discussion, why do you think we still study Shakespeare and his writing today?