1. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
An Introduction

2. Today’s Foucs Questions Goals
What was going on during Shakespeare’s time that influenced the production of his plays?
What knowledge of that time period will help me understand the context of the play?
Where did Shakespeare get his inspiration from?
To learn more about the background information of Romeo and Juliet
To determine where Shakespeare got his inspiration
To learn more about common knowledge and practice during Shakespeare’s time.

3. Will the real Shakespeare please stand up?
Some scholars have suggested Shakespeare, who had little formal education, could not have written such powerful and creative plays.
However, nobody in Shakespeare’s day thought to question his authorship. Apparently, he was just a genius!

4. The reconstructed stage of the Globe
Theaters had no lighting, so performances took place during the day.
There were few special effects or props; Shakespeare used detailed verbal description to paint a picture of his scenes.

5. Actors and Actresses
In Shakespeare’s time, it was considered immoral for a woman to appear onstage.
So the female roles in Shakespeare’s plays were performed by young men in wigs.
Queen
Elizabeth I

6. Context Elizabethans believed the earth was flat.
The time period in which Shakespeare lived—Elizabethan England, named for the queen— influenced the content of his plays as well as the way in which they were performed.

7. The Four Humors
In Elizabethan times, people believed that a person’s mental, physical, and emotional state were determined by the balance of the four “humors” in the body: blood, yellow bile, phlegm and black bile.
They believed the humors gave off vapors that affected the brain, so whatever humor dominated would determine your personality type.

8. Tragedy
In Shakespeare’s tragedies, the main characters make decisions that upset the proper order of their world and so affect them and everyone around them. The situation is resolved only when others learn lessons from the main characters’ deaths.
Shakespeare’s tragedies also follow a pattern that would have made sense to his audience.
Elizabethans believed that people’s decisions and mistakes always had consequences, and that people sometimes had to pay a high price for their mistakes.

9. Keep in Mind:
Don’t be alarmed by the old-fashioned language: this is really a play about people who are a lot like us, and the difficult words, when you look at them carefully, express emotions anyone can understand.
And remember, the play is POETRY: it’s not supposed to be written exactly the way people talk. The poetry is part of what makes it beautiful and powerful—and worth reading.

10. Reading the Play Two things to know:
Sometimes a character will give a long speech all by herself, revealing her secret thoughts to the audience: this is called a soliloquy.
Sometimes a character will just make a brief comment to the audience that the other characters don’t hear; this is called an aside.
Shakespeare’s plays were meant to be performed—they were some of the most popular entertainment of their time. So when we read the play, the point is to try and imagine it happening onstage!
Because of the minimal props and scenery,
the action in Shakespeare’s plays had
to be conveyed through words and
conversations. A conversation between
characters is called DIALOGUE.

11. Setting
The events of the play take place during the summer in Verona and Mantua, two cities in northern Italy, in the 1300’s.

12. Marriage
During the Renaissance, young people need permission from their parents or guardians to be married.
Parents commonly arranged marriages for their children, especially in the upper-class.
Arranged marriages usually required the bride’s consent.
Girls could legally get married at age 12, but they were usually 15 or 16 when they married.

13. Married at 15???
Yes. Life expectancy during this time period wasn’t very long- if you were in your 40s, it was like you were in your 90s today.
So being married at 15 is like being marred at 30 today.
Age

14. Marriage As far as who could married who:
The Catholic Church was still prominent in this time period so only a man could marry a woman
But there were plenty of affairs and non-heterosexual couples during this time period
It was rumored that Shakespeare had a male lover in London while his wife Anne was in Stratford upon Avon.
In fact, some of his sonnets are believed to be about this lover!

15. Age and Marriage
Often times young girls were married to older widowed men.
Because of the lack of hygiene and healthcare, women often died during childbirth.
Also…THE PLAGUE was going around
Wealthy men needed a wife to produce a heir who would take over their estate when they died.
Our modern day-a person’s will. Except you get to deicide who gets what.

16. Influence of Astrology
Romeo and Juliet are described as “a pair of star- cross’d lovers” in the play’s prologue, or introduction.
This suggests that their tragic downfall was influenced by the position of the stars and planets at their birth.
Belief in astrology was widespread during Elizabethan England.
Physicians often studied their patients’ horoscopes before deciding on a diagnosis or treatment.

17. Tips for Understanding
The tragic plot of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet ( ) was by no means original.
It was based on a famous folktale which appeared in many different versions in 15th- and 16th-century Europe.
Arthur Brooke’s 3,020 line poem, The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Iuliet(1562), is the first English translation of that tale, and it served as a key source for Shakespeare.
Set in the ‘fruitfull hilles’ of Verona, Brooke’s poem describes the ‘deadly’ feud between two wealthy, noble families – Capelet and Montagew. Against this backdrop of ‘blacke hate’, he tells the ‘unhappy’ tale of a beautiful youth, Romeus Capelet, whose heart is entrapped by the wise and graceful Juliet Montagew (pp. 1v–2r).

18. Romeus continued Brook’s version Shakespeares poem
likes to use sonnets
Uses poem to for a cautionary message- he warns us that if we give in to ‘lust’, and neglect the advice of our parents, we will hasten to an ‘unhappye deathe’
Story takes place over nine-months
.Brooke’s Juliet is scarcely 16
play
Likes to use sonnets
Shakespeare uses play to talk about love and fate
Whole story takes place in 5 days
Juliet is not yet 14
Adds more details about Tybalt, Paris, Mercutio and the Nurse to add more action and comedy.

19. Lion King 2
West Side Story
Gnomeo and Juliet
Romeo x Juilet

20. Motifs in Romeo and Juliet
Power of Love
Violence from Passion
The Individual vs. Society
The Inevitability of Fate

21. So Who’s Who Here? First of all, all of the characters in
Romeo and Juliet
are arranged around a central conflict between two rival families: the Montagues and the Capulets.
Shakespeare’s plays can have LOTS of characters. Let’s try to get them straight in our minds…

22. The Montagues Romeo Montague Romeo’s Dad Lady Romeo’s mother Mercutio
best friend
Benvolio
Romeo’s cousin

23. The Capulets juliet Capulet Juliet’s father Lady Mother Tybalt cousin
Nurse
nanny

24. The Peacemakers: Friar Lawrence: The Prince of Verona:
This religious leader is respected as a holy man by both sides, and would like to see them reconciled.
As a friar, he’s interested not only in religion, but also in medicinal herbs—which becomes important later.
The Prince of Verona:
This ruler tries to mediate between the feuding families.
He is pretty tired of all the bloodshed caused by their “ancient grudge.”

25. And finally… One other “character”: The Chorus
The Chorus is not a part of the action, but a speaker who comes onstage to make comments on the action. The Chorus is kind of like a TV announcer in contemporary life—as far as the characters know, the chorus doesn’t exist, but he helps explain things to us.

26. Romeo and Juliet Romeo was a very young man (around 17-21)
Juliet was a 12-year-old girl
They fall in love at first sight
Caught up in an idealized, almost unreal, passionate love
In-love with love

27. Review Read the poem Answer the question
Then we’ll watch a silly movie verison (made by students)

28. Star-crossed lovers
Shakespeare presents Romeo and Juliet as “star-crossed lovers”
Doomed to disaster by fate

29. Fate Throughout this play, keep in mind this idea of fate
Are we destined to a determined path, or do we choose to write our own destination?
Shakespeare presents us this question and provides some evidence of his side

30. Vocabulary Reminder

31. Prologue This is what appears at the beginning of the play it:
Establishes the setting
Introduces main characters
Explains background
Introduces character’s main conflict
Spoken by the chorus

32. Tragedy In a tragedy, most often the main character dies.
A play in which the main character suffers a downfall
In most tragedies, the main characters are in some ways responsible for their downfall
Tragic hero
Tragic Flaw
In a tragedy, most often the main character dies.

33. We are the sum of our parts
Another thing that will help us understand the Old Bard is knowing the references.
Shakespeare didn’t just sit down and write his plays
He conducted “research” on well known ideas, texts, and previous materials.
Earlier, I said R+J came from Arthur Brooke, but that was derived from Pyramus and Thisbe.

34. Pyramus and Thisbe
This is a narrative poem (a poem that tells a story like “Exile” or “The Odyssey”).
It was written by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, (collection of short tales).
In order for us to understand WHAT and WHY Shakespeare used previous material and transformed it, we are going to first start with this poem.

35. Directions Read the play Answer the questions