1. TODAY’S AGENDA Character name origins: Why are they appropriate?
Act 1 & 2 Quiz
Journal Entry #9
Notes: Iambic pentameter, blank verse, meter, etc.
HOMEWORK:
Outline completed by tomorrow at 11:59 pm
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2. CHARACTERIZATION
The techniques a writer uses to reveal the personality of characters to the reader.
Direct Characterization: the writer makes direct statements about a character's personality and tells what the character is like.
Indirect Characterization: the writer reveals information about a character and his personality through that character's thoughts, words, and actions, along with how other characters respond to that character, including what they think and say about him.

3. INDIRECT CHARACTERIZATION
Words: what the character says or what characters say about the character
Thoughts: what the character thinks
How do we know what characters are thinking in R&J?
Actions: what the character does
Interactions: how the character relates to others
Names: often symbolic of a major character trait or role
There are several characters in Romeo & Juliet whose names reveal something about their characterization. Like…

4. MERCUTIO
Named for the chemical element mercury, which has a very low melting temperature. The element is named for the god Mercury, the messenger of the gods.
What characteristics of
the element and the god
make the name a good
it for Mercutio?

5. BENVOLIO
In Latin bene means “well” and volens means “wishing”; benevolent means “kindly or well-intentioned”
Why is this name
appropriate for Benvolio?

6. TYBALT
He is named for a cat that is know for its slyness in the fable “Reynard the Fox.”
How is Tybalt like
the cat he is named for?

7. PARIS
He shares his name with a Trojan prince in Homer’s epic the Illiad who persuades Helen to leaver her husband and marry him.
How is Paris in R&J
like Paris in the Illiad?

8. JOURNAL ENTRY #9
What do you think of Romeo and Juliet’s love for each other? Do you think it is true love or just infatuation? Explain…

9. IAMBIC PENTAMETER
IAMB: unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable
EXAMPLE:
- /
again
IAMBIC PENTAMETER: five verse feet with each foot an iamb (a total of ten syllables)
/ / / / /
But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?

10. BLANK VERSE
BLANK VERSE: poems that do not rhyme but consist of iambic pentameter
Shakespeare wrote many of his play in blank verse including this example from Romeo and Juliet.

11. TRY IT OUT… Act I, Scene 5 My only love, sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me
That I must love a loathed enemy.
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