Love at first

sight

True love
Romeo and Juliet
Who is William Shakespeare?

The Globe Theater

Who is William Shakespeare?
• Born in 1564 to John and Mary Arden
Shakespeare
• 1582: Married to Anne
• 1583: Birth of Daughter Susanna
• 1585: Birth of twins: Judith and Hamnet
• 1587-1592: Established in London as
actor/playwright; first work Comedy of
Errors
Who is William Shakespeare?
• 1593: Begins writing sonnets (until 1597-ish)
• 1594-1596: Some more famous plays
Romeo and Juliet and Midsummer Night’s
Dream
• 1597-1608: Best known plays including the
rest of the tragedies
• 1599: The Globe Theatre built
• 1609: Publication of the Sonnets
• April 23, 1616: Shakespeare dies
His Works
• Poetry
o The Sonnets
o The Rape of Lucrece
• Plays
 Tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth
 Comedies: Much Ado About Nothing
 Histories: Richard III, Henry V
The Time Period
• Elizabethan Era
• The Renaissance
• Actors were men only
o Men even played female
roles!
• Plays were one of the main source of entertainment
Three Classifications of
Shakespearean Drama:

• COMEDY

• HISTORY

• TRAGEDY
Romeo and Juliet is a…

Tragedy
TRAGIC HERO
Qualities of a Tragic Hero:
• Possesses high importance or rank
• Exhibits extraordinary talents
• Displays a tragic flaw—an error in
judgment or defect in character—that
leads to downfall
• Faces downfall with courage and dignity
Let us get to know the CHARACTERS
Romeo
- Is a Montague
- 16 years old
- Cute, smart, sensitive
- Impulsive and
immature
- He doesn’t care about
the feud
- Romantic heart
 Lady Montague

• Romeo’s Mom
• Dies of grief after
Romeo’s death
Lord Montague
• Romeo’s dad
• Worries about
Romeo’s sadness
• Patriarch (head man)
of the Montagues
Balthasar
• Romeo’s servant
• He goes to tell
Romeo that Juliet
is dead (he
doesn’t know that
it is a fake death)
Abraham

• Montague’s servant
• Fights Sampson and
Gregory in the beginning
Benvolio
• Romeo’s cousin & friend
• Tries to break-up fights.
Keep the peace.
• Counsels Romeo about
love and make him feel
better.
Mercutio
• Related to the prince
• Good friends W/ Romeo
• Bad temper
• Doesn’t like emotional people
• Believes love is about the
physical contact and nothing
else.
Juliet
• -is a Capulet, 13 yrs old
• Begins as a naïve child,
• She doesn’t have as much freedom
as Romeo b/c she is a girl
• SO she sneaks around to see
Romeo
• She totally trusts Romeo
• Juliet is very close with the nurse.
Lord Capulet
• Juliet’s dad
• He truly loves Juliet, but does not
know her feelings and dreams
• Bad temper when things don’t go his
way
• He commands respect and propriety
• Patriarch of the Capulets
Lady Capulet

• Juliet’s mom
• Ineffectual mother- relies on
the nurse to “mother” Juliet
• She married young, had Juliet
around age 14, and is eager
for her to marry Paris
Nurse
• Has cared for Juliet since
she was born
• Vulgar, long-winded, loyal
and a confidante to Juliet
• At end though, the y have
a falling-out over Romeo
Gregory & Sampson

• Servants to the
Capulets
• Start a fight w/
Montagues at the
beginning of the play
Tybalt
• Juliet’s cousin
• Vain, fashionable, very
into proper etiquette,
prideful
• He is well-trained in
sword fighting and
someone to fear
• He loathes Montagues
Prince Escalus
• Prince of Verona
• He is concerned with
maintaining public
peace
• Related to Mercutio
and Paris
Paris
• Related to the prince
• Preferred by the
Capulets to marry Juliet
• He treats Juliet
inappropriately after
Capulet says he can
marry her.
Rosaline

• The woman who Romeo

is obsessed with at the
beginning of the play.
The Apothecary

• Like a pharmacist
• He sells the poison to
Romeo.
• Values money more
than morals
Friar Lawrence
• Friend to Romeo and Juliet
• Kind, civic-minded
• Secretly marries R & J in hopes
that their marriage will end
the feud.
• He is a Catholic holy man and
also familiar with potions and
herbs.
Friar John

• A Catholic holy man asked

to tell Romeo about Juliet's
false death.
• He is held up in a
quarantined house and so
never gets the message to
Romeo.
SETTING

Italian city Verona

 ACT I
Years ago there lived in the city of Verona in Italy
two noble families, the Montagues and Capulets.
Unfortunately, there existed much bad blood
between them. Their animosity was so pronounced
that they could not stand the sight of one another.
Even the servants of the house carried on the
animosity of their masters. The bloody feuds of the
two families led the Prince to order all brawls to
cease on pain of death.
Romeo, son of old Montague, is a handsome young man. He
fancies he is in love with Rosaline, who disdains his love. As
a result, Romeo is depressed. To cure him of his love, his
friend Benvolio induces him to attend a masked ball at the
Capulets, where he could encounter other beauties and
forget Rosaline. At the ball, Romeo is attracted by a girl who
he learns is Juliet, daughter of the Capulets. They seal their
love with a kiss. Juliet, on learning Romeo’s identity from a
servant, confesses to herself that her only love has sprung
from her only hate. Meanwhile, the fiery Tybalt, Juliet’s
cousin, recognizes Romeo and challenges him. Old Capulet
forbids him to insult or harm any guest. Tybalt vows to settle
the score with Romeo later.
 ACT II
That night Romeo lingers in Capulet’s garden, standing
in the orchard beneath Juliet’s balcony. He sees Juliet
leaning over the railing, hears her calling out his name,
and wishes that he were not a Montague. He reveals his
presence, and they resolve, after an ardent love scene,
to be married secretly. Next morning, Juliet sends her
Nurse to make final arrangements for the wedding to be
performed at the cell of Friar Lawrence. The Friar, who is
a confessor to both the houses, feels that this union
between a Montague and a Capulet will dissolve the
enmity between the two houses.
 ACT III
Meanwhile, Tybalt has been seeking Romeo to avenge the latter’s
intrusion at the ball. He encounters Romeo returning from Friar
Lawrence’s cell. Romeo, softened by his newfound love and his
marriage to Juliet, refuses to be drawn into a quarrel with Tybalt,
now his kinsman by marriage. Mercutio grapples with Tybalt and is
slain. Aroused to fury by the death of his friend, Romeo fights with
Tybalt and kills him and takes shelter in the Friar’s cell. The
Prince, on hearing of the trouble, banishes Romeo. The Friar
advises Romeo to spend the night with Juliet and then flee to
Mantua. Meanwhile, Juliet’s parents, believing her grief to be due
to her cousin Tybalt’s death, seek to alleviate her distress by
planning her immediate marriage to Paris, a kinsman of the
Prince.
 ACT IV
In despair, Juliet seeks Friar Lawrence’s advice. He gives
her a sleeping potion, which for a time will cause her to
appear dead. Thus, on the day of her supposed marriage
to Paris, she will be carried to the family vault. By the
time she awakens, Romeo will be summoned to the vault
and take her away to Mantua.
 ACT V
The Friar’s letter fails to reach Romeo. When he hears of Juliet’s death
through Balthazar, Romeo procures a deadly poison from an
apothecary and secretly returns to Verona to say his last farewell to his
deceased wife and die by her side. In the Capulet tomb, Romeo
encounters Paris, who has come to strew flowers on Juliet’s grave.
Paris challenges Romeo, and in the fight that ensues, Paris is killed.
Then at Juliet’s side, Romeo drinks the poison and dies. When Juliet
awakens from her deep sleep, she realizes Romeo’s error and kills
herself with his dagger. Summoned to the tomb by the aroused
watchman, Lord Capulet and Lord Montague ring their hands in
anguish. The Prince listens to Friar Lawrence’s story of the unhappy
fate of the star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet. He rebukes the
Capulets and Montagues for their bloody feud. The Capulets and
Montague decide to reconcile as a result of the deaths of their children.
JULIET Romeo
   
Oh, my! But wait, what’s that light in the window over there? It is
  the east, and Juliet is the sun. Rise up, beautiful sun, and
(not knowing ROMEO hears her) Oh, Romeo, Romeo, kill the jealous moon. The moon is already sick and pale
why do you have to be Romeo? Forget about your father with grief because you, Juliet, her maid, are more
and change your name. Or else, if you won’t change your beautiful than she.
name, just swear you love me and I’ll stop being a  
Capulet. (still not knowing ROMEO hears her) It’s only Oh, there’s my lady! Oh, it is my love. Oh, I wish she
your name that’s my enemy. You’d still be yourself even knew how much I love her. She’s talking, but she’s not
if you stopped being a Montague. What’s a Montague saying anything. So what? Her eyes are saying
anyway? It isn’t a hand, a foot, an arm, a face, or any something. I will answer them. I am too bold. She’s not
other part of a man. Oh, be some other name! What does talking to me. Two of the brightest stars in the whole sky
a name mean? The thing we call a rose would smell just had to go away on business, and they’re asking her eyes
as sweet if we called it by any other name. Romeo would to twinkle in their places until they return. What if her
be just as perfect even if he wasn’t called Romeo. eyes were in the sky and the stars were in her head?—
Romeo, lose your name. Trade in your name—which The brightness of her cheeks would outshine the stars
really has nothing to do with you—and take all of me in the way the sun outshines a lamp. If her eyes were in the
exchange. night sky, they would shine so brightly through space that
  birds would start singing, thinking her light was the light
of day. Look how she leans her hand on her cheek. Oh, I
wish I was the glove on that hand so that I could touch
that cheek.
Themes
the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a
literary work

The Forcefulness of Love

Love is a violent, ecstatic, overpowering force that
supersedes all other values, loyalties, and emotions.
Love is a brutal, powerful emotion that captures individuals
and catapults them against their world, and, at times, against
themselves.
Love, in other words, resists any single metaphor because it
is too powerful to be so easily contained or understood.
Themes

Love as a Cause of Violence

Love is a grand passion, and as such it is blinding; it can
overwhelm a person as powerfully and completely as hate
can.
Love emerges as an amoral thing, leading as much to
destruction as to happiness.
In its extreme passion, the love that Romeo and Juliet
experience also appears so exquisitely beautiful that few
would want, or be able, to resist its power.
Themes
The Individual Versus Society
families and the placement of familial power in the father
the patriarchal power structure inherent in Renaissance
families, wherein the father controls the action of all other
family members
law and the desire for public order
Religion
the social importance placed on masculine honor.
importance of honor results in brawls that disturb the public
peace
the enmity between their families, coupled with the emphasis
placed on loyalty and honor to kin
Themes

The Inevitability of Fate

 “star-crossed”—that is to say that fate (a power often vested in
the movements of the stars) controls them
mechanism of fate works in all of the events surrounding the
lovers
the feud between their families
the horrible series of accidents that ruin Friar Lawrence’s
seemingly well-intentioned plans at the end of the play
the tragic timing of Romeo’s suicide and Juliet’s awakening
a force determined by the powerful social institutions that
influence Romeo and Juliet’s choices
a force that emerges from Romeo and Juliet’s very personalities
SOLILOQUY AND ASIDE
• Soliloquy - Long speech given by a
character while alone on stage to
reveal his or her private thoughts or
intentions

• Aside - Character’s quiet remark to

the audience or another character
that no one else on stage is
supposed to hear
DRAMATIC IRONY

• Irony—contrast between appearance and

reality

• Dramatic Irony—the audience or reader

knows something the character(s) does
not know
 Conflict
• External
o Man vs. Man   Example:
o Man vs. Nature    Example:
o Man vs. Society   Example:
• Internal
o Man vs. himself   Example:
ACTIVITY
Assume that you write an advice to a friend.
Like…a modern day Romeo (or Juliet) writes
to you asking for advice. He or she explains
what happened at the party and also
mentions the family feud.
1.Write what his or her letter says.
2.Write your response
Journal Entry/ Cornell Notes
Write about a time when you've done something
wrong and it's affected others around you.
• What did you do?
• How did it affect others?
• What consequences did you face?
• Did you resolve it?