William Shake-

speare’s
The Tragedy of
Romeo and Juliet
Introduction and
Background
 William Shakespeare
 Shakespeare was born in
1564 and died in 1616.
 He grew up in a town called Stratf0rd-
on-Avon and later moved to London to
become an actor and playwright.
 The Plays
 Shakespeare’s plays include comedies,
histories—and tragedies such as Romeo
and Juliet.
 Some of his other famous plays include
Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello,
and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
 In addition, Shakespeare wrote love po-
ems called sonnets.
 Will the real Shakespeare please
 Some scholars
stand up?
have suggested However, nobody
Shakespeare, who in Shakespeare’s
had little formal day thought to
education, could question his au-
not have written thorship. Appar-
such powerful and ently, he was just a
creative plays. genius!
 Theater
 The theater in Shakespeare’s day was
tremendously different from what we
see today.
 Being an actor was not a highly re-
garded profession; actors were
looked down upon in society.
Shakespeare’s The Globe
plays were per-
formed in a the-
ater called the
Globe—some-
times called
“The Wooden
‘O’” because of
its circular
shape.
  Theaters had no
lighting, so perfor-
mances took place
during the day.
 There were few spe-
cial effects or props;
Shakespeare used de-
tailed verbal descrip-
tion to paint a picture
of his scenes.
The reconstructed
stage of the Globe
 Actors and Actresses
 In Shakespeare’s
time, it was consid-
ered immoral for a
woman to appear on-
stage. So the female
roles in Shakespeare’s
plays were performed
by young men.
Queen Elizabeth
I
 The time period in
which Shakespeare Context
lived—Elizabethan Elizabethans believed
England, named for the earth was flat.
the queen—influ-
enced the content of
his plays as well as
the way in which
they were performed.
 The Four Humors
 InElizabethan 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, yel-
low bile, phlegm and black bile. They be-
lieved the humors gave off vapors that af-
fected the brain, so whatever humor domi-
nated would determine your personality
type.
 Marriage
 In Shakespeare’s day, marriages were
generally contracts set up by the parents.
 When Juliet’s parents arrange a marriage
for her, it seems strange to us; Shake-
speare’s audience would have thought it
was completely normal.
 Tragedy  In Shakespeare’s
tragedies, the main char-
 Shakespeare’s tragedies also acters make decisions
follow a pattern that would that upset the proper or-
have made sense to his au- der of their world and so
dience. affect them and every-
 Elizabethans believed that one around them. The
people’s decisions and mis- situation is resolved only
takes always had conse- when others learn
quences, and that people lessons from the main
sometimes had to pay a high characters’ deaths.
price for their mistakes.
 Why we read…
 So why do we still read plays like Romeo and
Juliet? When Shakespeare’s world was so differ-
ent from ours, what can we learn from his plays?
 Well, the plays are not only great, powerful stories
—they also teach lessons about life that apply to
people in all cultures and time periods, and those
lessons can help us when we come across hard
times in our own lives.
 Keep in Mind:
 Don’t be alarmed by
the old-fashioned
language: this is re-  And remember, the play
ally a play about peo- is POETRY: it’s not
ple who are a lot like supposed to be written
us, and the difficult exactly the way people
words, when you talk. The poetry is part
look at them care- of what makes it beauti-
fully, express emo- ful and powerful—and
tions anyone can un- worth reading.
derstand.
 Two things to know:
Reading the Play  Sometimes a character
 Shakespeare’s plays were
will give a long speech
all by herself, reveal-
meant to be performed—
ing her secret thoughts
they were some of the
to the audience: this is
most popular entertain-
called a soliloquy.
ment of their time. So
when we read the play,  Sometimes a character
the point is to try and will just make a brief
imagine it happening on- comment to the audi-
stage! ence that the other
characters don’t hear;
Because of the minimal props and scenery, this is called an aside.
the action in Shakespeare’s plays had
to be conveyed through words and
conversations. A conversation between
characters is called DIALOGUE.
 So Who’s Who Here?
First of all, all of the char-
acters in
Shakespeare’s plays
Romeo and Juliet
can have LOTS of are arranged around a
characters. Let’s central conflict between
try to get them two rival families: the
straight in our Montagues and the Ca-
minds…
pulets.
 The Montagues

Romeo

Lady Mercutio
Montague Benvolio
Romeo’s Dad Montague Romeo’s
Romeo’s cousin
Romeo’s mother best friend
 The Capulets

juliet

Lady
Capulet Tybalt Nurse
Juliet’s Capulet Juliet’s Juliet’s
father Juliet’s cousin nanny
Mother
 The Peacemakers:
The Prince of Verona: Friar Lawrence:
 This ruler tries to me-  This religious leader is re-
diate between the spected as a holy man by
feuding families. both sides, and would like
 He is pretty tired of to see them reconciled.
all the bloodshed  As a friar, he’s interested
caused by their “an- not only in religion, but
cient grudge.” also in medicinal herbs—
which becomes important
later.
 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 contempo-
rary life—as far as the characters know,
the chorus doesn’t exist, but he helps ex-
plain things to us.