An Introduction to William Shakespeare and the Tragedy

of Romeo & Juliet

Honors English 9Bear Creek High School

This presentation will…

inform you about the life and work of the mysterious William Shakespeare.

provide you details about Elizabethan society and theater.

define basic terminology related to Shakespearean poetry and drama.

April 23, 1564: William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-on-Avon to John and Mary Shakespeare. There is a baptismal registration for Shakespeare, but few other written records exist. He was the 3rd of 8 children.

Much of Shakespeare’s younger years remain a mystery, but there are rumors about what jobs he may have worked.

Butcher Apprentice

Lawyer

Schoolmaster Lawyer

1582: According to church records, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway.

At the time of their marriage, William was eighteen and Anne was twenty-six.

William and Anne have three children together (Susanna, Hamnet, and Judith).

August 1596: young Hamnet died at the age of eleven. The cause of his death is unknown.

HamnetJudith

Susanna

Shakespeare left his family in 1591 to pursue writing in London.

In 1592, Shakespeare began developing a reputation as an actor and playwright.

As theatres were beginning to grow in popularity, it is probable that Shakespeare began earning a living writing plays (adapting old ones and working with others on new ones).

1594: William became involved with a company of actors named “The Lord Chamberlain’s Men.” This group later (1603) changed their name to “The King’s Men”.

In 1598, Shakespeare, in collaboration with other actors, designed and built The Globe.

This circular theatre was the first of its kind, breaking away from the traditional rectangular theatres.

1612: Shakespeare moved back to Stratford where he retired both rich and famous.

1616: William Shakespeare dies on his birthday.

At the time of his death, Shakespeare is said to have written around 37 plays and 154 sonnets. He is also known to have contributed over two thousand words to the English language.

SniffledorfenSniffledorfen

Shakespeare is also known to have written around 884,000 words throughout all of his works.

Good frend for Jesus sake forbeareTo digg the dust encloasedheare

Bleste be ye man [that] spares thes stonesAnd curst be he that moves my bones.

Which do you prefer?

Or…..

Shakespearean Theater “The Globe”

Romeo, Romeo…

Where for art thou Romeo?

Elizabethan Theatre Fun FactsThe First Elizabethan Theater: “The Wooden O”

Built in 1576, first permanent stage in London

Built by James Burbage

Shaped in form of a tavern

1599 theatre torn down, but Shakespeare’s company used it to build The Globe Theatre

Elizabethan Theatre Fun FactsThe Globe

Round/polygonal building with a roofless courtyard

No artificial light

Three stories high – upper levels were for the weathy

The “groundlings” paid a penny a piece to stand on the floor in front of the stage (800 people)

Large platform stage

Back of platform was curtained off inner stage

Two door entrances/exits on either side of curtain

Small balcony/upper stage

Elaborate costumes but no props

Young boys played the parts of women; women weren’t allowed to be actors

Fire and Rediscovery Shakespeare’s Globe

burned down, but its foundation was discovered in 1990. It gave us many clues to the Elizabethan experience such as hazelnut shells! A replica has since been rebuilt. You can visit it and see a play today.

Dramatic TerminologyThe Tragic Pattern:

Act I: Exposition

Establishes setting, characters, conflict, and

background

Act II: Rising Action

A series of complications

Act III: Crisis/Turning Point

A series of complications that determines the outcome

Act IV: Falling Action

Results of the turning point; characters locked

into deeper disaster

Act V: Climax/Resolution/Denouement

Death of the main characters and then the loose parts of the plot are tied up

Dramatic TerminologyIrony: There are three types of irony.

Situational Irony: a great difference in the expected outcome or purpose of the action and the result.

Dramatic Irony: when the reader or the audience is aware of information that the characters are not

Verbal Irony: in which the writer says one thing and means another (sarcasm is verbal irony)

Monologue: A long uninterrupted speech given by one character onstage to everyone.

Soliloquy: A long uninterrupted speech given by one character alone on stage, inaudible to other characters

Dramatic Terminology

Pun: A humorous play on words

After that poisonous snake struck at me in the Arizona

Desert I was really rattled. A gossip is someone with a great sense of rumor.

A carpenter must have been here. I saw dust. Energizer Bunny arrested - charged with battery.

Corduroy pillows are making headlines.

The executioner decided to drop out of Executioner School. It was just too cut throat for him.

He who farts in church sits in his own pew.

Dramatic TerminologyDramatic Foil: A pair of characters who are opposite in many ways and highlight or exaggerate each other’s differences.

Iambic PentameterIambic Pentameter is the rhythm and meter in which poets and playwrights wrote in Elizabethan England. It is a meter that Shakespeare uses.

An Iamb is a unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. These two syllables together are called a iambic foot. It is the first and last sound we ever hear, it is the rhythm of the human heartbeat.

Iambic Petameter: Quite simply, it sounds like this: dee DUM, dee DUM, dee DUM, dee DUM, dee DUM. It consists of a line of five iambic feet, ten syllables with five unstressed and five stressed syllables.

It is percussive and attractive to the ear and has an effect on the listener's central nervous system.

U U // U U / / U U // U U / / U U //ButBut,, softsoft!! what what lightlight throughthrough yonyonderder winwindowdow breaksbreaks??  

Poetic TerminologyCouplets: Two consecutive lines that rhyme (aa bb cc). Usually followed when a character leaves or a scene ends.

• So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

Sonnet: A fourteen line poem using iambic pentameter and the following rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg.

Internal Rhyme: Words rhyming inside one line.

End Line Rhyme: Words rhyming at the end of consecutive lines.

Perfect vs. Slant Rhyme: ball & hall are a perfect rhyme (end sounds the same). Ball & bell are slant rhymes (beginning and end sounds the same; middle sound is different).

Poetic TerminologyAllusion: a literary reference to a familiar person, place, thing, or event.

“She’ll not be hit with Cupid’s arrow. She hath Dian’s wit”

Alliteration: the repetition of the same beginning consonants

“Nor ope her lap to saint seducing gold.”

Assonance: the repetition of the same vowel sounds without repeating consonants.

“Blind eyes could blaze like meteors.”

Consonance: the repetition of the same ending or middle consonants

“the sacred flag of truth unfurled.”

Metaphor: a comparison of two unlike things without using like or as.

“It is the East, and Juliet is the sun.”

Simile: a comparison of two unlike things using like, as, or than.

“My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun.”

Hyperbole: an exaggeration or overstatement.• “I have seen a river so wide it only has one bank.”

Personification: giving an animal, object, or idea human charactersistics.

“If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.”

Tips for UnderstandingRomeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is based on Arthur Brooke’s long narrative poem the Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet (1562).

The play has a highly moral tone: disobedience (free will), as well as fate, leads to the deaths of two lovers.

Motifs in Romeo and Juliet

Power of Love

Violence from Passion

The Individual vs. Society

The Inevitability of Fate

MONTAGUE vs. CAPULET

Romeo

Lord Montague (his dad)

Lady Montague (his mom)

Mercutio (friend)

Benvolio (cousin)

Juliet

Lord Capulet (her father)

Lady Capulet (her mother)

Tybalt (cousin)

Nurse

A Pair of Star Crossed Lovers…“My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen

unknown , and known too late!” ~ Juliet; Act I, Scene V

FIN

The Sonnet

Honors English 9

Bear Creek High School

What do you remember about sonnets?

14 line poem iambic pentameteriambic pentameter

specific rhyme scheme (ababcdcdefefgg)specific rhyme scheme (ababcdcdefefgg) archaic languagearchaic language usually about loveusually about love

I bet you didn’t know that …

The word “sonnet” means “little sound” or “little song.”The sonnet originated in Italy and had 14 lines, but had a different rhyme scheme than what we study.All of Shakespeare’s sonnets were connected by theme.Of the 154 sonnets, #s 1-126 are addressed to a young man expressing the poet’s love for him, and #s 127–152 are written to the poet’s mistress expressing strong love for her. The English version (Shakespearean sonnet) consists of four parts: three quatrains and a couplet.Look at the Prologue for Act I in Romeo and Juliet for example…

Two households both alike in dignity, A

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene. B

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, A

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. B

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes C

A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life, D

Whose misadventure piteous overthrows C

Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife. D

The fearful passage of their death-marked love, E

And the continuance of their parents’ rage, F

Which, but their children’s end, naught could remove, E

Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage, F

The which if you with patient ears attend, G

What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. G

1st Quatrain

2nd Quatrain

3rd Quatrain

Couplet

The Sonnet Form

The form into which a poet puts his or her words is always something of which the reader ought to take conscious note. And when poets have chosen to work within such a strict form, that form and its strictures make up part of what they want to say. In other words, the poet is using the structure of the poem as part of the language act: we will find the "meaning" not only in the words, but partly in their pattern as well.

Consider the following when interpreting a sonnet …

The sonnet can be thematically divided into two sections: The first presents the theme, raises an issue or doubt, The second part answers the question, resolves the problem, or drives home the poem's point. This change in the poem is called the turn and helps move forward the emotional action of the poem quickly.

The Sonnet

The Shakespearean sonnet has a wide range of possibilities. One pattern introduces an idea in the first quatrain, complicates it in the second, complicates it still further in the third, and resolves the whole thing in the final couplet.

Each sonnet functions as it’s own short story in a way.