Download Romeo and Juliet The Prologue

Romeo and Juliet
By William Shakespeare
Who is William Shakespeare?
The Globe Theater
www.oppidanlibrary.com/shakespeare.htm
www.unplowedground.com/.../travels/travels.html
History of the Globe Theatre
• Built in 1598 and opened in 1599
• Burned down in1613 from a cannon blast
during the play “Henry VIII”
• Rebuilt and reopened in 1614
• Closed down by Puritans in 1642 and was
torn down in 1644
• In 1996 a replica was built on the original
site
Facts about the Globe Theatre
• Original Globe was 3 stories and held about
3000 people.
• Although most of Shakespeare’s plays were
held there, he only owned 12% of the
theatre.
• Located in Southwark near the Thames
River (just outside of London).
More Globe Facts
•
•
•
•
•
All classes of people attended plays there.
No roof so that they had sunlight.
Thus, plays had to be during the day.
People often skipped work to go.
Was not allowed to be built in the city of
London because crowds often became
rowdy.
Problems at the Theatre
•
•
•
•
•
Fights
Spread of disease (the plague)
Drug dealing
Prostitution
Theft
Entrance View
• Everybody entered at
the same place
regardless of where you
paid to sit or stand.
• The stage juts out onto
the floor, so some
people would view from
the side.
Floor View
• Poor people could get into
plays for little money, but
had to stand. They were
known as Groundlings.
• It would be very difficult to
see unless you were right
next to the stage.
• Plays often lasted 4-6 hours
and the Groundlings would
stand the whole time.
Second Floor View
• The middle to upper
class people could
afford to sit on the
second level.
• The second level
wrapped around both
sides of the stage.
Third Floor View
• Only the upper class
could afford seats on the
third level.
• For extra money they
could get a padded seat.
Stage View
• The actors had to deal
with many distractions:
– Weather (no roof)
– Rowdy Audience
– Fruits and Veggies
thrown at them if the
play or the acting was
bad.
The Tiring House
• The tiring house (or ‘attiring house’) was
the area behind the stage where costumes
and props were stored and where actors
dressed to prepare themselves before their
performances. The most expensive items
owned by acting companies were their
costumes.
• Costumes had two functions on the Elizabethan
stage. First, they created a spectacular effect, since
many of the clothes actors wore on stage were
made of fine materials such as silk, velvet and
taffeta.
• The second function of costume was to help the
audience identify the characters: a clown, a nurse,
a shepherd or a king would be instantly
recognisable.
• During Shakespeare’s lifetime, there were
laws forbidding people from wearing
clothes better than their social rank, making
it easy to identify the social status of people
on the streets.
• So, if an actor who played a king wore his
costume outside of the playhouse he could
be prosecuted.
The Heavens, Earth & Hell
• The trapdoor would lead to the area under
the stage, known sometimes as hell or the
underworld at the new Globe. It is likely to
have served as Ophelia’s grave in Hamlet
and as the tomb of the Andronici in Titus
Andronicus.
• The stage roof was referred to as the
heavens.
• The stage platform was earth and the space
beneath the stage was called hell.
• This symbolism suggested, as Shakespeare
often declared, that the theatre was like a
little world, and therefore the world was
like a theatre: ‘All the world’s a stage…’.
Why else would Shakespeare’s playhouse
be called the Globe?
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
o The
Sonnets
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
BLANK VERSE
• Written like poetry
• But tells a story
• More free-flowing rules
o doesn’t
have a rhyme scheme or set number
of lines, etc.
• Iambic Pentameter
Iambic Pentameter
• Lines have a rhythm to them
• 10 syllables
• Pattern of stressed and unstressed
syllables
He JESTS at SCARS that NEV er FELT a WOUND
But SOFT! what LIGHT through YON der WIN dow BREAKS?
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
Conflict
• External
o Man
o Man
o Man
vs. Man Example:
vs. Nature Example:
vs. Society Example:
• Internal
o Man
vs. himself Example:
Dramatic Irony
• Irony: the contrast between appearance and
reality
• Dramatic Irony: when the reader or
audience knows something that one or more
of the characters do not know.
• EX: In Romeo and Juliet when we know
Juliet is married to Romeo, but her parents
do not.
• Other examples in R and J?
Verbal Irony
• Verbal irony = when you say one thing and
mean another (sarcasm is a type of verbal
irony generally associated with a tone of
voice)
• Example =Thank you so much for being on
time today! (When someone is tardy to
class.)
Situational Irony
• Situational irony = When the unexpected
happens
• Example – A fire station catches on fire
Last slide
Figurative Language
• Simile – comparison using “like”
or “as”
o
Her face is like a summer’s day…
• Metaphor – comparison by
saying one thing is another;
finding similarities in two
seemingly unalike things
o
“I am the East, and Juliet is the West…”
Figurative Language
• Pun – play on words
o
"Vandals destroyed many road signs. They really pulled out all the
stops."
• Alliteration - group of words that
begin with the same letter or
sound
o
desire doth in his deathbed lie
Foreshadowing
• A hint about what is to come in literature or
what the outcome of the conflict will be
Foil
• A character with qualities that are in sharp
contrast to another character, thus
emphasizing the qualities of each
• How is Mercutio a foil to Romeo?
Do Now
Assume that you write an advice column for
a newspaper or magazine. 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
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?
Romeo and Juliet
What is a Prologue?
In this case, a prologue is a general
overview of the story to come.
Interesting Fact:
The prologue is written in Iambic
Pentameter, a popular form of
poetry in Shakespeare's time.
http://www.theatrehistory.com/british/romeoandjuliet.jpg
Basic Romeo and Juliet
Information
http://www.bojan.net/img/citta/verona.gif
http://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu/education/shakespeare/images/detail
_IV_V.jpg
Location:
Main Characters:
Verona, Italy
Romeo Montegue
Juliet Capulet
http://www.michrenfest.com/weekends.htm
Themes in the text:
Enduring Love
Fueding Familys
Defying Parents
Predetermined Fate
Why Bother With A Prologue?
Modern taste prefers not to be told right at the
beginning of a play how it will end; but many in
Shakespeare's audience already knew the story
and were looking to enjoy how well it was told,
not seeking to be surprised by original plot turns.
http://www.romeo-juliet.newmail.ru/art.files/nuptials.jpg
Classwork
Prologue: So What Does It
Mean?
Shakespearean Text
Modern Translation
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which but their children's end naught could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which, if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
Two families, the same in almost every respect,
In the town of Verona, Italy, where this play is set,
Continue an old feud with new breakouts of violence,
Involving and killing citizens outside the families.
The son of one family and the daughter of the other,
Having become lovers, commit suicide,
Following a series of events that keep them apart.
Their deaths cause the families to end the feud.
The events that lead to their suicide,
As well as the continuing feud between the families,
(which nothing but their children’s death could end),
Will now be performed on this stage for two hours.
If you listen to the play attentively, any details you
Missed in this introduction, will be explained as you
watch the play.
Translation and original text from enotes.com