Download Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet
Facts
• Written some time
between 1591 and 1595
– He was between 27 and 31
years old
• Published in two quartos
before being published in
the First Folio of 1623
– Q1 – 1597
– Q2 – 1599
Background and Inspiration
• Romeo and Juliet is an adaptation of an
adaptation… of an adaptation..
– Arthur Brooke’s poem
• The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet
– Ovid’s Metamorphoses
• Pyramus and Thisbe
– Italian roots
• Giulietta e Romeo
Structure
• Shifts between tragedy and comedy
– Hope to despair, reprieve, and new hope
• Sub-plots
– Keep the story
interesting
Language
• Sonnets
• Blank verse
– Type of poetry having a regular meter, but no rhyme
• Iambic Pentameter
– Poetic meter
• Rhythm is measured in “feet”
• An iambic foot is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed
syllable (da DUM)
• Iambic pentameter is 5 of these feet in a row (da DUM da
DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM)
More Language
• Thou/Thy/Thine/Thee= you/yours
–
–
–
–
Where art thou? = Where are you?
Love thy neighbor = Love your neighbor
With thine own hand = With your own hand
We thank thee = We thank you
• Wherefore = why
• I ate the sandwich.
I the sandwich ate.
Ate the sandwich I.
Ate I the sandwich.
The sandwich I ate.
The sandwich ate I.
Tragedy
• Literary, especially dramatic, representations of serious
actions which eventuate in a disastrous conclusion for
the protagonist
– Aristotle: Protagonist must be an admirable but flawed
character
• Tragedies end in death
– Comedies end with a marriage
– In love tragedies, death is the consummation of the
relationship
Themes
• Love
– “…for I never saw true beauty ‘til this night…”
– “…parting is such sweet sorrow…”
• Fate and Chance
– “… a pair of star crossed lovers take their life…”
– “… some consequence yet hanging in the stars…”
– “…he that hath the steerage of my course / direct my
sail…”