Romeo and Juliet

Language ● Servants usually speak in prose● Higher-class characters speak in blank verse● The prologue, said by the chorus is a sonnet, a poem of fourteen

lines with a strict rhyme scheme.● A soliloquy is a speech where a character relates his or her

thoughts and feelings on his or her own without addressing any of the other characters. An example is Juliet’s “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” soliloquy. Imagine a soliloquy as a character verbalizing their thoughts for the audience, or talking out loud to themselves.

Language (cont’d)● An aside is where a character speaks to the audience and is

unheard by the other characters on the stage. It is usually a brief comment rather than a speech.

● Shakespeare uses puns, a form of wordplay that deliberately exploits an ambiguity between similarly sounding words for humorous or rhetorical effect. Samuel Johnson disparagingly referred to punning as “the lowest form of humor.” Shakespeare is estimated to have used over 3,000 puns in his plays and about 175 in Romeo and Juliet. Many of these jokes are sexual in nature.

Sampson: Gregory, on my word, we will not carry coalsGregory: No, for then we would be colliers.Sampson: I mean, an we be in choler, we’ll drawGregory: Ay, while you live, draw your neck out of collar.

“We will not carry coals” = we will not be insulted“Colliers” = workers who hauled coals who were often the butt of

jokes“In choler” = angry“Collar” = a hangman’s noose

Setting● 14th to 15th century● Verona, Italy● The action takes place

over five days, starting on Sunday and ending on Thursday morning.

Background● Believed to have been written

between 1591 and 1595● Romeo and Juliet is one of

Shakespeare’s tragedies. Shakespeare intersperses the tragedy with comic moments to heighten tension.

Background (cont’d)● Romeo and Juliet is about star-crossed lovers. “Star-crossed” is a

phrase often describing a pair of lovers whose relationship is doomed from the start. The phrase stems from the beliefs that the positions of the stars ruled over people’s fates. Stars were thought to control the fates of humanity, and as time passed, the stars would move along their course in the sky, also charting the course of human lives below. To describe a relationship as star-crossed is to say that the stars are working against the relationship.

● Along with Hamlet and Macbeth, it is one of Shakespeare’s most performed plays.

Plot SummaryRomeo (Montague), who is in love with Rosaline, goes to a party in

an effort to forget her or to ease his broken heart. At this party, he met Juliet and immediately fell in love with her. He later finds out that she is a Capulet, the rival family of the Montagues. He decides that he loves her anyway and they confess their love for each other during the very famous “balcony scene,” in which they agree to secretly marry the next day. Friar Laurence agrees to marry them in an effort to end the feuding between the two families. Unfortunately, the fighting gets worse and Mercutio (Montague), a good friend of Romeo’s, ends up in a fight with Tybalt (Capulet), Juliet’s cousin. Tybalt kills Mercutio, which causes Romeo to kill Tybalt in an angry rage. For this, Romeo is banished from Verona.

Plot Summary (cont’d)At the same time, the Capulets are planning Juliet’s marriage to

Paris. Juliet does not want to marry this man, so she arranges with Friar Lawrence to fake her own death with a sleeping potion that will make everyone think that she is dead. Friar Lawrence promises to send word to Romeo to meet her when the potion wears off, and to rescue her to Mantua, where Romeo is currently staying. There they would live happily ever after. Unfortunately, Romeo does not receive this message on time and upon hearing of Juliet’s “death” goes to her tomb where he drinks poison and dies. When Juliet’s potion wears off, she awakens to find her lover’s corpse. She then proceeds to stab herself with Romeo’s dagger. The two families find the bodies, and in their shared sorrow, finally make peace with each other.

The House of Capulet (kap-yoo-let)● Capulet - the patriarch of the

House of Capulet● Lady Capulet - the matriarch of

the House of Capulet● Juliet - the daughter of the

Capulets, and the female protagonist

● Tybalt - a cousin of Juliet, and the nephew of Lady Capulet

● The Nurse - Juliet’s personal attendant and confidante

● Peter, Sampson and Gregory- servants of the Capulet household

The House of Montague (mon-tuh-gyu)● Montague - the patriarch of the

House of Montague● Lady Montague - the matriarch of

the House of Montague● Romeo - the son of the

Montagues, and the plays male protagonist

● Benvolio - a cousin and friend of Romeo

● Abram and Balthasar - servants of the Montague household

The Ruling House of Verona● Prince Escalus - the ruling

Prince of Verona● Count Paris - a kinsman of

Escalus who wishes to marry Juliet

● Mercutio - another kinsman of Escalus, and a friend of Romeo’s

Others● Friar Lawrence - a Franciscan

Friar, and Romeo’s confidante● A Chorus - reads the prologue

to each of the first two acts● Friar John - sent to deliver Friar

Lawrence’s letter to Romeo● An Apothecary - reluctantly

sells Romeo poison● Rosaline - a niece to Lord

Capulet, and is an unseen character with whom Romeo is in love with before meeting Juliet

Themes and MotifsDuality (Light and Dark)-

Scholars have long noted Shakespeare’s widespread use of light and dark imagery throughout the play. For example, both Romeo and Juliet see the other as light in a surrounding darkness. Romeo describes Juliet as being like the sun, brighter than a torch, a jewel sparkling in the night, and a bright angel among dark clouds. Even when she lies dead.