Name: Period: The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet By William Shakespeare Are Romeo and Juliet driven by love or lust? Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday STANDARDS READING SKILLS FOR LITERATURE: Inferences (R1); Theme (R2); Word Choices (R4) WRITING SKILLS: Text Evidence (W1) LANGUAGE SKILLS: Grammar (L1); Conventions (L2); Word Meaning (R4) SPEAKING AND LISTENING SKILLS: Collaboration (SL1); Presentation (SL4) ASSESSMENTS: 1
CHARACTERS PLOT SETTING 2
THE LANGUAGE THE FORM 3
The Prologue 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-crossed lovers take their life; Whose misadventured piteous overthrows Doth with their death bury their parents strife. The fearful passage of their death-marked 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. 4
STAGES OF TRAGEDY BASIC SITUATION RISING ACTION CLIMAX FALLING ACTION CATASTROPHE ACT I ACT II ACT III ACT IV ACT V Tragedy vs. Sad Story: Sunday _ Monday _ Tuesday _ Wednesday _ Thursday 5
Act I COMIC SCENE INSTRUCTIONS: Each comic scene must summarize the most important event(s) of the scene by including an image or images, dialogue and/or thought bubbles, and a text box. Let s do a comic scene for the prologue together. Act I, scene i 6
Act I, scene ii Act I, scene iii 7
Act I, scene iv Act I, scene v 8
Act I For each of the passages you must be able to identify who is speaking to whom, what is happening leading up to this moment, what is being said in plain English and why it is being said. Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word / By thee, old Capulet, and Montague, Have thrice disturbed the quiet of our streets (I, i, 91-93) Is she a Capulet? O dear account! My life is my foe s debt. (I, v, 131-132) Go ask his name. If he be married, / My grave is like to be my wedding bed. (I, v, 148-149) My only love, sprung from my only hate! / Too early seen unknown, and known too late! (I, v, 152-153) 9
IDENTIFYING FACTS Act I 1. What lines in the Prologue tell you in advance what is going to happen to Romeo and Juliet by the play s end? 2. What does the Prologue say is the only thing that will end their parents rage? 3. What warning does the Prince give the street brawlers in Scene 1? INTERPRETING MEANING 4. Mercutio is used as a foil to Romeo. The word foil in drama means that a character or scene is set up as a contrast to another character or scene. This contrast makes the particular qualities of each character (or scene) stand out vividly. In what specific ways is Mercutio a foil to Romeo? 5. Scene 4 sets up a sense of foreboding a feeling that something bad is about to happen. This feeling will hang over the rest of the story of these star-crossed lovers. Identify Romeo s specific expressions of foreboding, as he sets off for the party in Scene 4. 10
Act II, scene i Act II Act II, scene ii 11
Act II, scene iii Act II, scene iv 12
Act II, scene v Act II, scene vi 13
Act II For each of the passages you must be able to identify who is speaking to whom, what is happening leading up to this moment, what is being said in plain English and why it is being said. What s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other word would smell as sweet. / So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called, / Retain that dear perfection which he owes / Without that title (II, ii, 46-50) With Rosaline, my ghostly father? No. / I have forgot that name and that name s woe. (II, iii, 48-49) Is Rosaline, whom thou didst love so dear, / So soon forsaken? Young men s love then lies / Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes. (II, iii, 70-72) For this alliance may so happy prove / To turn your household s rancor to pure love. (II, iii, 98-99) 14
Act II IDENTIFYING FACTS 1. What plans do Romeo and Juliet make is Scene 2? 2. What fault does Friar Laurence find in Romeo in Scene 3? 3. Why is Tybalt looking for Romeo in Scene 4? 4. What part does the nurse play in Romeo and Juliet s schemes? INTERPRETING MEANING 5. What different feelings and emotions do Romeo and Juliet express in Scene 2? Which character speaks more cautiously about love, and why? 6. Mercution teases Romeo s romantic love in Scene 4. How does Mercutio s sarcastic teasing emphasize Romeo s excessive love? Do you think Mercutio is merely teasing Romeo, or is he genuinely worried about his friend? 7. Do you think the Nurse is a principled person, one who has a strong sense of right and wrong? Or does she seem to be a person who may be easily corrupted who will do what people want her to do? 15
Act III, scene i Act III 16
Act III, scene ii Act III, scene iii 17
Act III, scene iv Act III, scene v 18
Act III For each of the passages you must be able to identify who is speaking to whom, what is happening leading up to this moment, what is being said in plain English and why it is being said. A plague a both your houses! / They have made worms meat of me. I have it, / And soundly too. Your houses! (III, i, 111-112) My very friend, hath got his mortal hurt / In my behalf. my reputation stained / With Tybalt s slander. Tybalt, that an hour / Hath been my cousin. O sweet Juliet, / Thy beauty hath made me effeminate / And temper soft ned valor s steel (III, i, 115-120) Come, cords; come, nurse. I ll to my wedding bed; / And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead! (III, ii, 149-150) 19
Ha, banishment? Be merciful, say death ; / For exile hath more terror in his look, / Much more than death. Do not say banishment. (III, iii, 13-15) In what vile part of this anatomy / Doth my name lodge? Tell me, that I may sack / the hateful mansion. (III, iii, 115-117) Act III IDENTIFYING FACTS 1. What causes the sword fight between Mercutio and Tybalt? 2. How is Mercutio killed? 3. Why does Romeo kill Tybalt? 4. What is Romeo s punishment? 5. What does Juliet threaten in Scene 2, after she learns of Romeo s banishment? 6. What is the Friar s plan in Scene 3? 20
7. What plans have her parents made for Juliet in Scene 4? INTERPRETING MEANING 8. The turning point of a play takes place when something happens that turns the action of the play either upward a happy ending or downward toward a tragic ending. Why does Romeo s killing of Tybalt become the turning point of this play? 9. How does the Nurses behavior toward Juliet contrast with the Friar s behavior toward Romeo? Act IV 21
Act IV, scene i Act IV, scene ii 22
Act IV, scene iii Act IV, scene iv 23
Act IV, scene v 24
Act IV For each of the passages you must be able to identify who is speaking to whom, what is happening leading up to this moment, what is being said in plain English and why it is being said. Be not so long to speak. I long to die / If what thou speak st speak not of remedy. (IV, i, 67-68) Take thou this vial, being then in bed, / And this distilling liquor drink thou off. / When presently through all thy veins shall run / A cold and drowsy humor, for no pulse / Shall keep his native progress, but surcease. (IV, i, 95 99) Send for the county. Go tell him of this. / I ll have this knot knit tomorrow morning. (IV, ii, 24-25) Ready to go, but never to return. (IV, v, 40) 25
Act IV IDENTIFYING FACTS 1. What does Juliet threaten to do if the Friar cannot help her? 2. What is the Friar s plan to get Romeo and Juliet together? 3. What change does Capulet make in the wedding plans, in Scene 2? 4. What is the situation in the Capulet household at the end of Act 4? What religious comfort does the Friar offer the Capulets? INTERPRETING MEANING 5. The use of dramatic irony gives us the pleasure of suspense. We wait anxiously to find out what will happen when the characters discover what we already know. Where is dramatic irony used in Scenes 2, 3, and 4? 26
Act V, scene i Act V Act V, scene ii 27
Act V, scene iii 28
Act V For each of the passages you must be able to identify who is speaking to whom, what is happening leading up to this moment, what is being said in plain English and why it is being said. This is that banish d haughty Montague / That murdered my love s cousin, with which grief / It is supposed the fair creature died! (V, iii, 49, 51) By heav n, I love thee better than thyself, / For I come hither armed against myself (V, iii, 64-65) O churl! Drunk all, and left no friendly drop / To help me after? I will kiss thy lips. / Haply some poison yet doth hang on them, / To make me die with a restorative. (V, iii, 68-71) Where be these enemies? Capulet! Montague! / See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate, / That heav n finds means to kill your joys with love! (V, iii, 301-303) 29
Act V IDENTIFYING FACTS 1. What news does Romeo s servant bring him in Scene 1? 2. Why does Romeo buy the poison? Why didn t Romeo receive the Friar s letter explaining the change in plans? 3. What does Romeo find when he enters the tomb? INTERPRETING MEANING 4. There have been many references to workings of Fate in the play. In your opinion, what caused the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet? Do you believe it was due to fate or human errors? Explain. 30
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