William Shakespeare's: Romeo and Juliet, Introductory Notes

What is a soliloquy?

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

What is a monologue?

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

What is a tragedy?

A narrative about serious and important actions that end unhappily, usually with the death of the main characters.

What is a dramatic foil?

A pair of characters who are opposite in many ways and highlight or exaggerate each other's differences.

What is an aside?

A short speech given by one character, traditionally the other characters cannot hear.

What is iambic meter?

Each unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable.

Shakespeare's plays were performed in a theater called the Globe—sometimes called ___________________ because of its circular shape.

"The Wooden 'O'"

Who is part of the capulets?

Juliet, capulet (Juliet's father), Lady Capulet (Juliet's mother), Tybalt (Juliet's cousin), and Nurse (Juliet's nanny).

Shakespeare was born in _________ and died in _______

1564 and 1616

Some of his other famous plays include Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, and _____________________________

A Midsummer Night's Dream.

What is a sonnet?

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

What is a pun?

A humorous play on words

What is an alliteration?

The repetition of the same beginning consonants.

Who is Friar Lawrence?

This religious leader is respected as a holy man by both sides, and would like to see them _reconciled As a friar, he's interested not only in religion, but also in medicinal herb—which becomes important later.

Who is the Prince of Verona?

This ruler tries to mediate between the feuding families. He is pretty tired of all the bloodshed caused by their "ancient grudge."

what are couplets?

Two _consecutive lines that rhyme (aa bb cc). Usually followed when a character leaves or a scene ends.

what is end line rhyme?

Words rhyming at the end of consecutive lines.

What is internal rhyme?

Words rhyming inside one line.

Shakespeare's plays include _______________, ________________, and ________________ such as Romeo and Juliet.

comedies, histories, and tragedies.

Elizabethans believed that people's _________________ and _________________ always had consequences, and that people sometimes had to pay a high _____________ for their mistakes.

decisions, mistakes, and price.

The theater in Shakespeare's day was tremendously _____________ from what we see today.

different

The Chorus is kind of like a TV announcer in contemporary life—as far as the characters know, the chorus __________________ exist, but he helps explain things to us.

doesn't

Being an actor was not a highly regarded profession; actors were looked __________ ___________ in society.

down upon

There were few __________ _____ ___________; Shakespeare used detailed verbal description to paint a picture of his scenes.

effects or props

In Shakespeare's time, it was considered ______________ for a ________________ to appear onstage. So the female roles in Shakespeare's plays were performed by young men.

immortal and women

Well, the plays are not only great, powerful stories—they also teach _____________________ about life that apply to people in all____________________ and ________________ _______________, and those lessons can help us when we come across hard times in our own lives.

lessons, cultures, and time periods.

Theaters had _____ ______________, so performances took place during the day.

no lighting

The chorus is ______________ a part of the _________________, but a _____________________ who comes onstage to make ______________________ on the _____________________.

not, action, speaker, comment, ad action

In Shakespeare's day, marriages were generally contracts set up by the _____________________.

parents

Shakespeare's tragedies also follow a ________________ that would have made sense to his audience.

pattern

In addition, Shakespeare wrote love poems called ___________________.

sonnets

When Juliet's parents arrange a marriage for her, it seems ______________ strange to us; Shakespeare's audience would have thought it was completely normal.

strange

First of all, all of the characters in Romeo and Juliet are arranged around a central conflict between two rival families: ________________________________ and the _________________________

the Montagues and the Capulets.

In Shakespeare's __________________, the main characters make decisions that upset the proper order of their world and so affect them and everyone around them. The situation is resolved only when others learn lessons from the main character's deaths.

tragedies

The play is broken up into _________________ and the acts are broken up into.

Acts

Who is part of the montagues?

Romeo, montague (Romeo's dad), lady montague (romeo's mother), mercutio (romeo's best friend, related to prince), Benvolio (Romeo's cousin).

He grew up in a town called ___________________ and later moved to London to become an actor and playwright.

Stratford-on-Avon