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Shakespeare : Born 1564 : Stafford upon
Avon.
Little known about his life until he arrives in
London in 1590 and starts working for a
theatre company as a playwright and actor.
A story teller and entertainer – no television,
cinema and most people could not read.
Very popular – made lots of money – Globe
theatre – the pit.
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Never would have thought that people would
be studying his plays in a classroom over 400
years later.
Never kept copies or published his plays.
Would have been lost except for some friends
of his collected some last copies of the plays
after his death and published them.
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Wrote 38 plays, wrote Romeo and Juliet in
1595 when he was 31. One of his most loved
plays and most famous characters.
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A genius with the English language.
Either invented or was the first writer to use
2000 words that were never recorded before.
Had a vocabulary of 30,000 words – more
than 6 times the average educated person in
his day and more than double those of today.
His use of language is fresh, surprising and
inventive.
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He combined words in new ways and came
up with thousands of phrases that people still
use everyday – but no-one used these
phrases until Shakespeare invented them.
Egs) In my minds eye – in a pickle – play fast
and loose – cold comfort – flesh and blood –
foul play – tower of strength – be cruel to be
kind – vanish into thin air – smooth faced -
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The English language is a living thing and it
changes over time – the language of
Shakespeare’s time is different from the
language we speak today – will get used to it.
Shakespeare is also one of the all time great
story tellers – he creates interesting, rich and
believable characters. We care about them
and watch them develop and struggle to find
happiness and live good lives.
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Tragedy – a sad and unfortunate event that
causes pain and suffering.
Oldest stories were tragedies – the world can
be a cruel, unfair and painful place. Good
people can suffer. Would teach people to
keep going, to light a candle in the darkness
even if the darkness was more powerful and
could easily snuff it out.
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Romeo and Juliet is a Tragedy. We are told at
the beginning that they will both die and that
their love will be defeated by the dark forces
of hatred, anger and hostility that exists
between their two rival families.
We still admire their courage and strength
even if it is defeated in the end. Should teach
us to refuse to give in to prejudice and hatred
if we come up against them in our own lives.
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They die because they are so committed to
the love they feel for each other that they
cannot imagine living without each other.
Their deaths shock their families into
realising the folly of their ways and it reminds
us that we should set petty problems and
squabbles aside and add to the store of good
and love in the world.
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CAPULET (JULIET)
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Sampson(servant)
Gregory(Servant)
Tybalt(Juliet’s cousin)
Lord and Lady Capulet
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Montague(Romeo)
Abraham (servant)
Balthasar (servant)
Benvolio (Romeo’s
cousin)
 Lord and Lady
Montague