Romeo and Juliet
In Verona, Sampson and Gregory (Capulet servants) complain
that they will not put up with insults from the Montague family.
Abram and Balthasar (Montague servants) appear, and the four
start quarrelling. Benvolio (Lord Montague's nephew) appears
and tries to break up the quarrel, but Tybalt (Lady Capulet's
nephew) appears and picks a fight with Benvolio. At length,
officers try to break up the fight, even while Lord Capulet and
Lord Montague begin to fight one another. The Prince of Verona (Escalus) appears and stops the
fighting, proclaiming sentences of death to any that renew the fighting. At Montague's house, he, his
wife, and Benvolio discuss how melancholy Romeo (Montague's only son) has been lately. Benvolio
vows to find out why. Speaking with Romeo, Benvolio finds Romeo is in love with a woman who has
sworn to stay chaste (Rosaline). Benvolio suggests pursuing other women, but Romeo refuses.
Separately, Paris (a kinsman of the Prince of Verona) talks to Lord Capulet about wooing his
daughter Juliet for marriage. Capulet responds that she is too young (nearly 14 years old) and must
wait two years to marry, and then only to the man whom she chooses. Still, Capulet invites Paris to a
party in the evening. Capulet's servant is sent to invite guests, but he can't read the list so he
entreats Romeo to do so. Upon hearing of the party, Benvolio convinces Romeo to attend and
compare his unattainable love Rosaline to more beautiful women to get his mind off Rosaline. At
Capulet's house, Lady Capulet speaks to Juliet about her feelings for marrying Paris while Juliet's
Nurse listens on, telling stories of Juliet's childhood. Juliet, although hesitant, promises to be
courteous. Masked, Romeo, Mercutio, and Benvolio head to the Capulet party. Romeo is still
depressed, saying he dreamt a fearful dream of an untimely death that will result because of the
evening's events, but Benvolio just makes fun of him. At Capulet's house, the Montagues attend the
party (in masks), Romeo spies Juliet, and he falls in love with her. Tybalt sees Romeo and takes up
arms, but Lord Capulet attempts to calm him, though Tybalt vows to revenge Romeo's intrusion the
next day. Juliet, too, falls for Romeo, but falls into despair when her Nurse informs her Romeo is a
Montague, as does Romeo when he learns Juliet is a Capulet.
While leaving the party, Romeo hides in the orchard while Mercutio and Benvolio call for him to come
out of hiding and go home with them; yet he will not. After they leave, Romeo appears and speaks to
Juliet under her window, saying "But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the East,
and Juliet is the sun!" By and by they swear their love to one another. Juliet tells Romeo she'll send a
messenger to him the next day to learn the details of their wedding. Having stayed up all night,
Romeo visits Friar Lawrence's cell and tells him of this new love for Juliet. Although Lawrence is
critical at first, Romeo eventually convinces him to marry them. In the street, Benvolio tells Mercutio
that Romeo did not come home that night, and that Tybalt has sent the Montagues a letter
challenging Romeo to a duel. Romeo appears and they tease him for hiding from them. Juliet's nurse
and servant Peter appear and Romeo tells her to tell Juliet to go to the Friar's cell that afternoon to
be married. The Nurse returns to Juliet and, though she skirts around the message, she finally tells
Juliet the wonderful news. Soon, at the Friar's cell, he marries Romeo and Juliet, and Romeo plans
to visit Juliet's bedroom that evening.
At the street, Benvolio and Mercutio encounter Tybalt and Petruchio, leading to Tybalt and Mercutio
fighting since Tybalt tries to pick a fight with Romeo, but he refuses. Romeo tries to break up the
fight, but Tybalt slays Mercutio under Romeo's arm, then Tybalt flees. As Mercutio dies, he declares
"A plague on both your houses," since he is only a friend of Romeo's and not his kinsmen. When
Benvolio informs Romeo that Mercutio is dead, Romeo seeks out, fights, and slays Tybalt in
revenge. Benvolio convinces Romeo to flee. The prince appears and Benvolio explains all to him, at
which the Prince exiles Romeo for slaying Tybalt. At the Capulet's orchard, Juliet waits for Romeo
when her Nurse appears and informs her of Mercutio and Tybalt's deaths, and Romeo's banishment.
Juliet falls into despair, realizing she would rather Tybalt dead than Romeo, but also that a banished
Romeo is virtually dead. At the Friar's cell, he informs Romeo of the Prince's edict of banishment,
putting him into despair. Romeo states he would rather be dead than banished. The Nurse arrives
and tells Romeo that Juliet is sad too, but forgives Romeo. Still, Romeo pulls a dagger and tries to
kill himself, but the Friar stops him and tells him to stay the night with Juliet, then flee to Mantua. At
Capulet's house, he and Paris set the wedding date for Paris and Juliet to be three days hence. In
Juliet's bedroom, Romeo says a tearful goodbye to Juliet. After he leaves, Lady Capulet appears
and, while discussing Tybalt's death, states she will send a henchman to mantua to kill Romeo
(though she never does). She then informs Juliet of her impending marriage to Paris. Juliet tells her
parents she will not marry, but Lord Capulet commands it will be so. The Nurse, too, tells Juliet she
should marry Paris. In private, Juliet decides to no longer trust the nurse and vows to kill herself if the
Friar cannot find a way to save her from marrying Paris.
At Friar Lawrence's cell, Paris informs the Friar of his upcoming wedding to Juliet. When Juliet
arrives to see the Friar, Paris politely leaves. The Friar, hearing Juliet threaten suicide, tells her of a
"distilled liquor" she can take to fake death. He explains the drug will keep her asleep and seemingly
dead for 42 hours, during which she can be placed in the Capulet tomb. Then, when she wakes,
Romeo can be there waiting for her to take her to Mantua. Friar Lawrence sends Friar John to
Mantua with an explanatory letter for Romeo. Juliet returns to her father and apologizes for refusing
to marry, causing her dad to move the wedding up to the next morning (two days early). In her
bedroom, Juliet sends her mother and nurse away, then, after much worrying over the future, she
drinks the vial of medicine and sleeps. Later in the early morning, all feverishly prepare for the
wedding and Capulet sends the Nurse to wake Juliet. The Nurse wails upon finding Juliet "dead",
summoning the others to find her and mourn. The Friar instructs all to prepare Juliet for her funeral.
In Mantua, Romeo's servant Balthasar arrives and tells Romeo that Juliet is dead. Romeo vows to
see Juliet in her tomb and poison himself there, buying the poison from a poor Apothecary who
illegally sells it to Romeo only because he (the Apothecary) needs the money. At Lawrence's cell,
Friar John reports he could not deliver the letter to Romeo since he (John) got stuck in a quarantined
house while searching for Romeo. Friar Lawrence heads to the cemetery with a crowbar.
At the tomb, Paris and his page arrive and Paris mourns Juliet's death. Paris hides when he hears
Romeo and Balthasar approach. Romeo orders Balthasar to leave him alone, no matter what he
hears. When Romeo opens the tomb, Paris steps out and tries to stop him by provoking him to fight.
Romeo entreats Paris to simply walk away and not fight, but Paris forces Romeo to fight him,
resulting in Romeo slaying Paris. In sorrow, Romeo lays Paris in the tomb, while Paris' page secretly
leaves to call the watch.
Romeo finds Juliet and mourns her death, then drinks his poison and dies. Outside the tomb, Friar
Lawrence arrives and meets Balthasar who tells the Friar that Romeo has been in the tomb for one
half hour. Lawrence enters the tomb and finds Romeo and Paris dead. Juliet then awakes and spots
Romeo. The Friar, upon hearing noises outside flees, leaving Juliet with Romeo. Juliet tries to kill
herself with Romeo's poison, but can find none, either in the vial or on Romeo's lips. In desperation,
she stabs herself with Romeo's dagger.
The watch arrives, having found Balthasar and the Friar. The Prince and Lord and Lady Capulet
arrive and learn Paris, Romeo, and Juliet are dead (amazingly to them, Juliet seems to have been
alive, and then newly dead again). Lord Montague arrives and reports that his wife has died of grief
over Romeo's exile, then learns himself of Romeo's death. Capulet and Montague make peace and
swear to never fight again. They vow to build solid gold statues of Romeo and Juliet and place them
side by side so all can remember their plight.
Characters
The House of Capulet
Juliet
Capulet - her father
Lady Capulet - her mother
Tybalt - her cousin
Nurse - to Juliet
Peter - the Nurse’s servant
Cousin Capulet - Juliet’s kinsman
Sampson - servant to Capulet
Gregory - servant to Capulet
Clown - servant to Capulet
Petruchio - Tybalt’s friend
The House of Montague
Romeo
Montague - his father
Lady Montague - his mother
Benvolio - his friend
Balthasar - his servant
Abram - Montague’s servant
The Court
Escales - Prince of Verona
Mercutio - his kinsman
Paris - his kinsman, suitor to Juliet
Page
The Church
Friar Lawrence - Franciscan priest
Friar John - Franciscan priest
The City
Musicians, Gentlemen and Gentlewomen, Maskers,
Top-bearers, Citizens and Officers of the Watch,
Captain of the Watch
Mantua
An Apothecary
Date and Text
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was published in two distinct quarto editions prior to the publication
of the First Folio of 1623. These are referred to as Q1 and Q2. Q2's title page called the play '"The
Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet".
Q1, the first printed edition, appeared in 1597, printed by John Danter. Because its text contains
numerous differences from the later editions, it is labelled a bad quarto: the twentieth century editor
T. J .B. Spencer described it as "a detestable text, probably a reconstruction of the play from the
imperfect memories of one or two of the actors.”
The superior Q2 followed in 1599, published by Cuthbert Burby and printed by Thomas Creede. It is
a much more complete and reliable text, and was reprinted in 1609 (Q3), 1622 (Q4) and 1637 (Q5).
Its title page describes it as "Newly corrected, augmented and amended". Scholars believe that this
text was based on Shakespeare's pre-performance draft, since there are textual oddities such as
variable tags for characters and "false starts" for speeches that were presumably struck through by
the author but erroneously preserved by the typesetter. Q2 contains 800 lines missing from Q1. Q2
also has an interestingly defective stage direction: it reads "Enter Will Kempe" instead of "Enter
Peter" in IV,v,102.
The First Folio text of 1623 seems to be based primarily on Q3, with some clarifications and
corrections possibly coming from a theatrical promptbook.
The greater part of Romeo and Juliet is written in iambic pentameter. However, the play is also
notable for its copious use of rhymed verse, notably in the sonnet contained in Romeo and Juliet's
dialogue in the scene where they first meet (Act I, Scene v, Lines 95-108), and that of the prologue.
Adaptations of the Original
There have been many adaptations of Shakespeare’s original work,
ranging from film, television, opera, musical theatre and ballet.
The play Shakespeare’s R&J, adapted by Joe Calarco, is about a group
of Catholic school boys who steal a copy of Romeo and Juliet because all
of Shakespeare's plays have been banned from their school, due to their
lustful content. The boys then act out the play in a basement, and the
power of the love story starts to take a hold of the boys playing Romeo
and Juliet. The "forbidden kiss" then takes on a new meaning for them.
West Side Story
In 1957, the musical West Side Story debuted on Broadway, with music by Leonard Bernstein
and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. This version of "Romeo and Juliet" updated the setting to mid20th Century New York City and the warring families to ethnic gangs. West Side Story opened on
the West End in London in 1958 and then was released as a film in 1961.
Romeo and Juliet, directed by Baz Luhrmann - 1996
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the title roles, Luhrmann gave the famous tale a
modern setting. The production uses Luhrmann's signature flamboyant colour and stylization.
Besides the modernization it is notable for significantly tweaking the ending, so that Romeo and
Juliet get a final scene alive together.
Themes
The Forcefulness of Love
Romeo and Juliet is the most famous love story in the English literary tradition. Love is naturally the
play’s dominant and most important theme. The play focuses on romantic love, specifically the
intense passion that springs up at first sight between Romeo and Juliet. In Romeo and Juliet, love is
a violent, ecstatic, overpowering force that supersedes all other values, loyalties, and emotions. In
the course of the play, the young lovers are driven to defy their entire social world: families (“Deny
thy father and refuse thy name,” Juliet asks, “Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, / And I’ll no
longer be a Capulet”); friends (Romeo abandons Mercutio and Benvolio after the feast in order to go
to Juliet’s garden); and ruler (Romeo returns to Verona for Juliet’s sake after being exiled by the
Prince on pain of death in II.i.76–78). Love is the overriding theme of the play, but a reader should
always remember that Shakespeare is uninterested in portraying a prettied-up, dainty version of the
emotion, the kind that bad poets write about, and whose bad poetry Romeo reads while pining for
Rosaline. Love in Romeo and Juliet is a brutal, powerful emotion that captures individuals and
catapults them against their world, and, at times, against themselves.
The powerful nature of love can be seen in the way it is described, or, more accurately, the way
descriptions of it so consistently fail to capture its entirety. At times love is described in the terms of
religion, as in the fourteen lines when Romeo and Juliet first meet. At others it is described as a sort
of magic: “Alike bewitchèd by the charm of looks” (II.Prologue.6). Juliet, perhaps, most perfectly
describes her love for Romeo by refusing to describe it: “But my true love is grown to such excess / I
cannot sum up some of half my wealth” (III.i.33–34). Love, in other words, resists any single
metaphor because it is too powerful to be so easily contained or understood.
Romeo and Juliet does not make a specific moral statement about the relationships between love
and society, religion, and family; rather, it portrays the chaos and passion of being in love, combining
images of love, violence, death, religion, and family in an impressionistic rush leading to the play’s
tragic conclusion.
Love as a Cause of Violence
The themes of death and violence permeate Romeo and Juliet, and they are always connected to
passion, whether that passion is love or hate. The connection between hate, violence, and death
seems obvious. But the connection between love and violence requires further investigation.
Love, in Romeo and Juliet, is a grand passion, and as such it is blinding; it can overwhelm a person
as powerfully and completely as hate can. The passionate love between Romeo and Juliet is linked
from the moment of its inception with death: Tybalt notices that Romeo has crashed the feast and
determines to kill him just as Romeo catches sight of Juliet and falls instantly in love with her. From
that point on, love seems to push the lovers closer to love and violence, not farther from it. Romeo
and Juliet are plagued with thoughts of suicide, and a willingness to experience it: in Act III, scene iii,
Romeo brandishes a knife in Friar Lawrence’s cell and threatens to kill himself after he has been
banished from Verona and his love. Juliet also pulls a knife in order to take her own life in Friar
Lawrence’s presence just three scenes later. After Capulet decides that Juliet will marry Paris, Juliet
says, “If all else fail, myself have power to die” (III.v.242). Finally, each imagines that the other looks
dead the morning after their first, and only, sexual experience (“Methinks I see thee,” Juliet says, “. . .
as one dead in the bottom of a tomb” (III.v.242; III.v.55–56). This theme continues until its inevitable
conclusion: double suicide. This tragic choice is the highest, most potent expression of love that
Romeo and Juliet can make. It is only through death that they can preserve their love, and their love
is so profound that they are willing to end their lives in its defence. In the play, love emerges as an
amoral thing, leading as much to destruction as to happiness. But in its extreme passion, the love
that Romeo and Juliet experience also appears so exquisitely beautiful that few would want, or be
able, to resist its power.
The Individual Versus Society
Much of Romeo and Juliet involves the lovers’ struggles against public
and social institutions that either explicitly or implicitly oppose the
existence of their love. Such structures range from the concrete to the
abstract: families and the placement of familial power in the father; law
and the desire for public order; religion; and the social importance placed
on masculine honour. These institutions often come into conflict with each
other. The importance of honour, for example, time and again results in
brawls that disturb the public peace.
Though they do not always work in concert, each of these societal
institutions in some way present obstacles for Romeo and Juliet. The
enmity between their families, coupled with the emphasis placed on
loyalty and honour to kin, combine to create a profound conflict for
Romeo and Juliet, who must rebel against their heritages. Further, the
patriarchal power structure inherent in Renaissance families, wherein the father controls the action of
all other family members, particularly women, places Juliet in an extremely vulnerable position. Her
heart, in her family’s mind, is not hers to give. The law and the emphasis on social civility demands
terms of conduct with which the blind passion of love cannot comply. Religion similarly demands
priorities that Romeo and Juliet cannot abide by because of the intensity of their love. Though in
most situations the lovers uphold the traditions of Christianity (they wait to marry before
consummating their love), their love is so powerful that they begin to think of each other in
blasphemous terms. For example, Juliet calls Romeo “the god of my idolatry,” elevating Romeo to
level of God (II.i.156). The couple’s final act of suicide is likewise un-Christian. The maintenance of
masculine honour forces Romeo to commit actions he would prefer to avoid. But the social emphasis
placed on masculine honour is so profound that Romeo cannot simply ignore them.
It is possible to see Romeo and Juliet as a battle between the responsibilities and actions demanded
by social institutions and those demanded by the private desires of the individual. Romeo and Juliet’s
appreciation of night, with its darkness and privacy, and their renunciation of their names, with its
attendant loss of obligation, make sense in the context of individuals who wish to escape the public
world. But the lovers cannot stop the night from becoming day. And Romeo cannot cease being a
Montague simply because he wants to; the rest of the world will not let him. The lovers’ suicides can
be understood as the ultimate night, the ultimate privacy.
The Inevitability of Fate
In its first address to the audience, the Chorus states that Romeo and Juliet are “star-crossed”—that
is to say that fate (a power often vested in the movements of the stars) controls them (Prologue.6).
This sense of fate permeates the play, and not just for the audience. The characters also are quite
aware of it: Romeo and Juliet constantly see omens. When Romeo believes that Juliet is dead, he
cries out, “Then I defy you, stars,” completing the idea that the love between Romeo and Juliet is in
opposition to the decrees of destiny (V.i.24). Of course, Romeo’s defiance itself plays into the hands
of fate, and his determination to spend eternity with Juliet results in their deaths. The mechanism of
fate works in all of the events surrounding the lovers: the feud between their families (it is worth
noting that this hatred is never explained; rather, the reader must accept it as an undeniable aspect
of the world of the play); the horrible series of accidents that ruin Friar Lawrence’s seemingly wellintentioned plans at the end of the play; and the tragic timing of Romeo’s suicide and Juliet’s
awakening. These events are not mere coincidences, but rather manifestations of fate that help bring
about the unavoidable outcome of the young lovers’ deaths.
The concept of fate described above is the most commonly accepted interpretation. There are other
possible readings of fate in the play: as a force determined by the powerful social institutions that
influence Romeo and Juliet’s choices, as well as fate as a force that emerges from Romeo and
Juliet’s very personalities.
Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the
text’s major themes.
Light/Dark Imagery
One of the play’s most consistent visual motifs is the contrast between light and dark, often in terms
of night/day imagery. This contrast is not given a particular metaphoric meaning—light is not always
good, and dark is not always evil. On the contrary, light and dark are generally used to provide a
sensory contrast and to hint at opposed alternatives. One of the more important instances of this
motif is Romeo’s lengthy meditation on the sun and the moon during the balcony scene, in which
Juliet, metaphorically described as the sun, is seen as banishing the “envious moon” and
transforming the night into day (II.i.46). A similar blurring of night and day occurs in the early morning
hours after the lovers’ only night together. Romeo, forced to leave for exile in the morning, and Juliet,
not wanting him to leave her room, both try to pretend that it is still night, and that the light is actually
darkness: “More light and light, more dark and dark our woes” (III.v.36).
Opposite Points of View
Shakespeare includes numerous speeches and scenes in Romeo and Juliet that hint at alternative
ways to evaluate the play. Shakespeare uses two main devices in this regard: Mercutio and
servants. Mercutio consistently skewers the viewpoints of all the other characters in play: he sees
Romeo’s devotion to love as a sort of blindness that robs Romeo from himself; similarly, he sees
Tybalt’s devotion to honour as blind and stupid. His punning and the Queen Mab speech can be
interpreted as undercutting virtually every passion evident in the play. Mercutio serves as a critic of
the delusions of righteousness and grandeur held by the characters around him.
Where Mercutio is a nobleman who openly criticizes other nobles, the views offered by servants in
the play are less explicit. There is the Nurse who lost her baby and husband, the servant Peter who
cannot read, the musicians who care about their lost wages and their lunches, and the Apothecary
who cannot afford to make the moral choice, the lower classes present a second tragic world to
counter that of the nobility. The nobles’ world is full of grand tragic gestures. The servants’ world, in
contrast, is characterized by simple needs, and early deaths brought about by disease and poverty
rather than duelling and grand passions. Where the nobility almost seem to revel in their capacity for
drama, the servants’ lives are such that they cannot afford tragedy of the epic kind.
Love and Hate
The love of Romeo and Juliet is threatened by a society full
of hate. Juliet fears for Romeo’s safety at the hands of her
kinsmen: ‘If they do see thee, they will murder thee’. The
hateful, hate-full, honour code that governs the feuding
mafiosi of Verona will destroy Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio,
Tybalt and Paris. Love, in Verona’s masculine society, is
about domination. The macho servants of Capulet joke
about sex in violent, aggressive terms. The selflessness of
Romeo and Juliet, equal in love, and willing to die for each
other, is in strong contrast to the hate that fills Verona.
Activities
What caused the feud in the first place?
We know from the prologue that the Capulet and Montague families have been feuding for many
years ("From ancient grudge break to new mutiny"). However, Shakespeare never tells us the reason
for this feud. Allow the students to talk together in groups of 5/6 about the possible reasons why
these two families are constantly at war.
Prepare a short scene where you present the beginning of the feud between Capulet and Montague,
and what the cause of it was. Show to the rest of the group.
Sonnets
The term sonnet is derived from the Italian word sonetto meaning ‘little song’. By the thirteenth
century, the term sonnet had come to signify a poem of fourteen lines with a strict rhyme scheme
and logical structure.
The English Sonnet
Sonnets were introduced by Thomas Wyatt in the early 16th century. His sonnets, and those of his
contemporary the Earl of Surrey, were chiefly translations from the Italian of Petrarch and the French
of Ronsard and others. While Wyatt introduced the sonnet into English, it was Surrey who gave them
the rhyme scheme, meter, and division into quatrains that now characterizes the English sonnet.
Sonnets were all essentially inspired by the Petrarchan tradition, and generally treat of the poet's
love for some woman; the exception is Shakespeare's sequence where it is believed the first 126
were addressed to his patron, the Earl of Southampton.
Soon after the introduction of the Italian sonnet, English poets began to develop a fully native form.
These poets included Sir Philip Sidney, Michael Drayton, Samuel Daniel, the Earl of Surrey’s nephew
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford and Shakespeare. The form is often named after Shakespeare,
not because he was the first to write in this form but because he became its most famous
practitioner. The form consists of three quatrains and a couplet. The couplet generally introduced an
unexpected sharp thematic or imagistic "turn" called a Volta. The usual rhyme scheme was a-b-a-b,
c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g. In addition, sonnets are written in iambic pentameter, meaning that there are 10
syllables per line, and that every other syllable is naturally accented. Here is the prologue of Romeo
and Juliet as an example:
Two households, both alike in dignity, (a)
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, (b)
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, (a)
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. (b)
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes (c)
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life; (d)
Whole misadventured piteous overthrows (c)
Do with their death bury their parents' strife. (d)
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love, (e)
And the continuance of their parents' rage, (f)
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove, (e)
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage; (f)
The which if you with patient ears attend, (g)
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. (g)
Have a go at writing your own Sonnet, trying to keep to the traditional structure and rhyme scheme
shown above. Remember, fourteen lines, ten syllables per line and keep the iambic pentameter.
Imagination and Role Play
As the teacher, read aloud the following to the class prior to viewing the
play:
“In your hometown there are two families. Both of these families are
very highly respected and wealthy. However, they have been feuding for
many years. Recently, there have been two major incidents of fighting in
the streets, and both members of the families and innocent bystanders
have been killed. The police have had to intervene to restore order each time. It is mid-day on a hot
summer's day. You are in a place which is equivalent to the centre of town.”
Put the children into groups of six and allow them to decide on the following roles:
•
two family members of the "Griffiths" family (one of the feuding families).
•
two members of the "Williams” family (the other feuding family).
•
two people of the town who are not part of the feud (neutral bystanders).
Tell the children to create a short scene based on this scenario with the following questions and
thoughts in mind:
•
What will happen when the two families meet in the centre of town?
•
What will be the reaction of the other people in the town?
•
Why did the feud start?
•
What has caused this incident today?
•
Do you want to create another public display of the family’s hatred for each other?
•
How will your family members respond to your actions in the town?
Students will need to find some interesting ways to address the other people involved in the roleplay. They’ll also need to discuss ways to prevent conflict from happening.
It is important that the children think about what their character will do and say. Once they start the
exercise, stress the importance of staying in character until the teacher freezes the action and/or
becomes an observer listening to the various smoldering fires!
Developing the exercise by questioning the character’s motives.
In order to encourage the children to think more deeply about the characters’ actions, you may wish
to question them about why they behave in this way towards each other.
Some questions to consider:
•
Do you know the reason for your family’s feud?
•
Are you just following orders?
•
What do you hope to achieve from this constant fighting?
•
Are you prepared to die for your family’s cause?
•
Is there any way other than fighting that would help to end the feud?
Exploring the language
The language of Romeo and Juliet is rich in its many uses. Countless are the puns and sexual
connotations; imagery is prevalent throughout; and the use of the oxymoron enhances the reader’s
experience of the many references to contrasts, and the confused nature of love and the teenager.
What is an oxymoron?
An oxymoron is a type of paradox that combines two terms ordinarily seen as opposites, such as
Milton's description of God in Paradise Lost as 'Dark with excessive bright.' Simply put, oxymoron is
the combination of words which, at first view, seem to be contradictory or incongruous, but whose
surprising juxtaposition expresses a truth or dramatic effect, such as, cool fire, deafening silence, or
wise folly.
The use of oxymoron in Romeo and Juliet is numerous, particularly in Romeo’s first scene where he
dwells on his love of Rosaline:
“... O loving hate,
O any thing of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness, serious vanity,
Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms,
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health”
(Act 1 Scene 1)
Complete the oxymoron
Here are some of the uses of oxymoron contained in Romeo’s speech. It may prove useful to let the
children complete the phrase to aid their understanding of what an oxymoron is.
Loving
__________
Sick
__________
Cold
Bright
__________
Serious
__________
Feather
Misshapen chaos of
__________
Heavy
Why not try and have a go at writing your own oxymoron, or even trying to include some when you
write your own sonnet (see page 8).