Literature lesson 5 & 12 January 2021

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 5,6

Shakespeare: recap

Type one thing that you know about Shakespeare

In a nutshell...

• 10 tragedies, 10 histories, 17 comedies, 154 sonnets
• married Anne Hathaway
• left Stratford-upon-Avon for London
• worked as an actor, then as a playwright

(Elizabethan) threatre:

• popular entertainment
• outside the city boundaries - why?
• Elizabethan theatre:

a. interaction between cast and audience 

b. no women allowed on stage

c. great emphasis on actor's costumes

d. little scenery, few props

e. seating - wealthy people in raised galleries

Romeo and Juliet

What do you know about Romeo and Juliet?

Romeo and Juliet

• a romantic comedy
• romance & young love, humour and witty dialogues
• written in the 1590s
• taken from Arthur Brooke's poem 'Tragical Historye of Romeus & Juliet'
• Shakespeare squeezed a 9-month story into a 5-day story and he changed Juliet's age (from 16 to almost 14). See link for other comparisons.
• other Shakesperean tragedies: Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear.
• Tragedy = fate & destiny 

Interesting link:

https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/brookes-romeus-and-juliet

Take notes while watching

As you watch, make notes. What have you learned about:

The Montagues

The Capulets

Juliet

Romeo

Count Paris

Tybalt

Friar Lawrence

Which character is your favourite and why?

04:22

Listen to Jade's interview and jot down the important themes of the play.

Key moments and facts

Act 1 scene 1: the scene is set

Act 1 scene 4: R&J meet for the first time

Act 2 scene 1 (or 2 in many editions): the balcony scene

Act 2 scene 5: R&J get married in secret

Act 3 scene 1: Romeo kills Tybalt

Act 3 scene 5: The unhappy couple are parted

Act 4 scene 1: Dangerous solution

Act 5 scene 1: Romeo finds out Juliet is 'dead' and plans suicide

Act 5 scene 3: Romeo kills Paris, drinks poison. Juliet wakes up, stabs herself to death with Romeo's knife. Montagues & Capulets are reconciled.

Act 1 Scene 5

Watch the play and read your the lines in your reader (page 42, from 'If I profane...')

What is this scene about? 

03:30

Literary devices in this scene

• Sonnet (If I profane...I take.)
• Metaphor ('holy shrine', 'two blushing pilgrims')
• Simile ('As a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear')
• Soliloquy (a long speech given by the speaker to himself)
• Allegories

Allegories

- Acts as symbols, usually have hidden meanings and make reference to religion, morality or politics.

Examples:

'For saints have hands that pilgrims hands do touch'

'Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized'

They both refer to...?

The famous balcony scene

Read this extract from the famous balcony scene, where Juliet is talking about her love for Romeo.

                      Shakespeare’s original version

JULIET

‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy.


Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.


What’s Montague?

It is nor hand, nor foot,


Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part


Belonging to a man.

O, be some other name!


What’s in a name?

That which we call a rose

By any other word would smell as sweet.

Translate the extract into Modern English

How does this scene end?

What does Juliet ask Romeo?

What do they agree on?

How does the audience usually know that it is the end of a scene?

00:00

Watch the marriage scene. Why does Friar Lawrence agree to marry them?

00:00

Use your reader and look at page 43. Find line 114 (Which is the god of my...)

What have Romeo and Juliet decided to do?

Read the brief summary on page 43 (at the bottom of the page), then the lines from 'Now, good sweet nurse...' until 'Honest nurse, farewell' on page 44. What's going on here?

How does Romeo react?

More importantly, how does this affect the fate of Romeo and Juliet?

Tip: read the brief summary between each act/scene from page 45 to 47.

This video is no longer available

Welke video was dit?

01:50

This scene is act 2 scene 1. What is happening here? 

00:00

THE BALCONY SCENE

Use your reader and you will read the same extract while watching.

 Open to page '42' and focus on the second column of the page which begins with 'After the party Romeo does not join..'.