Exploring the world of
Romeo and Juliet
GCSE English Literature
Les van English
In deze les zitten 25 slides, met interactieve quizzen en tekstslides.
Exploring the world of
Romeo and Juliet
GCSE English Literature
Welcome! This is the first of five lessons on Romeo and Juliet. Everything is written to sit comfortably alongside any GCSE specification (AQA, Edexcel, OCR, Eduqas/WJEC), so feel free to adapt the wording to match the assessment objectives your students use. Image credit: LessonUp Romeo and Juliet series backdrop Image credit: Frank Bernard Dicksee, Romeo and Juliet, 1884, Southampton City Art Gallery / Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Lesson Aims
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
Explain key facts about Shakespeare and the Elizabethan theatre
Describe the attitudes to family, marriage, honour and religion that shape the play
Summarise the plot of Romeo and Juliet in the right order
Modify these aims as you see fit! Image credit: LessonUp Romeo and Juliet series backdrop
What do you already know about Romeo and Juliet?
A quick mind map to draw out prior knowledge. Expect "love story", "balcony", "families", "poison" - and possibly film versions. Keep the answers visible; you can return to them at the end of the lesson. Image credit: LessonUp Romeo and Juliet series backdrop
Yes - a film version
Yes - on stage
I've read some of it
Not yet
Have you seen or read a version of Romeo and Juliet before?
A low-stakes poll to find out how familiar the class already is with the story. Image credit: LessonUp Romeo and Juliet series backdrop
Introduction to Shakespeare
William Shakespeare is often regarded as the greatest playwright in the English language.
He was an actor, poet and part-owner of a theatre company. He wrote Romeo and Juliet in the mid-1590s, early in his career, and it was first printed in 1597.
Born 1564
Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire.
Died 1616
He wrote around 37 plays and 154 sonnets.
Click the two hotspots to reveal Shakespeare's dates. Image credit: LessonUp Romeo and Juliet series backdrop Image credit: Chandos portrait, attributed to John Taylor, National Portrait Gallery / Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Elizabethan England
Queen Elizabeth I reigned from 1558 to 1603, so the play's first audiences were Elizabethans.
England was a Protestant country. Italy, where the play is set, was Catholic - and to English audiences it seemed a hot-blooded place of passion, fashion, feuds and revenge.
The Armada Portrait (c.1588) - painted a few years before Shakespeare wrote the play. Image credit: LessonUp Romeo and Juliet series backdrop Image credit: Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I, c.1588, Woburn Abbey / Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Shakespeare's Theatre
The play was first performed in the mid-1590s by Shakespeare's company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and later at the Globe on Bankside, London.
Plays were staged in the afternoon, in daylight, with very little scenery - so the words had to create the setting. Click the hotspots to find out more.
Groundlings
The poorest audience members paid a penny to stand in the open yard in front of the stage.
All-male casts
Women were not allowed to act on the public stage. Juliet, the Nurse and Lady Capulet were all played by men and boys.
Daylight
With no electric light, the time of day had to be set by the words - listen for all the lines about night, dawn and stars.
Wenceslaus Hollar's engraving shows the second Globe (rebuilt 1614) - the first Globe opened in 1599. Image credit: LessonUp Romeo and Juliet series backdrop Image credit: Wenceslaus Hollar, the Globe from the Long View of London, 1647 / Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Introducing Romeo and Juliet
As you watch, note down one fact about the characters and one about the setting.
BBC Teach - "Introducing Romeo and Juliet" (i.am.Will.Shakespeare). Checked September 2026. BBC clips are sometimes unavailable outside the UK: if it does not play, replace it or delete this slide. An alternative context overview: Romeo and Juliet: Context - Beyond Revision. Image credit: LessonUp Romeo and Juliet series backdrop
Write one new fact you've learnt so far.
Image credit: LessonUp Romeo and Juliet series backdrop
Shakespeare's World
Image credit: LessonUp Romeo and Juliet series backdrop
Where did the story come from?
Shakespeare did not invent the story. He adapted a long poem by Arthur Brooke, The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet (1562), which was itself based on Italian tales.
Brooke's story lasts about nine months. Shakespeare squeezes the action into just four or five days, making everything feel rushed and urgent.
The compressed timescale is worth flagging now - it links directly to the lessons on tragedy and fate. Image credit: LessonUp Romeo and Juliet series backdrop Image credit: Francesco Hayez, The Last Kiss of Romeo and Juliet, 1823, Villa Carlotta / Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Family, Marriage and Honour
Fathers and daughters
Honour and violence
Society was patriarchal: fathers had authority over the whole household.
Wealthy families arranged marriages to gain money and status. A daughter who refused her father's choice was seen as shockingly disobedient.
Juliet is not yet fourteen.
A man's honour - his reputation - mattered enormously.
An insult could not be ignored: it had to be answered, often with a sword. Fencing with the rapier was fashionable among young gentlemen.
Street brawling, however, was against the law.
Both columns feed directly into the conflict lesson. Ask students which column the Capulet-Montague feud belongs to (both!). Image credit: LessonUp Romeo and Juliet series backdrop
Religion and Love
Religion
Courtly love
The characters live in a Catholic world of friars, confession and holy vows.
Marriage was a sacred promise made before God.
Taking your own life was seen by the Church as a mortal sin.
Love poetry of the 1590s often showed a lover worshipping a perfect, unreachable woman.
Sonnets - 14-line love poems - were extremely fashionable.
At the start of the play Romeo is lovesick for Rosaline, who does not love him back.
Romeo's language about Rosaline in Act 1 Scene 1 is a parody of this courtly-love style; his language changes when he meets Juliet. Image credit: LessonUp Romeo and Juliet series backdrop
Drag the facts about Shakespeare's world into the correct box
TRUE
FALSE
Female roles were played by boy actors
The play is set in London
Juliet is not yet fourteen years old
Plays were performed at night by candlelight
Shakespeare adapted an earlier poem by Arthur Brooke
Daughters were free to choose who they married
The Church taught that suicide was a sin
The story takes place over several years
TRUE - boy actors; Juliet not yet fourteen; adapted from Arthur Brooke; suicide a sin. FALSE - set in Verona, not London; plays were performed in the afternoon; daughters' marriages were usually arranged; the action takes only four or five days. Image credit: LessonUp Romeo and Juliet series backdrop
Romeo and Juliet: Key Facts
In Verona, the Montague and Capulet families are locked in an ancient feud.
Romeo, a Montague, gatecrashes a Capulet feast and falls in love with Juliet, a Capulet. They marry in secret the next day with the help of Friar Laurence.
Hours later, Juliet's cousin Tybalt kills Romeo's friend Mercutio, and Romeo kills Tybalt. Romeo is banished. Juliet's father orders her to marry Paris, so the Friar gives her a potion to fake her death.
The message explaining the plan never reaches Romeo. Believing Juliet dead, he poisons himself in her tomb; she wakes, finds him, and stabs herself. Only then do the families make peace.
Keep this summary short - the detail comes in later lessons. Students could copy the four stages into their books. Image credit: LessonUp Romeo and Juliet series backdrop
Juliet takes the Friar's sleeping potion
Romeo kills Tybalt and is banished
Friar Laurence secretly marries the couple
The Montagues and Capulets brawl in the streets of Verona
Romeo poisons himself in the Capulet tomb
Romeo and Juliet meet at the Capulet feast
Put the key events of the play in the correct order
Items are listed here in the correct order; students see them shuffled. Image credit: LessonUp Romeo and Juliet series backdrop
The whole play in a few minutes
Did your order match the story? Which event surprised you most?
BBC Teach - "Shakespeare in Shorts - Romeo and Juliet". Checked September 2026. If it will not play in your region, replace it or delete this slide. Image credit: LessonUp Romeo and Juliet series backdrop
Where is Romeo and Juliet set?
Venice
Verona
Rome
London
Image credit: LessonUp Romeo and Juliet series backdrop
Who played Juliet on Shakespeare's stage?
A famous actress
A boy actor
Shakespeare himself
A lady from the royal court
Image credit: LessonUp Romeo and Juliet series backdrop
How long does the action of the play last?
Four or five days
About nine months
Two years
A single evening
Students who pick nine months are remembering Brooke's poem - a good moment to reinforce why Shakespeare sped things up. Image credit: LessonUp Romeo and Juliet series backdrop
Fire as many facts as you can remember about Shakespeare's world onto this mind map!
Image credit: LessonUp Romeo and Juliet series backdrop
Write down 3 things you learned in this lesson.
Have students enter three things they learned in this lesson, so they can judge their own learning. Image credit: LessonUp Romeo and Juliet series backdrop
Write down 2 things you want to know more about.
Students name two things they want to know more about - this builds involvement and ownership. Image credit: LessonUp Romeo and Juliet series backdrop
Ask 1 question about something you haven't quite understood yet.
This shows you which parts of the material students still find difficult, and gives a starting point for the next lesson. Image credit: LessonUp Romeo and Juliet series backdrop
Not confident yet
A little confident
Quite confident
Very confident
How confident do you feel about the context of Romeo and Juliet?
Image credit: LessonUp Romeo and Juliet series backdrop