Romeo and Juliet

Themes
1. Families and conflict
  1. - conflict between/within families -internal conflict -physical/emotional/verbal conflict -Shakespeare opens the play with a focus of the feud -the juxtaposition of opposite emotions as strong love forms against this backdrop of hate -feud ever-present -the power of a family name and what it represents obsess the characters -strength of the feud means that only the death of many characters convinces the families to resolve;ve their differences -family values are different to today's society -parents are the feud -Romeo is presented as a friendship group rather than his immediate family which distance him from the feud and family issues(independent of his parents, contrasting Juliet is in her family home for most of the play)
2. Defiance
  1. -contributes to the play's tragic sense of disorder -rebellious -lovers defy their families -friar Laurence defies his social superiors by adding the young protagonist -the aristocrat defies prince Escalus -Tybalt resists his uncle's demand
3. Love and relationships
  1. there are multiple types of love: Petrachan love, sexual love, parental love and romantic love -love is a complex thing (gentle and tender yet dangerous) -love is violent, static, overpowering the force that supersedes all other values, loyalty and emotion (young lovers are driven to defy their social world) -its just as overwhelming/powerful as hate (Romeo and Juliet is linked from the moment of its inception death) -love emerges as a moral thing leading to destruction as to happiness -love is negative -according to Shakespeare arranged marriage is wrong -according to capulet marriage is a commodity and dutiful -constant advice against passionate and intense love
4. Gender
  1. the play offers a variety of versions of masculinity -Mercutio has definite ideas about what masculinity should look like. criticizes Tybalt for being too interested in clothes and speaking with a fake accent -Simerly suggests that Romeo's love (melancholy is effeminate) while his more sociable self is properly masculine. his happiest is when Romeo re-joins his witty, crazy group of male friends -Romeo's masculinity is constantly questioned. following Mercutio's death as Romeo fears that his love for Juliet has effeminized him -what is the proper role for a man? play suggests that violence is not the way. mediating between mercutios violent temper and Romeo's passivity. the prince is the best model of masculinity, impartial and fair and opposes civil violence
5. Fate and free will
6. Youth and age
7. Religon
Order
1. Sunday
  1. Morning
    1. Romeo is pining over rosaline
  2. Afternoon
    1. Capulets party. R+J meet and decleare there love
  3. Evening
    1. The street fight and Pirnces' warning
2. Monday
  1. Morning
    1. R+J plan there wedding
  2. Afternoon
    1. Firar laurence marries R+J
      1. fight: Tybalt kills Mercutio, Romeo kills Tybalt
  3. Evening
    1. Romeo is banished
3. Tuseday
  1. Dawn
    1. Romeo leaves verona after spending the night with Juliet
  2. Morning
    1. Juliet refuses to marry Paris
  3. Afternoon
    1. Friar creates a plan for Juliet to take a potion
  4. Evening
    1. Juliet takes the potion
4. Wednessday
  1. Morning
    1. Nurse discovers that Juliet is 'dead'
  2. Afternoon
    1. Romeo hears that Juliet is dead and plans to return to verona
5. Thursday
  1. Evening
    1. Romeo kills Paris and goes to Juliets tomb. He takes poison and dies, then Juliet wakes and kills herslef
Context
1. William Shakespear
2. Family and Patrial society
3. Religon
4. Courtly love
Key quotes
1. Romeo
  1. Lord/lady montagoe
    1. ''two households, both alike in dignity''
  2. Friar laurence
    1. ''for this alliance may so happy to prove, to turn your households' rancour to pure love''
    2. ''these violent, delights have violent ends''
    3. ''O deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness!''
  3. ''But soft,whht through yonder window breaks? it is the east, and juliet is the sun''
  4. Mercutio
    1. ''A plague o'both your houses''
  5. ''O true apothecary, Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die. ''
  6. ''tybalt, the reason that i have to love thee doth much excuse the appertaing rage''
  7. ''now art thou sociable, now art thou romeo, now art thou art by art as by nature''
  8. ''thy beauty hath made me effiminate... and in my temper soften'd valour's steel''
  9. ''womanish tears'''
2. Juilet
  1. Lady capulet
    1. Lord capulet
      1. ''Hang thee, young baggage, disobedient wretch! I tell thee what: get thee to church o'Thursday, Or never after look me in the face''
      2. ''O thy brother montague give me thy hand''
    2. ''i have remebered me, thou hear our consel''
    3. ''he is a kingsman to the montages... affecion makes him false ;speaks not true
  2. Nurse
  3. ''O romeo, romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo''
  4. ''That which we call a rose. By any other word would smell as sweet''
  5. ''parting is such a sweet sorrow''
  6. ''Romeo, Romeo, Romeo! Here's drink: I drink to thee.''
  7. ''O happy dagger, This is thy sheath: there rust, and let me die''
  8. ''deny thy father and refuse my name''
  9. ''shall i speak ill of him that is my husband''
3. Prolouge
  1. ''A pair of star crossed lovers take their life''
  2. ''ancient grudge''
4. prince
  1. ''mercy but murders, pardoning thoses that kill''
  2. ''All are punished.''
  3. ''For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.''
Characters
1. Romeo
  1. Lord montague
    1. Lady montague
      1. Romeo's mother, who dies from a broken heart after Romeo is banished from verona
    2. Romeo's father and a mortal enemy of the capulets
    3. Abram
      1. A Montague serving man involved in the street brawl in 1.1
  2. Benvoilo
    1. Romeo's cousin and a pacifist
  3. Friar laurance
    1. An older man and a friend to Romeo. He officiates the wedding of Romeo and Juliet, hoping to gain political peace through the union. When that doesn't work out, he concocts the plan to reunite the star-crossed lovers by giving Juliet a sleeping potion - but the plan backfires
  4. Mercutio
    1. Romeo's friend, a kinsman of the Prince, and one of the play's most colourful characters. In the early Acts, Mercutio displays a pronounced wit and colourful language. However, by Act III, as he lies about dying after the street fight, he delivers a damning speech on the feuding houses. Mercutio's death marks the play's turn into a tragedy.
  5. Balthasar
    1. Romeo's servant who is involved in the street fight for 1.1, and later assists Romeo in the final Act
  6. Apothercary
    1. Shakespeare describes him as a skeleton, appearing to personify death itself. a poor man, easily convinced to sell Romeo the posion
  7. 16 boy, he falls in love with Juliet at a masquerade, igniting their tragic affair. Romeo is defined by a self-indulgent and melancholy at the beginning of the play, but later becomes a much more active and committed character, which is clear when he kills Tybalt. Romeo's final act of passion is when, believing his beloved Juliet is dead, he takes his own life. Throughout the play, Romeo embraces an idealistic view of love, which explains why he falls for Juliet so quickly and passionately
2. Juliet
  1. Lord capulet
    1. Lady capulet
      1. Juliet's mother is submissive to her husband, and refuses to intercede for juliet when their daughter expresses her concern over the arranged marriage to count Paris
    2. Peter
      1. a capulet serving man who serves as a great comic relief in Act I when he is unable to read the list of invitees to the Capultes ball
    3. Gregory
      1. A capulet serving man who is involved in the street brawl 1.1
    4. Juliet's father and a temperamental bully who initially pretends to consider his daughter's welfare while arranging her marriage, but later demands her quick union with Count Paris. Her father's pressure is a catalyst in the final sequence of events that ends in Juliet's suicide
    5. Sampson
      1. A capulet-serving man who is involved in the street brawl 1.1
  2. Tybalt
    1. Juliets hot-headed cousin, whos violence leads to the Act III street fight-ending in his own death as well as Mercuitos
    2. Pretuccio
      1. Tybalts page
  3. Nurse
    1. Juliet's nurse is the young girl's confidante but also harbours a certain amount of resentment that makes her useless when it comes to saving the girl. The nurse often makes trouble for Juliet by refusing to give her information quickly, and later turns into a traitor by arguing Juliet should marry Paris, even though she knows about her secret marriage to Romeo.
  4. Paris
    1. Count Paris is Juliet's suitor - Lord Capulet supports the union but Juliet despises him.. Paris behaves arrogantly once the marriage date is set. He confronts Romeo in Act V, which leads to the Count's death in battle.
  5. Juliet Capulet is 13 girl who falls in love with Romeo. she has a strong rebellious streak- she knows what she wants. defined by an intelligence, Juliet is in many ways more masculine character than Romeo, even if due to her family patriarchy limits her power. her final decision is to kill herself shows her commitment
3. Prince Escalus
  1. The ruler of Verona who provids for and represents the law and order within the city.he frequently trys to stop the conflict between the montagues and capulets but he finds himself to be powerless against true love
4. Citizens of the watch
  1. unspeaking characters often arrive at the scene of the street brawl, representing forces of the law and order that combat the disorder bought by the family feud

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	Created by Lucy Chapman almost 2 years ago