Romeo and Juliet

  1. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
  2. Defining Tragedy
  3. Writing the rules of tragedy
  4. NGRT Test
  5. Reading the prologue
  6. The Play Begins
  7. Montagues vs Capulets
  8. Thinking about violence
  9. Reading Respite

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The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet

LO: To consider what Tragedy means in Drama, and what we can infer

Write down three words you associate with the word Tragedy. What does it make you think of?

Is this πŸ”½ the right usage of the word? What does it tell you about the person using it?

“It is a tragedy that England has not won a World Cup since 1966.”

Genres

In 2024, Netflix has more than 27,000 genres of film and TV available to watch.

But Shakespeare's audiences in 1600 only had three genres to choose from.

Why?

With your partner, brainstorm why you think there were only three genres of play in Shakespeare's time.

The Three Genres of Play

Based on the names of the genres, and the emoji clues, what would you expect to see in each type of play?

The mood, what the audience should feel, what happens to the characters etc...

COMEDY HISTORY TRAGEDY
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Copy down the boxes, adding your ideas. (Save Tragedy for later!)

Research and add examples of each genre

COMEDY

  • Mood: lighthearted
  • Audience should: laugh
  • The protagonist: gets married

HISTORY

  • Mood: serious
  • Audience should: cheer
  • The protagonist: becomes king

TRAGEDY

  • Mood: ?????
  • Audience should: ????
  • The protagonist: ?????

Defining Tragedy

Below are summaries of some Shakespeare plays. Which genre do you think each of these plays falls into?

Can you guess which play each line refers to?
  1. Star-crossed lovers, feuding families, sad end.
  2. Heir to throne becomes heroic king, conquers France.
  3. Mistaken identities, hilarious mix-ups, eventual reconciliation.
  4. Prince seeks vengeance, family conflicts, many perish.
  5. Aging king divides kingdom, family discord, heartbreaking downfall.
  6. Shipwrecked sorcerer, magical island, reconciliation and restoration.
  7. Cunning royal seizes throne, ruthless actions, new monarch defeats him.

Writing the rules of tragedy

Based on what we know so far, write three rules for a TRAGEDY:
A tragedy must...
1)........... 2).................. 3)...................

Do the same for COMEDY or HISTORY

Etymology Exploration

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TRAGEDY

Meet Aristotle, the father of Drama

  • Lived in Ancient Greece, in the 4th Century BC (nearly 2000 years before Shakespeare)
  • Wrote widely on philosophy, science and literature
  • Invented theories for what good stories and drama should look like
  • Shakespeare would have studied his philosophy and plays at school

take notes!

Aristotle's Rules (from The Poetics)

A tragedy, then, should be:

  • an imitation of events that are serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude;
  • in the form of action, not of narrative;
  • able to create feelings of pity and fear in the audience.
  • an exploration of a character's shocking reversal of fortune

Using the information above, add to the TRAGEDY section of your table from last lesson.

PLENARY: Making predictions


If our play this term is called The Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet, what do we expect to see in it?

learn.maxbruges.com

NGRT Test

  1. Get your login code: GET MY CODE

  2. Go to TestWise TESTWISE

  3. Don't start the test til I say! Wait where it says

Welcome Firstname Lastname πŸ‘‹

Reading the prologue

LO: to consider how Shakespeare opens the play

In your own words, define what a good tragedy should include (according to Aristotle)

How has the definition changed in the modern era?

To access today's activities, open your device and go to...

live.mxb.fyi

Pre-learning keywords

complete each of these Hangman puzzles; write down the word, definition and an example sentence into your grid

Pick two words to illustrate
# Word Definition Example sentence
1
2
3
4
5

The Play Begins

Finish your table of definitions and examples from last lesson.

Word Definition Example sentence
DIGNITY
GRUDGE
MUTINY
STRIFE
PROLOGUE

Does knowing the ending of a tragedy make it less interesting?

HOUSEHOLD (noun) large, extended family group

What's a prologue?

  • In Shakespeare's time, plays often began with a short speech called a prologue
  • This speech was spoken directly to the audience
  • It usually explained the setting and some of the plot of the play

Why do you think playwrights like Shakespeare included prologues at the beginning of their plays?

"In Fair Verona"

  • City in Italy
Two households, both alike in dignity,​
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,​
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,​
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.​
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes​
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;​
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows​
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.​
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,​
And the continuance of their parents' rage,​
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,​
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;​
The which if you with patient ears attend,​
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.​

Two households, both alike in dignity,​
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,​
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,​
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.​
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes​
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;​
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows​
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.​
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,​
And the continuance of their parents' rage,​
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,​
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;​
The which if you with patient ears attend,​
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.​

Summarising

Write a short paragraph explaining what the prologue tells us. Try to cover all these points:

  • Where is the play taking place?
  • What's been going on before the play starts?
  • What will happen to the 'star-crossed lovers' at the end?
  • How long will the play take?

In the prologue, Shakespeare tells us...

What do you predict the first scene of the play will show? Why?

Montagues vs Capulets

LO: to consider the opening scene of the play

What should the opening scene of a play do? How should it effect the audience?

What's the best opening to a film that you can remember?

Knowledge Check

Write full sentence answers to each of these questions

  1. What is a prologue?
  2. List three plot points we learn from Romeo and Juliet's prologue?
  3. What does the term 'grudge' mean?
  4. What does the term 'mutiny' mean?
  5. What does the term 'strife' mean?

What did Aristotle say a tragedy must have?

Montagues βš”οΈ Capulets

“Two Households, alike in dignity...”

Start making a list of characters from the Families

Montagues

Romeo
Abraham
Balthasar
Benvolio

Capulets

Juliet
Sampson
Gregory
Tybalt

SCENE I. On the street, A public place.

Enter Sampson and Gregory armed with swords and bucklers.
...
Enter Abraham and Balthasar

ABRAHAM: Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?  
SAMPSON: I do bite my thumb, sir.  
ABRAHAM: Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?  
SAMPSON: [Aside to GREGORY] Is the law of our side, if I say ay?  
GREGORY: No.  
SAMPSON: No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I bite my thumb, sir.  
GREGORY: Do you quarrel, sir?  
ABRAHAM: Quarrel sir! no, sir.  
SAMPSON: If you do, sir, I am for you: I serve as good a man as you.  
ABRAHAM: No better.  
SAMPSON: Well, sir.  
GREGORY: Say 'better:' here comes one of my master's kinsmen.  
SAMPSON: Yes, better, sir.  
ABRAHAM: You lie.  
SAMPSON: Draw, if you be men. Gregory, remember thy swashing blow.  
They fight 

Enter BENVOLIO  
BENVOLIO: Part, fools! Put up your swords; you know not what you do.  
Beats down their swords. 
Enter TYBALT  
TYBALT: What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?   
Turn thee, Benvolio, look upon thy death.  
BENVOLIO: I do but keep the peace: put up thy sword,   
Or manage it to part these men with me.  
TYBALT: What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word,   
As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee: 
Have at thee, coward!  
They fight

Reading the scene

  1. What is happening in this scene?
  2. What is Benvolio's reaction to the fight? What is Tybalt's?
    How is their reaction different and what does this say about their characters?
  3. Underline all examples of repetition between Abraham, Sampson and Gregory. Why do you think this repetition has been used? What is the effect?
  4. How do you think an audience in Shakespeare's time would react to this scene? Is this different to how we would react? Explain.

Thinking about violence

LO: to consider the opening of the play

Is violence ever justified? Does it ever produce a good outcome?

Animals including as ants and chimpanzees often 'go to war'. Does that make violence better, or more understandable?

Act 1, Scene 1

Pick (atleast) 4 questions from the below and answer them, writing about the scene we read last lesson.

  1. Create a title for the scene, and explain your choice.
  2. Transform what we have just read into a small symbol.
  3. Sum up the extract in three words and explain your choices.
  4. What questions does this scene raise? Write 4.
  5. Summarise what happens in this extract in five sentences.
  6. This is a play about love; why is this opening surprising?
  7. Pick a quote from the extract that shows masculinity. Explain.
  8. Pick a quote from the extract that shows violence. Explain.

Homework: context of violence

Read the article I've uploaded to Teams and complete the questions that are attached to it.

Homework πŸ“„

Reading Respite

Take your reading book out of your bag, and start reading.

Why?

Reading for 20 minutes a day, every day, will help you build your vocabulary and become a more confident English student.
You can read...

  • 5,000 words in 20 minutes
  • 35,000 words a week
  • nearly 2 million words a year!

The Science of Reading

Breaking up the fight

PRINCE: 
Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace, 
Profaners of this neighbour-stained steel, -- 
Will they not hear? What, ho! you men, you beasts, 
That quench the fire of your rage 
With purple fountains issuing from your veins, 
On pain of torture, from those bloody hands 
Throw your mistemper'd weapons to the ground, 
And hear the sentence of your moved prince. 
Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word, 
By thee, old Capulet, and Montague, 
Have thrice disturb'd the quiet of our streets, 
And made Verona's ancient citizens 
Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments, 
To wield old partisans, in hands as old, 
Canker'd with peace, to part your canker'd hate: 
If ever you disturb our streets again, 
Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.
  1. What is the punishment if the Capulets and Montagues are caught fighting again?
  2. Which three words this speech which suggest violence. What is the Prince's opinion of the Capulets and Montagues?
  3. "Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word, by thee, old Capulet and Montague" - What does this suggest about the Prince's control over his citizens?
  4. How does the punctuation used in the speech help emphasise his anger?