Objectives:
•Apply reading strategies to a nonfiction articles;
•Interpret the possible influences of historical
context on literary works;
•Understand the literary term, “tragedy”;
•Understand and appreciate a Shakespearean
drama;
•Identify poetry forms and devices (sonnet, blank verse, iambic pentameter) and
examine the influence
of poetic devices on readers’ understanding;
•Use strategies for reading and making meaning of Shakespearean drama.
Background for Understanding Romeo and Juliet:
FOCUS
•Write for 2-3 minutes responding
to the question, “Why study
Shakespeare?”
•Read: “Shakespeare’s Impact
on the English Language,”
page 985.
SHAKESPEARE’S
WORLD
Why study Shakespeare?
•Considered the greatest writer
in the English language
•He contributed more words, phrases,
and expressions to the English
language than any other writer.
• “Cultural literacy and refinement”:
appreciate the sheer beauty of his
language and art.
•Wrote from
1558 – 1603
•Lived in England
period known as
the Renaissance.
•Renaissance: period
marked by renewed
interest in science,
philosophy, and the
arts.
•“intEllEctuAl flowERing”
•Wrote during the
• reign of
Queen Elizabeth I.
• “ElizAbEtHAn AgE”
Elizabeth I
•Last member of royal house
of Tudor.
•Father was Henry VIII
•Tudors brought stability
and prosperity to England.
• Elizabeth was a strong
ruler.
•Supported the arts
in English culture.
•Shakespeare
benefited from
ElizAbEtH’S
encouragement of
artistic development.
•in 1590’S HE bEgAn
acting in and
writing plays for
a theater company
owned by two highranking men in
ElizAbEtH’S couRt.
•Elizabeth attended
SomE of SHAKESPEARE’S
productions.
Terms for Understanding the Drama:
Prologue
an introductory section
of a play, speech, or other
literary work
Terms for Understanding the Drama:
Tragedy
A drama that ends in
catastrophe—most often in
death—for the main character
and often for several other
characters as well.
CHARACTERISTIC
OF
TRAGEDY
Tragic hero:
the main character in a tragedy, who
comes to an unhappy or miserable end.
Tragic flaw:
a fatal error in judgment or weakness of
character, that leads directly to the
protagonist’s downfall.
Comic Relief
A humorous scene, incident, or speech that
relieves the overall emotional intensity.
Pun: an expression that
achieves emphasis or humor
by contriving an ambiguity,
two distinct meanings
suggested by the same word.
Example:
When you've seen one shopping center
you've seen a mall.
A bicycle can't stand alone because it
is two-tired.
Marathon runners with bad footwear
suffer the agony of defeat.
The man who fell into an upholstery
machine is fully recovered.
When an actress saw her first strands
of gray hair she thought she'd dye.
FOIL
Benvolio
Tybalt
A character whose
personality or
attitudes are in
sharp contrast to
another character
Oxymoron:
an expression in which two
words that contradict each
other are joined
Allusion: a reference
To a historical or fictional person,
place, or event with which the
reader is assumed
to be familiar.
ASIDE: a character’s remark,
either to the audience or to
another character, that the
other characters on stage are
not supposed to hear.
Purpose: reveals character’s
thoughts.
MOTIF: A conspicuous
recurring element, such as a
type of incident, a device, a
reference, or verbal formula,
which appears frequently in
works of literature.
- a pattern
Monologue: an
extended
speech by one speaker.
Dramatic Monologue:
a lyric poem in which a
speaker addresses a silent
or absent audience in a
moment of high emotion.
Soliloquy
A speech that a character gives
when he or she is alone on
stage. The purpose is to let the
audience know what the
character is thinking
Theme: a central idea
or message in a work of
literature; generally makes
a comment on life or the
human experience
Themes tend to be
universal, that is, the
messages they convey
applies to all people, in
all ages and places.
Theme concepts in Macbeth
• False appearances
- acting
- lies
- deception
- equivocation (hedging)
• Evil
- a force beyond human
understanding
- developed through
plant imagery
• Treachery
• Murder
• Political rebellion
• Revenge
- Developed through
disease images
• Consequences of
choices / actions
• Guilt
• Ambition
- as it erodes /
overcomes moral
principles
Imagery: words and
phrases that create vivid
sensory experiences for the
reader.
Motifs in Macbeth
• BLOOD--obviously everywhere, but note how it
foreshadows the deaths, morally, psychologically
and mentally, of the protagonists.
•SLEEP--this is a major
theme:
What does Macbeth mean
when he fears murdering
sleep; who sleeps for him,
and why can he "sleep no
more?"
• Images of the theater and
banquet imagery
• CLOTHING as in "borrowed robes"
• DARKNESS
- symbolizes the
darkness in
Macbeth’s heart?
Symbol: a person, place,
object, or activity that
stands for something
beyond itself.
Mood: the feeling or
atmosphere that a writer creates
for a reader.
- created by diction, imagery,
setting, foreshadowing,
dialogue, figurative language
Dramatic irony:
occurs when the reader
or audience knows
something that the
character does not.
Blank verse: unrhymed
poetry written in iambic
pentameter
Meter:
The repetition of a regular
rhythmic unit in poetry.
Each meter is known as
a foot, consisting of
one stressed syllable
and one or two unstressed
syllables.
The meter of a poem
emphasizes the
musical quality of the
language.
Iambic pentameter:
pattern of an unstressed
syllable followed by a
stressed syllable.
Anachronism:
Someone or something
belonging to another time
period than the one in which it is
described as being.
The reference, in Shakespeare's
Julius Caesar, to "the clock
striking twelve" is
anachronistic, since there were
no striking timepieces in
ancient Rome.
The Great Chain of Being
The purpose of the Great Chain of Being was
to assign a place for everything in the
universe, classified into either:
•Holy
•Animal
•Vegetable
•Mineral
Example: If one were to examine only the earthly
inhabitants, and their place in the chain, this is what
would be found:
•Perfection (God)
•Angels
•Humans
•Beasts
•Plants
•Rocks
The concept of "animal, vegetable, and mineral"
still survives and is a feature of many Western
philosophies and cultures to this day.
The Great Chain of Being
God
Angels
Kings/Queens
Archbishops
Dukes/Duchesses
Bishops
Marquises/Marchionesses
Earls/Countesses
Viscounts/Viscountesses
Barons/Baronesses
Abbots/Deacons
Knights/Local Officials
Ladies-in-Waiting
Priests/Monks
Squires
Pages
Messengers
Merchants/Shopkeepers
Tradesmen
Yeomen Farmers
Soldiers/Town Watch
Household Servants
Tennant Farmers
Shepherds/Herders
Beggars
Actors
Thieves/Pirates
Gypsies
Animals
Birds
Worms
Plants
Rocks
•For Catholics, the Pope is at the same level or above the King.
England in
SHAKESPEARE’S dAy
Background for Understanding Romeo and Juliet:
FOCUS I
•Page 983-984
•With a partner, read from the nonfiction article
“Shakespeare’s World: England in Shakespeare’s Day.”
•STOP just before “Theater in Shakespeare’s Day” section.
•Bullet notes: Together, summarize what you feel are the
5 most important details from “England in Shakespeare’s
Day”
(7 minutes for the above)
•Be prepared to share out your ideas orally.