WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Prepare to travel back in time……
INTRODUCTION
What do you know about Shakespeare?
What have you read by Shakespeare?
Why do so many people find Shakespeare difficult?
Why do you think he is so well respected that his plays
are on every high school reading list?
WHAT IS A COMEDY?
Comedy: form of drama intended to be
humorous or to amuse by inciting laughter in
theatre, television, film and stand-up comedy
WHAT IS A TRAGEDY?
Tragedy: Is a form of drama based on
human suffering that invokes in its audience
pleasure in the viewing
UNIVERSAL STORY?
Universal Story: The presentation of
humankind as a whole and coherent unit
What can you guess about the play by
looking at the book?
What makes you want to read it?
What makes you not want to read it? Is this
something you can overcome?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S6IJWilpx4
FAIR VERONA NORTH OF
ITALY
PROLOGUE
 Is an opening to a story that establishes the
setting and gives background details, often
some earlier story that ties into the main one,
and other miscellaneous information
CHORUS
 A group of people (or sometimes one person) who
introduce the prologue / introduction to each act in
Shakespeare’s plays
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3PIhGgtWTs
In Romeo & Juliet, the prologue is in sonnet form
A “sonnet” is a little song that consist of 14 lines
and a rhyming scheme known as iambic pentameter
( a-b-a-b,c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g; the last two are called a
rhyming couplet)