Introduction to… Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Themes and Motifs William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet Metropolitan Region EAL/D Program 1 Warming Up Consider these statements • Rate each statement from 110 • 1= disagree completely • 10 = agree completely • Can you explain your thoughts and opinions? • Love at first sight is real. • You must always obey your parents. • Love is the most important thing in life. • Young love is foolish. • Teenage boys are more immature than girls. • Our lives are controlled by fate – we cannot change our destiny. • The stars / zodiac can control our lives. • It is important to use our own free will to determine our lives. Metropolitan Region EAL/D Program 2 Themes of Love & Hate; Duty and Freedom; Free will and Fate To think about…. • Would you go against all your friends and family to follow your heart? • Which is stronger - hate or love? • Does choice or chance have more impact on our lives? • Should you have freedom to do whatever you want or do you have responsibility towards your family? Metropolitan Region EAL/D Program 3 Theme – Love vs Hate • Love has many forms - parents / children friendship love brotherly and sisterly love • Love can defeat hate • Hate can destroy love Events: The Prologue – The Chorus says that the ancient feud between the Montagues and Capulets is the catalyst (the cause) of the death of their children. Act 1 – Romeo forgets Rosaline and falls in love at first sight. Act 3 – Tybalt kills Mercutio due to his hatred of the Montagues and therefore Romeo kills Tybalt. Act 5 – Romeo and Juliet die – and then the Prince of Verona asks the two families to reconcile (to forget their feud). Metropolitan Region EAL/D Program 4 Theme – Free will vs Fate (Choice vs Chance) - Who decides what will happen? - A mixture of chance (luck) and the choices the characters make? Events: The Prologue – the Chorus describes the lovers as ‘star-crossed’ – they will have bad luck. Act 1 – Romeo tells his friends of a dream he has had. Act 3 – When Romeo kills Tybalt, Tybalt calls himself ‘fortune’s fool’ – is it just bad luck that he dies? Act 5 – Friar John could not make it to Mantua to tell Romeo of the ‘plan of Juliet’s pretend death’. Just bad luck? Act 5 – Paris visits Juliet’s grave, Romeo kills him. Thinking Juliet is dead, he takes poison. Juliet wakes up, sees Romeo dead, stabs herself. (Just bad luck?) Metropolitan Region EAL/D Program 5 Motifs - Light and Dark • Light represents the lovers • Light as lightning – doesn’t last long • Dark represents their troubles, keeping secrets, hiding - for example in the Balcony Scene Quotations: Act 2 Scene 3: ‘It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden / Too like the lighting which doth ceases to be / Ere one can say ‘it lightens’ (Juliet) Act 3 Scene 5: ‘More light and light; more dark and dark our woes!’ (Romeo) Metropolitan Region EAL/D Program ADAPTED FROM https://awakenenglish.com/2020/04/26/romeojuliet-thematic-quote-displays/ 6 Motifs - Nature • Representing beauty, youth, value, potential, life Quotations: Act 1 Scene 3: ‘Verona’s summer hath not such a flower’ (Lady Capulet) Act 2 Scene 2: ‘This bud of love by summer’s ripening breath / May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.’ (Juliet) Act 5 Scene 3: ‘sweet flower, with sweet flowers thy bridal bed I strew.’ (Paris) Metropolitan Region EAL/D Program 7 Motifs – match with ‘quotations’ on next slide Light and Dark Stars and Space / Celestial Imagery Light represents the lovers The power of fate = ‘written in the stars’ Representing beauty Darkness is used for secrets and hiding, Heaven and heavenly = the way the lovers describe each other Representing youth Light is like lightning – easily burnt out and not lasting Are their loves controlled by the heavens? Growth and potential in life Metropolitan Region EAL/D Program Nature 8 Match the following quotations from Romeo and Juliet with a suitable motif (from previous slide) Quotation Motif ‘A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life’ (Prologue) ‘fresh fennel buds shall you see this night’ (1:2) ‘so smile the heavens upon this holy act’ (2:6) ‘But soft! What light through window breaks? It is the east and Juliet is the sun’ (2:2) ‘This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath, May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet’ (2:2) ‘more light and light; more dark our woes’ (3:5) ‘is it even so? Then I defy you, stars!’ (5:1) ‘sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew’ (5:3) ‘A glooming peace this morning with it brings. The sun for sorrow will not show his head’ (5:3) Metropolitan Region EAL/D Program 9 Sources: Images: https://shakespearenavigators.com/romeo/SceneTextIndex.html Partly adapted from: https://awakenenglish.com/2020/04/26/romeojuliet-thematic-quote-displays/ Metropolitan Region EAL/D Program 10
