The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
by William Shakespeare
Feature Menu
An Introduction to Romeo and
Juliet
William Shakespeare’s Life
Reading Shakespeare Aloud
Shakespeare and His Theater
Literary Focus: Tragedy
Reading Focus: Reading a Play
Writing Focus
Introducing Act II
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
by William Shakespeare
Why is the quest for love such a popular
aspect of literature and film?
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
An Introduction to Romeo and Juliet
Click on the title to start the video.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
An Introduction to Romeo and Juliet
The story of the two young lovers doomed by their
passion for each other is familiar to many; it’s been
told for generations.
love at
first sight
If playgoers know how the story ends, why is Romeo
and Juliet still one of Shakespeare’s most popular
plays?
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
An Introduction to Romeo and Juliet
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-crossed lovers take their lives;
In his prologue, Shakespeare calls Romeo and Juliet
“star-crossed,” reflecting the belief that “the stars,”
or fate, control destiny.
Is fate the only cause of their tragic end?
[End of Section]
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare’s Life
Despite his fame, we know
relatively little about William
Shakespeare’s life. He left
no journals or letters to help
us get to know him, just his
plays and poems.
The information that we do
have comes from church and
legal documents and the
writings of some who knew
him.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare’s Life
Shakespeare
was born in
Stratford,
England,
around April
23, 1564.
By 1592, he was working
as an actor and a
playwright. He probably
wrote Romeo and Juliet
between 1594 and 1596.
He married Anne
Hathaway at age
18.
He died on
April 23,
1616.
In 1612, he returned
to Stratford for
retirement.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare’s Life
Shakespeare lives on today through his poetry and
his 37 plays, which are still produced throughout the
world.
A 1980s production of
one of his plays, Othello,
was so popular that one
critic estimated that if
Shakespeare were alive
today, he would earn
$25,000 a week for that
play alone.
[End of Section]
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Reading Shakespeare Aloud
As you read Romeo and Juliet, you’ll be reading
both prose and poetry.
Prose is the ordinary form of speaking or writing.
It has no metrical structure, or rhythm, to it.
Now I’ll tell you without
asking. My master is the great
rich Capulet; and if you be not
of the house of Montagues, I
pray you come and crush a
cup of wine. Rest you merry.
The common
people—and
sometimes
Mercutio when he
is joking—speak
in prose.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Reading Shakespeare Aloud
As you read Romeo and Juliet, you’ll be reading
both prose and poetry.
Most characters speak in
poetry, which is different
from prose because it has a
specific meter, or rhythm, to
the lines.
My only love sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Reading Shakespeare Aloud
The meter of a line of poetry is determined by the
pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables, or
beats, in the line.
In iambic meter, each
unstressed syllable is followed
by a stressed syllable.
˘
′
prefer
Unstressed syllables are marked with ˘, and
stressed syllables are marked with ′.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Reading Shakespeare Aloud
Iambic pentameter is the meter of most of the
poetry in Romeo and Juliet.
The prefix penta- means
five; there are five iambic
units in each line of iambic
pentameter.
′
′
′ ˘ ′ ˘
′
˘
˘
˘
But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Reading Shakespeare Aloud
Poetry made of unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter
is called blank verse.
Much of the poetry in Romeo
and Juliet is blank verse,
meaning there are no rhymes
at the ends of lines.
′ ˘ ′ ˘
′
′ ˘
′
˘
˘
Is love a tender thing? It is too rough,
′
′
′ ˘
′
˘
′
˘ rude,
˘ boist’rous,
˘ and
Too
too
it pricks like thorn.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Reading Shakespeare Aloud
Though much of the play is in blank verse,
Shakespeare does use some rhymes.
Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!
For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.
When rhyming, he generally uses couplets, two
consecutive lines that rhyme.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Reading Shakespeare Aloud
Shakespeare often uses couplets to highlight a
character’s exit or to show the end of a scene.
Good night, good night!
Parting is such sweet
sorrow
That I shall say good night
till it be morrow.
You can see this technique in Juliet’s exit lines from
Act II, scene 2, known as the balcony scene.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Reading Shakespeare Aloud
When you read poetry, pay attention to the
punctuation at the end of each line.
If you stop at the
end of each line,
you may miss out
on some of the
excitement of the
play.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Reading Shakespeare Aloud
An end-stopped line has punctuation at the end.
The punctuation signals the actor to pause at the
end of the line.
O, Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.
Listen for the pauses in these end-stopped lines that
Juliet speaks in Act II, scene 2.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Reading Shakespeare Aloud
A run-on line has no punctuation at the end. The
meaning is completed in the following line or lines.
The brightness of her cheek would
shame those stars
As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes
in heaven
Would through the airy region
stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it
were not night.
Listen to these run-on lines. Where does Romeo
pause?
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Reading Shakespeare Aloud
Many of the words you will come across as you read
the play are archaic, meaning that they are no
longer commonly used or have taken on a different
meaning.
Use your book’s sidenotes
to help you with archaic
words and other unfamiliar
expressions.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Reading Shakespeare Aloud
Here are some archaic words that are used often in
the play:
’a: he.
hap: luck.
a’: on.
happy: lucky.
an’ or and: if.
humor: mood; moisture.
anon: soon; right away;
coming.
Jack: common fellow;
ordinary guy.
but: if; except; only.
maid: unmarried girl.
Good-den or go-den or
God-den: Good evening.
mark: listen to.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Reading Shakespeare Aloud
Here are some archaic words that are used often in
the play:
Marry: mild oath, shortened
from “by the Virgin Mary.”
soft: quiet; hush; slow
up.
nice: trivial; foolish.
stay: wait.
owes: owns.
still: always.
shrift: confession or
forgiveness for sins confessed
to a priest. After confession, a
person was said to be shriven.
withal: with that; with.
wot: know.
[End of Section]
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare and His Theater
The shape and form of the theater for which a
playwright is writing tends to influence the play.
Understanding
Shakespeare’s theater
helps you to see how he
composed plays that
made good use of the
theater of his time.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare and His Theater
Until 1576, when James Burbage built England’s first
permanent theater, touring acting companies built
temporary stages in the courtyards of inns.
They erected a stage at one end,
and the audience watched from
the balconies that lined the
courtyard.
The shape and form of the inns
influenced the theater that Burbage built
and later Shakespeare’s Globe Theater.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare and His Theater
Shakespeare’s theater was a round building and had
three levels, much like the inns.
Extending into the yard
was a large stage. Its
back wall was a
curtained inner stage.
The stage area also
included a small upper
stage and trapdoors in
the floor of the main
stage.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare and His Theater
There were no spotlights or elaborate stage sets in
Shakespeare’s theater.
The characters’ words and costumes
set the scene.
The lack of scenery and the many
acting areas provided by the
various stages allowed the scenes
to follow each other quickly,
almost like in a movie.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare and His Theater
Unlike today’s theater, there were no women in the
casts of Shakespeare’s plays during his lifetime.
All women’s parts were
played by boys.
If you’d gone to see
Romeo and Juliet in
Shakespeare’s day, you’d
have seen Juliet played by
a boy.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare and His Theater
Since Shakespeare’s time, the
stage has changed into what is
known as a proscenium stage.
This type has just an inner stage
separated from the audience by
a curtain.
Recently, more and more theaters are
building stages that extend into the
audience, as Shakespeare’s did.
[End of Section]
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Literary Focus: Tragedy
A tragedy is a story about serious, important events
that ends unhappily.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Literary Focus: Tragedy
Sometimes the characters affected by the tragic
outcome are innocent and haven’t done anything to
cause their bad fortune.
In other tragedies, the main characters are
responsible in some way for their unhappy ending.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Literary Focus: Tragedy
Tragedies usually follow a dramatic structure, or
pattern that looks like this:
Climax
Turning Point
Rising Action
Exposition
Resolution
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Literary Focus: Tragedy
The exposition introduces the setting, the main
characters, and the conflict or problem they face.
setting
Long ago in a faraway kingdom
kingdom, there
lived a prince who loved his castle and
all of the riches that went along with it.
characters
Unfortunately, the prince’s father had
made a deal with an evil witch allowing
her to take over the kingdom when he
died.
conflict
Decades later, the end seemed near. The
king grew weaker each day.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Literary Focus: Tragedy
In the rising action, the conflict escalates as the
characters’ problem grows and they attempt to
solve it.
Determined to keep his castle
and save his wife and children
from spending the rest of their
lives as peasants, the prince
tried everything he could to
keep his father alive—or at
least
least keep
keep the
the witch
witch away.
away.
He searches
for a solution
to his
dilemma.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Literary Focus: Tragedy
At the turning point, the main characters make a
decision about how to handle their problem. This
decision will determine the conflict’s outcome.
This will resolve
the conflict one
way or another:
He will either
win or lose.
Unable to keep his father alive
or the witch away, the
the prince
prince
decided to battle her,
her though
his wife assured him they’d be
just as happy living in a
cottage as a castle.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Literary Focus: Tragedy
The climax is the tragedy’s most dramatic,
emotionally intense point. Often, the drama is
created by the death of the main characters.
Overcome by the witch’s
magical powers, the prince
fell to his knees and, in a
burst of smoke, was
transformed into a tiny green
frog.
This is the high
point of the action
and emotion in
the story.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Literary Focus: Tragedy
The resolution ties up loose ends in the plot and
allows you to see the end result of the conflict.
This shows
you what
happens after
the main
action of the
plot.
As a result of the prince’s
defeat, his
his wife
wife and
and children
children
were forced to leave the castle
and live the rest of their lives in
a rundown shack at the edge of
the kingdom.
[End of Section]
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Reading Focus: Reading a Play
When you read a full-length play, use a variety of
strategies:
Read the lines aloud to help bring them to life.
Juliet: What’s he that follows there,
that would not dance?
Nurse: I know not.
Juliet: Go ask his name.—If he be
marrièd,
My grave is like to be my wedding bed.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Reading Focus: Reading a Play
When you read a full-length play, use a variety of
strategies:
Paraphrase (put into your own words) difficult
sections to be sure you understand.
Juliet: What’s he that follows there,
Juliet: Who’s that guy
not
dance?
Juliet: What’s he that that
followswould
there, that
would
not
who wouldn’t dance?
dance?
Nurse: I know not.Nurse: I know not.
Nurse: I don’t know.
Juliet: Go ask his name.—If
marrièd,
Juliet: he
Gobeask
his name.—If he be
Juliet: Go find out. If
My grave is like to be my wedding bed.
marrièd,
he’s married, I’ll die.
My grave is like to be my wedding
bed.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Reading Focus: Reading a Play
When you read a full-length play, use a variety of
strategies:
Make inferences, or educated guesses, based on
your reading about why the characters act the way
they do.
Is love a tender thing? It is
too rough,
Too rude, too boist’rous and
it pricks like thorn.
Romeo seems
very emotional.
That may be why
he falls in love so
quickly.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Reading Focus: Reading a Play
When you read a full-length play, use a variety of
strategies:
Examine the causes and effects of the events in
the play to help you understand what has happened
and predict what might come next.
Cause
Romeo sneaks
into Capulet’s
party despite
their families’
feud.
Effect
Prediction
He meets and
immediately
falls in love with
Juliet.
Their families’
feud will get in
the way of their
love.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Reading Focus: Reading a Play
Into Action: As you read, use a chart like this one
to help you understand and enjoy the narrative.
Reading Strategy
Read Aloud/Paraphrase
Make Inferences
Analyze Cause and
Effect
My Notes
Romeo and Juliet discuss marriage
the night they meet.
Based on their actions, they seem
like very emotional people.
[End of Section]
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Writing Focus: Think as a Reader/Writer
Find It in Your Reading
As you read, make note of key plot events that will
help you write a summary of each act and analyze
the pattern of the play.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Introducing Act II
So far in Act I . . .
A fight between Capulet
and Montague servants
restarts their families’
feud.
Paris asks Capulet for
permission to marry
Juliet. Capulet tells
him to woo her at his
party that night.
The prince promises
death to anyone
continuing the violence.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Introducing Act II
So far in Act I . . .
Romeo agrees to crash
Capulet’s party with
Benvolio. He hopes to see
Rosaline, a girl who
rejected him.
Separately, Romeo
and Juliet find out
each other’s identity.
Both are upset that
they’re from feuding
families.
Romeo and Juliet meet
at the party and feel an
instant attraction.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Introducing Act II
In Act I, Romeo and Juliet fell in love at first sight at
her father’s party, before they even knew each
other’s names.
What’s in a name? That
which we call a rose
By any other name would
smell as sweet.
Now that each knows the other’s identity, can their
love overpower their families’ feud?
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Introducing Act II
In the famous balcony scene, Romeo and Juliet
discuss plans for marriage . . .
the very same night they meet.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Introducing Act II
Friar Laurence agrees to help, but he has a warning
for Romeo.
Wisely and slow.
They stumble
that run fast.
What advice would you have for the two young
lovers?
The End