2009
Romeo & Juliet
Tarra Vidler
Euroa Secondary College
8/1/2009
Romeo & Juliet
LOVE and HATE
1. Romeo and Juliet has been called the greatest love story of all time. Do you agree with
this statement? Give reasons for your answers.
I disagree with this statement. I do not believe that you can fall in love with someone
after seeing them once and to get married after three days is just ludicrous. I think it
takes time to fall in love with someone. What if Juliet had been a murderous freak? They
hardly knew each other. I think it’s a good story but completely wrong.
2. Four characters die. They all die from love. Who are they?
The four characters that die are Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio and Tybalt.
3. Love/hate chart. For each character list what and who they love and hate.
Character
Loves
Hates
Eg. Tybalt
Himself, Capulets
All Montagues, Peace.
Mercutio
Montagues
Feud, Tybalt
Romeo
Juliet, Montagues
War, Family feud
Juliet
Romeo, Capulets, Nurse
War, family feud
Friar Laurence
Romeo, Montagues
War
Nurse
Juliet and Juliet’s beliefs
Keeping secrets from
Juliet’s mother
4. Using your chart as a guide, is Romeo and Juliet a play about love, hate or both? Which
is seen as being more powerful in the play?
I think it is both love and hate because they all seem to love and hate the same things.
They all love their family, and the nurse loves the Capulets, and they, all except Tybalt,
hate the war and feud. It is Romeo’s and Juliet’s love for each other that ends this. The
tragic thing is that it also ended their short lived lives.
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FATE
The sequence of events that lead up to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet could be seen as
a coincidence or just bad luck. Time and time again, throughout the film we are
reminded that the lovers will die. They cannot avoid this tragic end.
Prologue:
From fourth the fatal loins of these two foes,
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life.
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parent’s strife.
1. What does this quatrain from the prologue tell us about Romeo and Juliet’s fate?
It tells us that Romeo and Juliet’s fate is death. There is no way they will survive this
and also that they are foes and unlucky.
2. It seems that every time Friar thinks of a plan to help the lovers, fate intervenes to
spoil it.
List the ways that Friar attempts to assist Romeo and Juliet in the film.
In the film, Friar does all he can to help Romeo and Juliet. The ways he does this
include:
Wedding the couple
Giving the potion to Juliet so she doesn’t have to marry Paris
Helps Romeo after he has killed Tybalt, he tells Romeo to go and see Juliet and
promises to keep him updated on Juliet’s wellbeing
He makes a hasty funeral for Juliet after her “death”
He heads to Juliet’s “dead” body to be there when she wakes up to try and fix what
has gone wrong although, he’s too late.
3. Are Romeo and Juliet victims of fate or just bad luck or bad choices? Could they have
changed their fate or were they doomed from the beginning? Give reasons for your
answers.
I think Romeo and Juliet were doomed from the start. I don’t think there was any
way that relationship was going work. Their families are enemies and have been for
years. If they hadn’t have both died then their families were going to find out
eventually and they would both have been punished. They also both make a lot of
bad choices throughout the movie. Romeo chooses to take poison before seeing the
actual state of Juliet and before getting the full story. If, like all other times, he had
of gone to see Friar he would have known what was wrong. Also, bad luck seemed
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to hit them a lot. If they had of taken a bit more time, they would have realized
more, instead of rushing into everything, slow down and look around at all the
possibilities.
FAMILY FEUD
The central conflict in Romeo and Juliet is the feud between the Montagues and
Capulets and many people die because of it, yet there does not seem to be any
reason for this ‘ancient grudge’.
1. List all the characters in the play that perpetuate the family feud. Are some
characters guilty of making things worse? List examples.
Tybalt is the main offender. He tries to kill or harm all of the Montagues no
matter whether they have done wrong by the Capulets or not. He tries to fight
Romeo at the party although he hasn’t caused any havoc. He also bashed Romeo
on the beach and kills Mercutio.
I think Mercutio gets himself in trouble without realising it. He seems to be on
both sides but more the Montagues.
I think they are the only people that really try and start war and interrupt the
peace.
TIME
The story of Romeo and Juliet takes place within 5 days. Romeo and Juliet fall in
love on the first night. Marry on the second, are parted on the third and die on
the fifth.
1. There are many bad timed events in the play. These events include:
Lord Capulet demanding that Juliet is to marry Paris
The letter not received by Romeo
Romeo arriving too early to the tomb
Friar Laurence arriving too late
Romeo killing himself too soon
Juliet waking too late
What would have happened if these events had happened on time? What
would have been the outcome if one or more of these events had been on
time?
If Romeo had gotten the letter he wouldn’t have gone to see Juliet in the first
place. He would have stayed where he was and they wouldn’t have died. So
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Romeo not receiving the letter put the whole timing out. Changing one thing
could have changed the whole outcome of the story.
Choose one of the following activities to complete:
3. You are a TV news reporter. Give your version of the events that led to the tragedy.
“Tarra Vidler here with BBC news, the ongoing war between the Capulets and the
Montagues has ended today with the deaths of Juliet and her Romeo. After secretly
marrying Romeo, Juliet’s father, Lord Capulet, was to have Paris and Juliet wedded.
Juliet refused and was given poison by an unknown source which makes her appear
to be deceased for 24 hours. Her nurse found her the following morning where she
believed Juliet was no longer living. Her body was taken away and her funeral was
that morning where a member of the Montague family saw Juliet’s body and rushed
to tell Romeo. He was not stopped in time to be told what happened. Romeo was
told by his family member and he was involved in a police pursuit on his way to the
chapel. Inside the chapel he drank a poison of some sort that resulted in a quick
death. Juliet witnessed this as she came around and she used Romeo’s pistol to
quickly kill herself shortly after. They’re deaths were the third and fourth for the
families this week. We bid thee farewell and may thee rest in eternal peace.”
Choose two of the following activities to complete:
4. What other films do Romeo and Juliet remind you of? In what ways?
In My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding a Greek falls in love with someone who isn’t Greek
and her parents are very happy with it because they have different beliefs.
In West Side Story the leader of the Sharks falls in love with the Jet’s leader’s sister
and vice versa. The Sharks and the Jets have had an ongoing feud and so this love is
looked poorly upon.
5. In what ways were Romeo and Juliet ‘star-crossed’?
Romeo and Juliet were star-crossed (unlucky) because of the war between their
families. What could be worse than falling in love with the enemy of your family?
They are always so close to being caught. That is the one time they are lucky, when
they don’t actually get caught. When Romeo’s cousin finds Juliet at the funeral, Friar
Laurence turned too late to tell him the story. When Romeo drinks the poison, he is
only one second too late to see Juliet move. It is unlucky that Juliet didn’t realize
what he was doing earlier. They are just a very unlucky couple.
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