Western Literature
February 27, 2015

INTRODUCTION TO ROMEO AND JULIET JOURNAL FOR 2/27/2015
Select one of these quotes to write down in your journal. Explain the meaning of the quote and apply it to a story that you know.
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“A man cannot become a hero until he sees the root of his own downfall.”
- Aristotle
“You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”
- Harvey Dent
“Fate rarely calls upon us at a moment of our choosing.”
- Optimus Prime

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Turn in your Writer’s checklist/rubric and rough draft.
I will comment directly on your Google document.

Comedy Tragedy
History
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Light / whimsical tone
Uses puns / banter / practical jokes
/ comedic insults
Ends with a wedding / happy ending
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Serious / dark tone
Tragic hero with tragic flaw & fate
Ends with death (lots & lots of death)
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Factual tone
Follows actual events with slight modifications
Based on lives of actual
English kings

O Do you remember the Greeks’ definition of tragedy?

O Tragedy is a form of drama based on human suffering that invokes in its audience an accompanying catharsis or pleasure in the viewing.
Themes in a tragedy are usually involve lofty ideas: passion, jealousy, revenge, ambition , etc.

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Tragic Hero
The Tragic Flaw – Hamartia
Reversal of Fortune Peripeteia
Catharsis
Restoration of Social Order – Denouement
Free will is important in Shakespearean tragedy.
O Characters have the ability to choose their path but make errors in choices due to their flawed nature.

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A tragic hero meets his/her downfall through a combination of hubris , tragic flaw , fate , and the will of the gods.
A tragic hero should be of noble birth – a ranking politician, military figure, prince, or king.
O Noble birth produces a sense of fear ( If it can happen to someone like him/her, it can happen to me.
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The hero should not be morally better than an average person.
Hero’s actions result in an increase of self-awareness and self-knowledge.
Audience must feel pity and fear for the hero.

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Hamartia (Greek) – fatal flaw
The hero is nearly perfect except for one flaw or weakness.
The most common flaw in Shakespeare’s tragedy is pride or hubris .
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Hubris is exaggerated self-pride or self-confidence often resulting in fatal retribution or ultimate downfall.
In ancient Athens, hubris was a crime punished like our modern day assault and battery.
Tragic flaw prevents the hero from understanding his/her part in the situation.
O Tragic flaw also leads to a reversal of fortunes.

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Peripeteia (Greek) – reversal of circumstances or turning point
The “fatal flaw” or “tragic flaw” brings the hero down from his or her elevated state or status.
Fortune usually changes from good to bad.
Peripeteia includes changes in a character but more commonly refers to external changes.
Renaissance audiences were familiar with the
“wheel of fortune” or “fickle fate.
“What goes up, must come down.”

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Catharsis originates from Aristotle’s katharsis .
Catharsis is the audience’s purging of emotions through pity and fear.
O When experiences are described as “cathartic,” it means they are good for you. It helps you get a lot of emotions / feelings “off your chest.”
The spectator, or viewer, is purged of emotion as a result of watching the hero fall.
This is why we cry during movies or novels! 

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Tragedies include a private and public element.
O Personal and societal problem that must be resolved.
O The play cannot end until society is, once again, restored and at peace.
O Shakespearean tragedies usually conclude with widespread death.

Act I: Exposition
Establishes setting, characters, conflict, and background
Act III: Crisis/Turning Point
A series of complications
Act II: Rising Action
A series of complications
Act IV: Falling Action
Results of the turning point; characters locked into deeper disaster
Act V:
Climax/Resolution/Denouement
Death of the main characters and then the loose parts of the plot are tied up

Romeo and Juliet is based on
Arthur Brooke’s long narrative poem the Tragicall Historye of
Romeus and Juliet (1562).
The play has a highly moral tone: disobedience, as well as fate, leads to the deaths of two lovers.

Power of Love
Violence from Passion
The Individual vs. Society
The Inevitability of Fate

“My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown , and known too late!”
~ Juliet; Act I, Scene V

As we read and perform William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet f or each scene of every act, you must record the following:
O Summary: Provide a brief summary of what happens in the scene in your own words.
O Quote(s): Write down the line numbers and a KEY WORD to correspond to an important quote that you may want to refer to again.
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Response: Each reader/viewer has his or her own experience with a play or literature. What are you thinking? What connections can you make to your own experiences, other books/movies/plays, and to society? What questions do you have? What predictions can you make?
Each Act (I, II, III, IV, and V) and Scene (i, ii, iii, iv, v, and vi) should be labelled properly using roman numerals.
O “Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! / For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night” (I.v.59-60)

Romeo
Juliet
Lord Montague (his dad)
Lord Capulet (her father)
Lady Montague (his mom)
Lady Capulet (her mother)
Mercutio (friend)
Tybalt (cousin)
Benvolio (cousin)
Nurse

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA_aFprGzyc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz43rtBUVA0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_L_5vrHoWQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndDq-R20bNA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le8vixtpX6Q
O https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xg3vE8Ie_E
O Why do you think that Romeo and Juliet is so prevalent in pop culture? What examples can you think of that refer to Romeo and Juliet?

O Read Act I, Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s
Romeo and Juliet.
O Complete a records journal entry