“ a story that goes beyond death”
Shakespeare’s sources
The Most Excellent and Lamentable
Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
was written by William Shakespeare
in the period between 1594 and 1596.
Its plot is based on an Italian tale,
translated into verse as The Tragical
History of Romeus and Juliet by Arthur
Brooke in 1562.
Shakespeare borrowed from Brooke’s tale but
he stylistically transformed and enriched the
plot in a more intense way with the vivid
characterizations of the minor characters, including Benvolio, Romeo's
cousin and close to the Prince, in the functions of a witness of
the tragedy, the nurse (just mentioned by Brooke), which represents a
time of comic lightness, and finally Mercutio, Shakespearean creature
of extraordinary potential dramatic figure, who embodies the love of
Dionysus and sees the woman only in its most material immediately.
The story is set in the
late 1500’s mostly in the
town of Verona, Italy.
However, when Romeo
is banished from the city,
not many actions are
located in Mantua,
a smaller town just a
few miles away.
Juliet's home in Verona according to
the legend
Act I : the meeting
It starts with the dialogues
about the conception of
love between Romeo and
his friends Mercutio and Benvolio
and ends with the first meeting
of Romeo and Juliet at the
masked ball in Capulets’ home.
Act II: the secret wedding
It turns around the relationship
between lovers;
Romeo climbs over the
Capulet’s garden wall, hides
in the garden below Juliet’s
window and starts a dialogue
with Juliet about love and
their feelings.
It ends with the secret wedding
of the young lovers celebrated
by Friar Laurence who is a defender
of their love.
Act III: Romeo’s exile
It’s full of action and movements; hate between the two
families increases: Mercutio, Romeo’s friend, is killed
by Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin.
Romeo loses the control and during the clash he kills
Tybalt. The prince of Verona decides to banish
Romeo from the city.
It ends with Romeo and Juliet’s wedding night.
Act IV: the potion
Juliet decides to take a special potion
made by Friar Laurence to avoid his
coming marriage to Count Paris.
This potion makes her apparently dead.
Romeo discovers that Juliet is dead
and quickly he comes back from
Mantua to Verona.
Act V: death of the lovers
Romeo buys a fast-acting poison from an apothecary and travels to Juliet’s
tomb; he wants to die beside her.
Paris is also at the Capulets’ crypt.
He and Romeo fight,
and Paris is killed.
Romeo drinks the poison.
Juliet awakens and stabs
herself to death with
Romeo’s dagger.
The Capulets and the
Montague break off their
ancient hate and from
now a long period of
peace will reign over
Verona.
“Romeo & Juliet, animated tales” video
Romeo and Juliet begins as a comedy but ends as a
tragedy
Elements of comedy:
 Love
 Masked ball ( a moment of
entertainment )
 Reconciliation between the
enemy families after the
death of the young spouses
Elements of tragedy:
 Costant fight of the lovers
against the forces which
make difficult and
forbidden their relationship
 Tragic role of the fate: the
suicide of Romeo and Juliet
An element of comedy: reconciliation
Main characters
The son of Lord Montague and Lady Montague.
A young man of about sixteen,
Romeo is handsome, intelligent,
sensitive, gentle, romantic.
Impulsive and immature,
his idealism and passion
make him an extremely likable
character and bring him to death.
He lives in the middle of a violent
feud but he is not at all interested
in violence.
His only interest is in love, in
Juliet.
The daughter of Lord
Capulet and Lady Capulet.
A beautiful thirteen-year-old
girl,
she’s modern and passionate.
She is a girl in an aristocratic
family so she hasn’t the
freedom to decide who she
has to marry.
She shows amazing courage
in loving Romeo the son of
her family’s great enemy.
A Franciscan friar, friend
to both Romeo and Juliet.
Kind, civic-minded and
always ready with a plan:
he secretly marries the two
lovers in hopes that the
union might eventually
bring peace to Verona.
As well as being a Catholic
holy man, Friar Lawrence is
also an expert in the use of
mystical potions and herbs.
The nurse is Juliet’s friend
and nursemaid. She looks
after Juliet, as was usually
the custom in royal
families of the time
period.
The nurse also helps Juliet
and Romeo meet with
each other. She always
does what she thinks is
best for Juliet.
Lack of knowledge
which derives from bad communication( the absence of a
rapid and effective vehicle of communication between all the
characters )
Reflection about language made by Juliet
She’s a real woman with no characterisation or idealisation; she
overpasses the idea of courtlry woman: she uses a direct and
modern language and believes in an unconventional love
Love
Romeo and Juliet is certainly the most archetypal love
story in the English language, it portrays only a very
specific type of love: young, irrational, passionate But
it is also chaotic and destructive, bringing death to
friends, family, and to themselves. Romeo and Juliet’s
youthful lust is one of many reasons why their
relationship grows so intense so quickly; so their love
is connected with death and violence, and finds it's
greatest expression in their suicide.
The inevitability of fate
“A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life”
Prologue
The Chorus in the prologue, say that Romeo and Juliet are “starcrossed”—that is to say that fate (a natural power that derives from
the movements of the stars) controls them.
This sense of fate permeates the play.
The characters also are quite aware of it: Romeo and Juliet constantly see
predictions.
When Romeo believes that Juliet is dead, he cries and said “Then I
defy you, stars,” (act V) completing the idea that the love between
Romeo and Juliet is in opposition to an adverse destiny.
Romeo is into the hands of fate, his challenge is a losing battle but his
determination to spend eternity with Juliet results in their deaths.
realized by:
Chiara Tavarozzi – Controller
Francesca Di Maria – Task oriented
Aldo De Curtis – Narrator
Nicola D’Ambra – Group Oriented
Maria Rosaria Licursi - Speaker
Sources & Bibliography
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romeo_and_Jul
iet
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