Transcript Romeo And Juliet Shakespeare Background

Romeo And Juliet
Shakespeare Background
 A Romantic Tragedy
 Written by William
Shakespeare
 5 Acts
 2 Hours of entertainment
Shakespeare’s Life
 Birth date – April 23, 1564 (assumed)
 Christening (Baptism) – April 26, 1564
 Death – April 23, 1616
 Theater Company – Lord Chamberlain’s Men
 Name of theater company changed in 1603 to The
Kings Men (after King James I)
 Wrote 37 plays
Elizabethan England
 Reign of Queen Elizabeth I
 London was a dirty, brutal, noisy city
 No sanitation laws – Food & human
waste was thrown into the alleys.
 Garbage was left to be eaten by rats.
 Between 1592-1594 the Black Plague
struck London
 The Plague shut down theaters for a
while to avoid large groups of people
from infecting each other.
Shakespearean Theater
 The audience's seats and part of the stage were roofed, but much of the main
stage and the area in front of the stage in the center of the circle were open to
the elements.
 About 1,500 audience members could pay extra money to sit in the covered
seating areas, while about 800 "groundlings" paid less money to stand in this
open area before the stage.
 Poor play goers were called the penny public or groundlings, because they paid a
penny to stand and watch the plays in the area in front of the stage called the
courtyard.
 Wealthier playgoers paid 2 pennies to sit in the galleries around the courtyard.
 Plays contained no scenery, no artificial lighting, few props, and no curtain.
The Globe Theater
The Stage
Built of wood, these theaters comprised
three tiers of seats in a circular shape,
with a stage area on one side of the
circle.
At the back of the main stage was a
curtained inner stage.
Above the main stage was a balcony.
Audience members surrounded the stage on
three sides.
There was no curtain, so the action moved
quickly from one scene to the next.
In the middle of the main stage was a
trapdoor, used for exiting ghosts,
graves, etc.
Seating at the Globe
 The theater had three tiers or balconies where
wealthier playgoers sat.
History of the Globe
 The design of the stage was developed from the
courtyards at the inns where plays were first
produced.
 Actors would enter in wagons which would serve
as their stage.
 The audience would observe the plays from the
balconies outside their rooms.
 The poorer people would stand or sit in the center
of the yard near the wagon.
History of the Globe
 In 1613, a cannon was shot off during a
performance, and sparks ignited the thatched
roof. The Globe Theater burned down.
 It was rebuilt and remained open on its original
foundations until the Puritans closed it in 1642.
 It was rebuilt on the south banks of the Thames
River.
 Two Years later it also was torn down.
 The foundation remained buried until the midtwentieth century.
The New Globe Theater
 Today a New Globe
theater is situated on the
banks of the Thames.
 On September 19, 1999,
Shakespeare's Globe
theater complex opened
on the south bank of the
Thames, 500 years to the
day since the first
recorded performance
of a play at the original
theater.
Characters
The Montague’s
 Romeo Montague:
and Juliet Capulet are
immature teenagers, who fall
deeply in love even though
their families are bitter
enemies. Impatient and rash,
they seize the moment and
marry in secret. Further
efforts to conceal their
actions go awry and end
tragically.
 Lord Montague and
Lady Montague
 Mercutio:
Kinsman of the prince and
friend of Romeo.
He understands that
overpowering, passionate
love–the kind of love that
ignores reason and common
sense–can lead to tragedy.
 Benvolio:
Nephew of Montague,
and friend to Romeo
He is known as a
peacemaker.
The Capulets
 Juliet Capulet:
Romeo Montague and Juliet
Capulet are immature
teenagers–in fact, Juliet is
not yet 14
 Nurse of Juliet:
The nurse is Juliet's
attendant, confidante, and
messenger.
Her homely language and her
preoccupation with the
practical, everyday world
contrast sharply with the
elevated language of Romeo
and Juliet and their
preoccupation with the
idealistic world of love.
 Tybalt:
Headstrong nephew of Lady
Capulet.
Ever ready to fight the
Montagues at the slightest
provocation, he personifies
the hatred generated by
feuding families.
 Lord Capulet and Lady
Capulet
Other
Characters
 Paris:
Young nobleman,
kinsman of Escalus.
The Capulets pressure
Juliet to accept his
marriage proposal.
 Escalus:
Prince of Verona.
 Friar Laurence:
Romeo’s Priest
Friar Laurence marries Romeo and
Juliet, hoping the marriage will end
the Montague-Capulet feud, and
tries to help them overcome their
problems with a scheme that,
unfortunately, goes awry.
 Balthasar:
servant of Romeo
 Apothecary:
“Drug Dealer” – Pharmacist
Poverty-stricken with
"famine" in his cheeks, he
illegally sells deadly
poison.
 Rosaline:
The girl with whom
Romeo is infatuated
before he meets Juliet.
Rosaline does not appear
in the play, but is
referred to by Romeo,
Benvolio, Mercutio, and
Friar Laurence.
Chorus:
 The chorus recites the prologue preceding the first act.
 The prologue sets the scene, Verona, and tells of the "ancient
grudge" between the Montague and Capulet families.
 It contains two of the play’s most famous lines:
– “From forth the fatal loins of these two
foes / a pair of star-crossed lovers take
their life.”
Literary Terms
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 Aside –Lines whispered to the audience or
to another character (not heard by all the
characters on stage)
 Soliloquy – One character gives a long
speech
Irony – Contrast between what
appears to be and what really is
 Dramatic Irony – audience knows
something the characters don’t
 Verbal Irony – Meaning is different from
what is said (sarcasm)
 Situational Irony – Situation is not as it
appears to be
 Personification – Give human qualities to
non-human things
 Allusion – reference to another literary
work, a historical event or person
 Pun – play on words
 Tragedy – play in which the main
character suffers a major downfall
 Prologue – Introduction to a play in which
one character sums up & foreshadows
future events
 Prose – regular paragraph format with no
rhyme or rhythm
 Metaphor – comparison of 2 different
things
 Foreshadowing – hints or clues to future
events in a story
 Inference – Draw conclusions as to what
has already happened
 Assonance – repetition of vowel sounds
 Alliteration – repetition of consonant
sounds
 Connotation – meanings we assign to
words
 Denotation – dictionary definitions
 Malapropism - unintentionally humorous
misuse of a word, esp. by confusion with
one of similar sound
– (Mrs. Malaprop, a character noted for her
amusing misuse of words in Richard Brinsley
Sheridan's comedy The Rivals.)