Transcript BELLWORK - BentonEnglish.com

BELLWORK: @PETRARCHANLOVE
PICK TWO CHARACTERS FROM ROMEO & JULIET
FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF ONE OF THE CHARACTERS,
WRITE A COUPLET (COUPLET=TWO LINES THAT RHYME)
DIRECTED TOWARDS THE OTHER CHARACTER IN THE FORM
OF A MODERNIZED TWEET.
THE COUPLET SHOULD REPRESENT HOW THAT CHARACTER
FEELS TOWARDS THE OTHER BASED ON HOW THEY
INTERACT (DON’T CHOOSE 2 CHARACTERS THAT DON’T TALK
TO EACH OTHER).
REMEMBER, A TWEET IS 140 CHARACTERS OR LESS
(THAT INCLUDES SPACES AND PUNCTUATION).
WRITE YOUR COUPLET ON NOTEBOOK PAPER TO
BE TURNED IN OR TWEET IT @petrarchanlove
PYRAMUS AND THISBE
are two lovers in the city of Babylon who
occupy connected houses but are
forbidden to wed because of the rivalry
their parents have. Separated by a
wall, they whisper their love for each
other through a crack and plan to meet
at a mulberry tree to elope. Thisbe,
arriving first, sees a lioness and flees,
leaving behind her veil. When Pyramus
arrives he spots her veil and, thinking
the blood on the lioness’ mouth is
Thisbe’s, falls on his sword. Thisbe
returns shortly after, sees her beloved
has killed himself, and stabs herself.
FIRST, YOU SHOULD KNOW…
William Shakespeare didn’t come up with the story. He just adapted it
from a few sources:
The MAIN SOURCE is The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet—
a narrative poem Arthur Brooke translated from an Italian story. We
think that Shakespeare’s version was probably written around
1591-1595.
He also drew from the medieval legend of Tristan and Isolde along
with Pyramus and Thisbe from Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
He manages to make the clichéd story work because of his mastery
of English; he uses the power of language to make and unmake
the world.
PROSE AND POETRY…
PROSE is written or
spoken language in its
ordinary form, without
metrical structure. It’s
origin is Latin prosa
(oratio) lit.
‘straightforward
(discourse)’. In other
words, natural language
as we speak it.
POETRY is written in
VERSE, writing
arranged in a
metrical rhythm and
typically has a
rhyme. The meter
and rhythm can vary
depending on the
type of poetry.
SHAKESPEARE…
Uses both PROSE and VERSE in his plays.
Most of his plays are written in VERSE with some PROSE. However, there are a
handful that are mostly PROSE with some VERSE like Much Ado about Nothing.
We can further divide his use of VERSE two ways:
BLANK VERSE are metered lines that don’t rhyme.
JULIET: The excuse that thou dost make in this delay/Is longer than the tale thou
dost excuse.
RHYMED VERSE are metered lines that do rhyme.
JULIET: My only love sprung from my only hate/Too early seen unknown, and
known too late.
So, Shakespeare uses PROSE, BLANK VERSE, and RHYMED VERSE in Romeo &
Juliet
In terms of Shakespeare, we tend to associate PROSE
dialogue with commoners speaking, BLANK VERSE
with wealthier, more educated speaking
formally, and RHYMED VERSE as most formal.
MOST OF HIS VERSE IS IN IAMBIC PENTAMETER…
IAMBIC means a type of poetic verse that is made up of iambs. English speech,
naturally, tends to be spoken in IAMBIC PENTAMETER, so a lot of the PROSE can
be counted as metered.
An IAMB is a pairing of an unaccented and accented syllable. IAMBS are words like:
-exist
-away
-the one
-belong
-predict
-we played
-you know
-I can’t
IAMBIC PENTAMETER is poetry with five iambs:
ROMEO: But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief.
KEEP IN MIND…
No word or image is there by ACCIDENT.
The text was never meant to be read—it was meant to be spoken and heard. If it
doesn’t make sense, READ IT ALOUD.
Every character is MEANT to speak in a SPECIFIC WAY at SPECIFIC TIMES—Actors
would rely on the way the dialogue was written to better understand how that
character was supposed to be portrayed.
Shakespeare frequently uses PUNS. A PUN is a wordplay where similar sounding
words (HOMOPHONES and HONONYMS) are used to make a joke. There’s
(arguably) 175 puns in Romeo & Juliet alone.
HOMONYMS are words that are spelled the same but have a different meaning.
(tear and tear)
HOMOPHONES are words that are pronounced the same but have a different
meaning. (their and there and they’re)
WE CAN, THEREFORE…
Give qualities to characters based on how they speak.
1. MERCUTIO: That dreamers often lie.
2. NURSE: Even or odd, of all days in the year/Come Lammas-eve at night shall she
be fourteen.
3. JULIET: Wash they his sounds with tears: mine shall be spent./When theirs are
dry for Romeo’s banishment./Take up those cords: poor ropes, you are
beguiled,/Both you and I: for Romeo is exiled./He made you for a highway to my
bed;/But I, a maid, die maiden widowed.
4. LADY CAPULET: A crutch, a crutch! Why call you for a sword?
5. ROMEO: Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still,/Should, without eyes, see
pathways to his will!
6. FRIAR: Be plain, good son, and homely in thy drift;/Riddling confession finds but
riddling shrift.
FINALLY…
A theme we can consider is THE POWER OF WORDS AND LANGUAGE.
Shakespeare makes linguistic power figure thematically in the play. Think
about:
• The crucial importance of NAMES (A rose by any other name..).
• The FORCE OF VERBAL ACTION—how often is the “action” nothing
more than throwing insults back and forth?
• How often a PUN is used to challenge the validity of a sentiment
(Mercutio constantly makes fun of Romeo’s unrequited love for
Rosalind. Was Romeo’s ‘love’ genuine or just forced and empty?).
• Even in the most tragic scenes of the play, characters are still using
PUNS—they juxtapose comedy and tragedy in the same line similarly to
the way other opposites exist in the story(love and death, pain and joy,
youth and age).