Romeo and Juliet

Many thanks to Jennifer Alexander for much of this

powerpoint!

Study Tips Be able to put events in the order in which they happen Be able to match up characters with a description of

each (example: Balthasar was the servant who told Romeo of Juliet’s “death”)

Be able to match quotes to the character who said them Be able to answer true or false for statements about the

setting and action of the story Be able to match a quotation to the corresponding

scheme or trope: apostrophe, assonance, allusion, blank verse, catologue, consonance, foreshadowing, dramatic irony, imagery, onomatopoeia, oxymoron, alliteration, allusion, metaphor, personification, simile, verbal irony, sonnet

Literary Terms & Ideas

I. PlotII. Figures of Speech

Outline of the plot structure

• Exposition• Rising action and exciting force

(Romeo attends Capulet ball)• Climax (deaths of Mercutio and

Tybalt and the banishment of Romeo)

• Falling action (Juliet takes potion)• Resolution

Literary Terms

Oxymoron

Oxymoron: contradictory terms are combined.

Example: “Brawling love”, “loving hate”, “heavy lightness”

OnomatopoeiaDefinition:When a word expresses the sound.

Example:Plunk, hist!, splash

AllusionDefinition:a reference to a character, place, or

situation from another work of literature, music, or art.

Example:reference to mythological characters such as

Diana, goddess of chastity, and Phaeton the son of the sun god are literary allusions

ForeshadowingDefinition:the use of clues by an author to prepare

readers for events that will happen later in the story.

Example: Juliet sees Romeo “at the bottom of a

grave” when he leaves her to flee to Mantua

Dramatic IronyDefinition:a term used to talk about a contrast

between reality and what seems to be real.

Examples:Romeo’s suicide while Juliet is still really alive.Capulet’s plan to arrange Juliet’s marriage

when she is already married.Juliet’s balcony scene speech when Romeo is

listening

Verbal IronyDefinition:A contradiction of expectation between what

is said and what is meant Verbal irony is implied and refers to spoken words only

Example:"Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;And Brutus is an honourable man“ (Julius Caesar)

Mark Antony really means that Brutus is dishonourable

Shakespearean Sonnet

Definition:A 14-line verse form having 3 quatrains

(sets of four lines that go together), ending with a couplet (a pair of lines), and having an ababcdcdefefgg rhyme scheme.

Example:The Prologue in Romeo and Juliet

SimileA figure of speech in which two

fundamentally unlike things are explicitly compared, usually in a phrase introduced by like or as

Example:She was as white as snow

PersonificationDefinition: representation of a thing or abstraction as a

person or by the human form Example:Juliet: By whose direction found’st thou out

this place?Romeo: By love, that first did prompt me to

inquire.He lent me counsel, and I lent him eyes.

(2.2.84-86)

OxymoronDefinition:a combination of contradictory or

incongruous words Example:cruel kindnessold friends… that I barely knew (F.

Scott Fitgerald)

ImageryDefinition:Words or phrases that appeal to the five

senses

Juliet: “… in a vault, an ancient receptacleWhere for this many hundred years the

bonesOf all my buried ancestors are packed;Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earthLies festering in his shroud…” (4.3.40-44)

Dramatic IronyDefinition:In literature, this is a plot device in which the

audience’s or reader’s knowledge of events or individuals surpasses that of the characters. The words and actions of the characters therefore take on a different meaning for the audience or reader than they have for the play’s characters. This may happen when, for example, a character reacts in an inappropriate or foolish way or when a character lacks self-awareness and thus acts under false assumptions.

Example:

ConsonanceDefinition:recurrence or repetition of consonants

especially at the end of stressed syllables without the similar correspondence of vowels

Example: as in the final sounds of “stroke” and

“luck”)

CatalogueDefinition:A list

Example:“Beguiled, divorced, wronged, spited,

slain!” (IV.v.)

Blank VerseDefinition:unrhymed verse; specifically :

unrhymed iambic pentameter verse

Example:The dialogue between Juliet and

Romeo during the balcony scene (Act II, scene ii)

AssonanceDefinition:repetition of vowels without repetition of

consonants

Example:stony and holy“But passion lends them power, time

means, to meet, Temp’ring extremities with extreme

sweet.”

AsideDefinition:an utterance meant to be inaudible to

someone; especially : an actor's speech heard by the audience but supposedly not by other characters

Example:Romeo:“They laugh at scars who ne’er

have felt a wound.”

ApostropheDefinition:the addressing of a usually absent

person or a usually personified thing

Example:“O Liberty, what things are done in thy

name!”

Alliteration Definition:the repetition of usually initial consonant

sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables

Example:wild and woolly, threatening throngs

Called also head rhyme or initial rhyme.

Tradition of “Courtly Love”

Common symptoms of the rejected lover:

• Bewilderment• Helplessness• Mental and physical pain• Sleeplessness• Loss of appetite• Pallor

Essay Option 1

Answer the question: Is Romeo a hero?

In answering the question, address at least three different aspects of his character, showing how they are revealed in his interactions with other characters in the play.

(Note: The answer “In a way he is a hero, and in a way he is not a hero” is an acceptable answer! However, you must be specific about the ways in which he is heroic and the ways in which he is not.)

Essay Option 2

Answer the question: Where is there true love in Romeo and Juliet?

In answering the question, address at least three different kinds of love or three different relationships that are portrayed in the play, and analyze what Shakespeare uses these relationships to say about the nature of true love in the play.

4 Kinds of Love

Storge - Affection (includes love for a pet, etc.)

Philia - Friendship (brotherly love)Eros – Romantic Love(love of desire /

possession)Agape - Charity (love of self-sacrifice)

Relationships

• Friar Lawrence for Romeo• Nurse for Juliet• Parents for children• Prince for city• Romeo & Rosaline; Romeo and Benvolio;

Romeo & Juliet• Paris for Juliet• Juliet for Tybalt• Tybalt for Capulets; Mercutio for

Montagues

Review of Significant Quotations

• That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet

• Juliet in soliloquy 2.3

• I will make thee think thy swan a crow

• Benvolio to Romeo 1.2.94

• From forth the fatal loins of these two foes/ a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life…

• Chorus in the Prologue

• Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain-tops

• Romeo to Juliet 3.5.9-10

• Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds

• Capulet to Juliet 3.5.157

• Death, that hath suck’d the honey of thy breath, hath had no power yet upon thy beauty. Thou art not conquered.

• Romeo about Juliet 5.3.92

• Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say, Good night till it be morrow.

• Juliet to Romeo 2.2.200

• “She is the faerie’ midwife, and she comes in shape no bigger than an agate stone”

• Mercutio about Queen Mab 1.4

• Prince: “And I, for winking at your discords too, Have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punish’d.”

Because he neglected to act sooner, the Prince has been punished with the deaths of two of his family