WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Romeo & Juliet

CHILDHOOD

Parents: John Shakespeare and Mary Arden

Birthday: April 23, 1564

Born and raised in Stratford upon Avon

YOUNG ADULTHOOD

Married Anne Hathaway in 1582

Children:• Suzanna• Judith• Hamnet

IN THE BEGINNING

Shakespeare started as an actor for the Lord

Chamberlain’s Men (London Theatre)

He was the principal playwright for them

1599 LCM built Globe Theatre where most of his

plays were performed

SHAKESPEARE WROTE:

Comedies

Histories

Tragedies• Wrote 37 plays• About 154 sonnets• But started as an actor

THE GLOBE

THE THEATRE

Plays produced for the general public

Roofless or open air

No artificial lighting, meaning all plays were

performed during the day

There was a courtyard surrounded by 3 levels of

galleries

The actors were only men and boys• Young boys whose voices had not yet changed would

play women’s roles.

SPECTATORS

Wealthy got benches

Groundlings were poorer people that stood and

watched from the courtyard (“pit”)

All but the wealthy were uneducated/illiterate

STAGING AREAS

Stage was a platform that extended into the pit

Dressing & Storage rooms in galleries behind and above the stage

Trap door: in bottom of stage, where “ghosts” entered and exited

“Heavens” where angelic beings entered and exited

No scenery

Setting was referenced in dialog

Elaborate costumes

Plenty of props

2 hours

GLOBE CONTINUED

The theatre was often closed by Queen Elizabeth I due to disease

that was spreading through London.

1613: A cannon shot during a showing of Henry VIII consumed

the theatre in flames

1614: Theatre was reopened

1643: Theatre was closed by Puritans who thought that theater

was unholy

1644: Theatre was lit aflame and completely destroyed by those

Puritans

The Flag:• Black=Trage

dy• Red=History• White=Come

dy

Blank Verse• Unrhymed verse• Iambic (unstressed

and stressed)• Pentameter (5 “feet”

to a line)• 10 syllables

WRITING

Prose• Ordinary writing

that is not poetry, drama, or song• Only characters in

the lower social classes speak this way in Shakespeare’s plays

• This was to show how the lower social class in uneducated

Written about 1595

Considered a tragedy

West Side Story (movie

and musical) based on

R&J

ROMEO AND JULIET

Drama where the central

character/s suffer disaster or

great misfortune

In many tragedies, downfall

results from• Fate• Character Flaw/fatal flaw• Combination of two

Tragic Hero: the main

character of a tragedy

TRAGEDY (SHAKESPEAREAN)

Dynamic Character: character

that changes somehow during

the course of the plot. They

generally change for the better.

Static Character: Character

within a story who remains the

same. They do not change. They

do not change their minds,

opinions, or character

throughout the play.

NEED TO KNOW VOCAB

Round Character:

character who has many

personality traits, like real

people.

Flat Characters: one-

dimensional, embodying

only a single trait• Shakespeare often uses

them to provide comic relief even in a tragedy

Character Foil: a character

whose purpose is to show off

another character• Benvolio for Tybalt

Protagonist: the main

character in the story to which

the theme in centered, “good

guy”

Antagonist: the force working

against the protagonist, “bad

guy”

Monologue: One

person speaking on

stage; however, there

may be other characters

on stage too

Soliloquy: Long speech

expressing the thoughts

of a character while

alone on stage

LITERARY DEVICES

Ditrect Address: words that

tell the reader who is being

spoken to• “A right fair mark, fair

coz, is soonest hit.”

Comic Relief: Use of comedy

within literature that is NOT a

comedy to provide “relief” from

seriousness or sadness

Aside: Words spoken, usually

in an undertone not intended to

be heard by all characters

WORD PLAY: ANY CLEVER USE OF THE DOUBLE MEANINGS OR

MATCHING SOUNDS OF WORDS

Pun: Humorous use of a word

with two meanings sometimes

missed by the reader because

of Elizabethan language and

sexual innuendo

Shakespeare LOVED puns!!

Allusion: a reference within

a work to something that the

audience is expected to

know

DRAMATIC IRONY

When the audience

knows something that

the characters do not.

Died April 23rd, 1616

52 years old

Cause of death is

unknown

HIS DEATH