Romeo & Juliet Background Info

William Shakespeare

Lived in England during the Renaissance, 1564-1616

Shakespearean Drama

Shakespeare wrote 37 plays, histories, comedies, & Tragedies, wrote more plays than any other writer 

Globe Theater

Located in central London, this theater was a 3 story wooden structure with an open air courtyard in the center that attracted the rich and power alike

Romeo and Juliet Setting

Play takes place in the Italian city of Verona in the 14^th century, when Italy was not a unified nation but a group of separate city-states, each ruled by a different hereditary ruler, usually called a prince or a duke.

Romeo and Juliet topic 

Play is a feud between two families: The Capulets and Montagues and a love story that focuses on political conflict

Took place very young, love was not the basis; wealth was, and parents made marital arrangements very young

Basis for Marriage?

Juliet is 13, Romeo is 16-17 and Paris is 20-25

How old are the main characters? (Juliet, Romeo, & Paris)

ord Montague/Montague, Lady Montague, Romeo (son), Benvolio (nephew), Balthasar (servant to Romeo), and Abram(servant to Montague)

Montague Family Characters

Lord Capulet/Capulet, Lady Capulet, Juliet (daughter), Tybalt (Nephew), Nurse, and Peter

Capulet Family Characters

Act

Divisions within a play

Scene

Divisions of an act into smaller parts (establishes different time/place)

Chorus

A person or group who acts as a narrator or commentator

Drama

A work of literature designed to be performed in front of an audience

Comedy

A humorous work of drama

Tragedy

A drama that ends in catastrophe (death)

Tragic Hero

A tragic hero is a person of noble birth with heroic or potentially heroic qualities. This person is fated by the Gods or by some supernatural force to doom/destruction or at least to great suffering.

Stage direction

italicized comments that identify parts of the setting or the use of props or costumes, gives further information about a character, or provides background information. In Shakespeare’s plays, stage directions can also appear in brackets, parentheses, and/or half brackets.

Aside

a remark or passage by a character that is intended to be heard by the audience but is not unheard by the other characters in the play. The purpose is to reveal the character’s inner thoughts to the audience.

Soliloquy

an act of speaking one's thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers.

Monologue

A long and typically tedious speech by one person during a conversation

Foil Character

A character who's personality or attitude contrasts with another character (usually conflicts with the main character)

Allusion

a figure of speech that refers to a place, person, or something that happened. This can be real or imaginary and may refer to anything

Alliteration

Repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of words or stressed syllables

Comic Relief

A scene that relives the overall emotional intensity

Double entendre

A word or phrase with more than one meaning, usually when the second meaning is risque

Dramatic Irony

When the audience/readers know something the characters dont

Euphemism

Substitution of a more pleasant expression for one whose meaning may come across as rude or offensive

Oxymoron

When two opposite terms are used together (ie: “heavy lightness”)

Pun

A play on words

Blank Verse

verse without rhyme, especially that which uses iambic pentameter

Iamb

A unit in poetry consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable

Iambic Pentameter

a line of verse with five metrical feet, each consisting of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed) syllable

Prose

When characters are speaking with no meter or no rhyme, just normal sentences that go all the way to the margin

A sonnet is a fourteen-line lyric poem that is written in iambic pentameter.

Sonnet

Rhyming Couplet

Two rhyming lines at the end of the speech, signaling that a character is leaving the stage or that a scene is ending