English Home Language
Drama: Romeo and Juliet by
William Shakespeare
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Reg. No.: 2011/011959/07
English Home Language
by William Shakespeare
Grade 10
Drama: Romeo and Juliet
What to study?
Read the text of Romeo and Juliet (as many times as possible) and study the accompanying study guide. Also refer to pages 84-86 for a complete glossary of terms, as well as the drama terms in the Glossary of Literary Terms available on Optimi’s Online Learning Portal (OLP).
Introduction
Drama is not the same as a novel or short story that is written to be read. Drama is written to be performed and involves many other characteristics: movement, voice, light and dark; the interaction between characters; staging; pace; facial expressions and body language which indicate mood, create tension between characters, what characters are doing when they are not speaking – all this works together to create the meaning of the play.
Drama involves the audience too – who can even be a character in the play. As far as possible, read aloud. Imagination plays a key role: visualising the stage and what the characters look like, working out how a line can be spoken in different ways, and how these ways change the way the play is received.
Movement and interaction between characters, and between characters and audience –all these aspects can better be appreciated if the play is read aloud. Do not feel awkward when doing this – get into the spirit of it, become the character; and enjoy yourself!
There is no way to anticipate which questions you will be asked in the exams. The best is to read your text as many times as possible and to make sure you understand and know the themes, imagery, and characters in the drama. That way, you will be able to answer any question the examiner may ask. Read your text and study guide and do the additional questions to test your understanding.
Important terminology
Term
Aside
Denouement
Dramatic irony
Definition
A remark or passage in a play that is intended to be heard by the audience, but unheard by the other characters in the play.
A pair of rhyming lines, usually of the same length and metre.
The final part of a play, film or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together, and matters are explained or resolved.
Contradiction between what a character knows and what the audience knows to be true.
Elizabethan Relating to or characteristic of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
Foreshadowing
Hubris
Use of clues in a literary work that suggest events that have yet to occur.
Excessive pride or self-confidence
Couplet
Term Definition
Juxtaposition
Soliloquy
Tragedy/ tragic play
Verona
The placing of a person, concept, place, idea or theme next to another, to compare or contrast the two (e.g., good and evil).
A long speech expressing the inner thoughts and feelings of a character alone on stage.
A drama or literary work where the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow.
A city in northern Italy’s Veneto region where Romeo and Juliet is set.
Study tips and methods
Question word What is expected of your answer
Analyse Find the main ideas and explain how they link together.
Apply Use your knowledge and reasoning to give a good suggestion or answer to the question.
Comment on ...
Say why a point or image (e.g., metaphor; alliteration) has an impact and give reasons/examples to justify your opinion.
Compare or contrast Say how things are similar or how they are different.
Define Give the formal meaning/definition of a concept.
Describe Say what happened in a logical order (e.g., describe what led to Leontes becoming jealous).
Evaluate Explain why you say something is good or bad.
Explain
Sample
Use your own words to describe something or say why something happened.
List Use one word or phrase only, items presented one beneath the other; may be numbered.
Illustrate Explain using examples from the text.
Justify Give valid reasons why you have interpreted something in a specific way or why the writer has done something in a particular way.
Relate
Indicate the connection between things or explain how things happened.
Question word What is expected of your answer
Substantiate Support your opinion with clear references to, or quotations from, the text. Remember, do not quote unless you are instructed to do so.)
Summarise State the main features of an argument, leaving out all unnecessary detail or examples.
The playwright
In 1564, nearly one-third of the population of Stratford-upon-Avon died of the Bubonic Plague. One of those who miraculously survived, was John and Mary Shakespeare’s baby boy. Christened on 26 April 1564, William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest and most well-known writer in the English language, and the world’s leading dramatist. His body of work consists of approximately 37 plays, 154 sonnets and two narrative poems. His most famous plays include Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Hamlet and Macbeth. These plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more frequently than any other playwright’s work.
Most of Shakespeare’s known work was produced between 1589 and 1613. He initially wrote comedies and histories, which are regarded as some of the best work ever done in these genres. He later moved on to tragedies. The plays written during that period are considered to be the most notable and finest works in English literature. In his last phase, Shakespeare focused on tragicomedies and romance.
The Globe Theatre was the first playhouse built by actors for actors. It was situated on the south bank of the Thames at Southwark. Most of Shakespeare’s greatest works were written to be performed at the Globe.
The Flower
Source: https://bit.ly/30Id3zy
A drawing of the original Globe Theatre. Source: https://bit.ly/3pepaNd
portrait of William Shakespeare
Shakespeare’s Globe today.
Source: https://bit.ly/2YYvE9M
The Globe inside, where the audience surrounds the stage.
Source: https://bit.ly/3kMMj7P
Shakespeare’s world
The bubonic plague, or Black Death, had been endemic in Britain since the 14th century. Spread by fleas found on the black rat, it was one of the hazards of a hot summer. When it arrived, the plague was fast and fatal, and disrupted the ordinary life of the city. During the outbreak in 1592, Shakespeare was lucky once again. The authorities closed the theatres and the playwright turned to love poetry.
Shakespeare’s early career is largely a mystery. Details of his life before the closure of the theatres in 1592 is lost to us, but when he emerged after the disruption he returned to writing plays and made his fortune. For the rest of the 1590s, crowds gathered and theatre boomed.1
If you wanted a good day out in London in the 1590s, you went to Southwark on the south bank of the Thames. Theatre was very much part of the pleasure. Julian Bowsher of the Museum of London Archaeology describes the experience of going to a play:
‘When you arrived at a Shakespearean playhouse, you entered through a main door and paid a one-penny entrance fee to the ‘gatherer’, who would have held a little money box rather like a piggy bank with a bright green glaze on it and a slot through which to put a penny. All that we have left of these are broken bits of pottery as they were all smashed open when they were taken backstage. The coins were then put into a large money chest in a back room, which must be the origin of the term ‘box office’.’
Food was a large part of the theatre experience. In the theatre, the cheap seats were associated with cheap food. Nuts were popular, as were dried and fresh fruit, shellfish and oysters. People standing in the yard, the groundlings, would simply leave the discarded shells on the floor. The rich brought their own food, glasses and cutlery. This illustrates how varied Shakespeare’s audiences were – whether they ate with dirty hands or refined cutlery, the whole audience shared the same experience of the play. Shakespeare’s astonishing variety of characters simply mirrored the social mix of his audience.
1 MacGregor, N., 2012, Shakespeare’s Restless World, Penguin
The streets of London were a dangerous place in the 16th century. In Shakespeare’s day, you could calmly admire a swordfight on stage and then find yourself embroiled in one when you stepped beyond the theatre walls. In London, just as in Verona, an evening out could end up a very bloody business.
Romeo and Benvolio try their best to stop the swordfight between their friend Mercutio and the excellent swordsman Tybalt, but in vain. Mercutio is stabbed and once again the streets of Verona run red with blood.
We tend to think of Romeo and Juliet as essentially the balcony scene – a play about romantic young love. In fact, it is just as much a play about bands of rich, young men killing one another and the failure of the authorities to stop their brawling.
Romeo and Juliet with its rich knife gangs and blood-stained streets leaves no doubt that urban violence – for Shakespeare and his audience – was one of the big issues of the day.2
Did you know?
Shakespeare’s work even found its way to Robben Island – the infamous jail where leaders of the African National Congress were imprisoned during the struggle against apartheid in the 1970s. Sonny Venkatrathnam was one of the prisoners:
‘When I got to Robben Island we had no access to a library or any other reading material. I applied to buy some books and the reply came that I was only allowed to have one book. Eventually I decided that the only book that would keep me going for some time would be The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. About six months before my release date, I circulated the book and asked my comrades to select a line or passage that appealed to them and sign it.’
On 16 December 1977, the book reached Nelson Mandela, he signed his name in Julius Caesar beside this passage on courage and death:
CAESAR: Cowards die many times before their deaths
The valiant never taste of death but once It seems to me most strange that men should fear Seeing that death, a necessary end
Will come when it will come.
Shakespeare provided what many considered a vulgar form of popular entertainment. He deployed tormented ghosts, spectacular swordplay and used humour – good, bad and even rude. Centuries later, Shakespeare still speaks to the unsettled conditions of modern times. His words still console, inspire, illuminate and question. More simply, they capture for us the essence of what it is to be restlessly human in a constantly restless world.3
Summary of the play
A boy and a girl fall in love, but their families bitterly hate each other. Ultimately everything goes wrong for them, and they end up committing suicide rather than being parted. Most of the play takes place in ‘fair Verona’, a picturesque little city in the north of Italy. The action begins in the city streets to the hall of old Capulet’s house. It moves on to the orchard below Juliet’s balcony and then to Friar Lawrence’s lonely cell.
2 MacGregor, N., 2012, Shakespeare’s Restless World, Penguin
3 MacGregor, N., 2012, Shakespeare’s Restless World, Penguin
The play ends in the vault where the Capulets and the Montagues view their dead children. It starts on a Sunday morning in the middle of July and less than five days later (just before dawn on the following Thursday) it is all over.
Type of play
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy/tragic play. Plays featuring heroes or heroines up against overpowering forces, morality, violence, bloodshed and defeat, were always popular with Elizabethan audiences. They loved drama and strong emotions.
Shakespeare was influenced by Seneca’s tragedies. These bloodthirsty tragedies were written in Latin and based on Greek mythology. Seneca’s plays have a number of distinctive features, including the use of soliloquy, supernatural elements such as ghosts and witches, spectacle, violence and blood, cruelty and revenge, elevated rhetoric, selfreflection and self-consciousness, moral commentary, and explorations of the passions and their restraint based on the stoic belief that emotions are destructive and should be overcome with self-control and reason.4
Popular themes in the Seneca tragedies were that of revenge and the question of whether or not it’s right. Tragedies provided the opportunity to explore the question of morality and depicted the struggle between good and bad (for example, Christopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus).
Common traits of the tragic hero
1. The hero is led to his downfall due to hubris, or excessive pride.
2. The hero usually has an epic battle with a counterpart where they fight to the death for what they believe in.
3. The hero must be doomed from the start, but bears no responsibility for possessing his flaw.
4. The hero must have discovered his fate by his own actions, not by things happening to him.
5. The hero must see and understand his doom, and that his fate was revealed by his own actions.
6. The hero’s story should arouse fear and empathy.
7. The hero must be physically or spiritually wounded by his experiences, often resulting in his death.
8. Ideally, the hero should be a king or leader of men, so that his people experience his fall with him. This could also include a leader of a family.
9. The hero must be intelligent enough to have the opportunity to learn from his mistakes.
10. The hero must be faced with a very serious decision.
11. The suffering of the hero must have meaning.
12. There may be supernatural involvement. (For example, in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Caesar was warned of his death through Calpurnia’s vision. Brutus was warned of his impending death by his evil spirit.)
4 Newton, T, et al. 1581. Seneca, his Tenne Tragedies Translated into Englysh
13. A tragic hero’s story generally follows a sequence of great, good, flaw and downfall.
14. The Shakespearean tragic hero must die at some point in the story, for example, Macbeth.
15. Shakespeare’s characters illustrate that tragic heroes are neither completely good nor completely evil.
16. Through the development of the plot a hero’s flaws, rather than his quintessential goodness or evil, cause him to make a mistake which leads to his tragic downfall.
17. The hero must come in contact with many conflicts and overcome a number of them.
Synopsis/Important events
Act 1
A duel between servants of the Montagues and the Capulets is broken up by the Prince. Romeo tells Benvolio that he is in love with Rosaline. Lady Capulet tells Juliet that she is to marry Paris. Lord Capulet prepares for the celebrations.
A servant of Lord Capulet asks Romeo to read the guest list. Romeo decides to go to the ball to see Rosaline. At the ball, Romeo meets and falls in love with Juliet. Only afterwards do they discover that their families are sworn enemies. Tybalt recognises Romeo, but is prevented from doing anything by Lord Capulet who does not want trouble.
Act 2
Benvolio and Mercutio look for Romeo. Juliet tells Romeo she loves him and they exchange vows. Romeo goes to see Friar Lawrence, who agrees to marry them as it may help end the feud.
Meanwhile, Tybalt makes it known that he wants to challenge Romeo to a duel. Romeo tells the Nurse of his plan to marry Juliet. Juliet blushes when she hears the news. Romeo and Juliet meet at the Friar’s cell and are married in secret.
Act 3
The next day, Mercutio picks a fight with Tybalt. Romeo turns up and tries to intervene. Tybalt kills Mercutio when Romeo gets in the way. This makes Romeo angry and he then kills Tybalt. Romeo is now a murderer and is banished from Verona.
Act 4
Paris goes to Friar Lawrence’s cell. Paris announces he is to marry Juliet on Thursday. Juliet says she will stab herself rather than marry Paris. The Friar gives her a bottle containing a substance which will make her appear dead for 42 hours. His plan is to write to Romeo so that he will be there when she wakes up. Juliet agrees to marry Paris to please her father, who then moves the wedding a day forward to Wednesday. Juliet takes the potion. Her family mourns her death.
Act 5
Balthazar arrives in Mantua with news of Juliet’s death. Romeo visits an apothecary to buy poison. Friar Lawrence learns that his messenger, Friar John, did not get to Mantua because of the plague.
READING TEXT
THE MOST EXCELLENT AND LAMENTABLE TRAGEDY OF ROMEO AND JULIET
Characters
Escalus Prince of Verona
Mercutio
Young relative of the Prince and Romeo’s friend
Paris A young count, related to the Prince
Romeo Montague’s son and heir
Montague Romeo’s father and head of the Montague family
Lady Montague Montague’s wife and Romeo’s mother
Benvolio Montague’s nephew and friend of Romeo
Abram One of Montague’s servants
Balthasar Romeo’s servant
Juliet Capulet’s daughter and heiress
Capulet Juliet’s father and head of the Capulet family
Lady Capulet Capulet’s wife and Juliet’s mother
Tybalt Lady Capulet’s nephew and Juliet’s cousin
Cousin Capulet
An old man in the Capulet family
Nurse Juliet’s nurse and lady’s maid
Peter Servant of Juliet’s Nurse
Sampson
Gregory
Friar Lawrence
Friar John
Paris’ page
Servants of Capulet
Fransciscan monks
Chorus, Citizens of Verona, Maskers, Musicians, Watchmen, Torchbearers, Attendants and Servants.
The play is set in Verona, a town near northern Italy, except for Act 5, Scene 1, which is set in Mantua, a town near Verona. The period is the sixteenth century.
The Prologue
[Enter
CHORUS.]
CHORUS: Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life; Whose misadventured piteous overthrows Do with their death bury their parents’ strife. The fearful passage of their death-marked love, And the continuance of their parents’ rage, Which, but their children’s end, naught could remove, Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage; The which, if you with patient ears attend, What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. [Exit.]
Act 1, Scene 1
[Verona. A public place. Enter SAMPSON and GREGORY, of the house of Capulet, with swords and bucklers.]
SAMPSON: Gregory, on my word, we’ll not carry coals.
GREGORY: No. For then we should be colliers.
SAMPSON: I mean, an we be in choler, we’ll draw.
GREGORY: Ay, while you live, draw your neck out of collar.
SAMPSON: I strike quickly, being moved.
GREGORY: But thou art not quickly moved to strike.
SAMPSON: A dog of the house of Montague moves me.
GREGORY: To move is to stir; and to be valiant is to stand. Therefore, if thou art moved, thou runn’st away.
SAMPSON: A dog of that house shall move me to stand. I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague’s.
GREGORY: That shows thee a weak slave. For the weakest goes to the wall.
SAMPSON: ’Tis true; and therefore women, being the weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the wall. Therefore I will push Montague’s men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall.
GREGORY: The quarrel is between our masters, and us, their men.
SAMPSON: ’Tis all one. I will show myself a tyrant. When I have fought with the men, I will be civil with the maids – I will cut off their heads.
GREGORY: The heads of the maids?
SAMPSON: Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads. Take it in what sense thou wilt.
GREGORY: They must take it in sense that feel it.
SAMPSON: Me they shall feel while I am able to stand, and ’tis known I am a pretty piece of flesh.
GREGORY: ’Tis well thou art not fish. If thou hadst, thou hadst been poor-john. Draw thy tool! Here comes of the house of Montagues.
[Enter ABRAHAM and BALTHASAR.]
SAMPSON: My naked weapon is out. Quarrel! I will back thee.
GREGORY: How? Turn thy back and run?
SAMPSON: Fear me not.
GREGORY: No, marry. I fear thee!
SAMPSON: Let us take the law of our sides. Let them begin.
GREGORY: I will frown as I pass by, and let them take it as they list.
SAMPSON: Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them, which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it.
ABRAHAM: Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
SAMPSON: I do bite my thumb, sir.
ABRAHAM: Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
SAMPSON: [Aside to GREGORY] Is the law of our side, if I say ‘Ay’?
GREGORY: [Aside to SAMPSON] No.
SAMPSON: No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir. But I bite my thumb, sir.
GREGORY: Do you quarrel, sir?
ABRAHAM: Quarrel, sir? No, sir.
SAMPSON: But if you do, sir, I am for you. I serve as good a man as you.
ABRAHAM: No better.
SAMPSON: Well, sir.
[Enter BENVOLIO.]
GREGORY: [Aside to SAMPSON] Say ‘better’. Here comes one of my master’s kinsmen.
SAMPSON: Yes, better, sir.
ABRAHAM: You lie.
SAMPSON: Draw, if you be men. Gregory, remember thy swashing blow. [They fight.]
BENVOLIO: Part, fools! Put up your swords; you know not what you do.
[Enter TYBALT.]
TYBALT: What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds? Turn thee, Benvolio, look upon thy death.
BENVOLIO: I do but keep the peace. Put up thy sword, or manage it to part these men with me. Sample
TYBALT:
What, drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the word, as I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee. Have at thee, coward! [They fight.]
[Enter three or four Citizens with clubs and partisans.]
CITIZENS: Clubs, bills, and partisans! Strike! Beat them down! Down with the Capulets! Down with the Montagues! [Enter CAPULET in his gown, and his wife.]
CAPULET: What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!
LADY CAPULET: A crutch, a crutch! Why call you for a sword?
[Enter MONTAGUE and his wife.]
CAPULET: My sword, I say! Old Montague is come, and flourishes his blade in spite of me.
MONTAGUE: Thou villain, Capulet! Hold me not. Let me go.
LADY MONTAGUE: Thou shalt not stir a foot to seek a foe.
[Enter PRINCE ESCALUS with his train.]
PRINCE: Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace, profaners of this neighbourstained steel. Will they not hear? What, ho! You men, you beasts that quench the fire of your pernicious rage with purple fountains issuing from your veins! On pain of torture, from those bloody hands throw your mistempered weapons to the ground, and hear the sentence of your moved prince. Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word, by thee, old Capulet, and Montague, have thrice disturbed the quiet of our streets, and made Verona’s ancient citizens cast by their grave beseeming ornaments, to wield old partisans, in hands as old, cankered with peace, to part your cankered hate.
If ever you disturb our streets again, your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace. For this time, all the rest depart away. You, Capulet, shall go along with me; and, Montague, come you this afternoon, to know our farther pleasure in this case, to old Freetown, our common judgement-place. Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.
[Exeunt
all but MONTAGUE, his wife and BENVOLIO.]
MONTAGUE: Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach? Speak, nephew, were you by when it began?
BENVOLIO: Here were the servants of your adversary, and yours, close fighting ere I did approach. I drew to part them. In the instant came the fiery Tybalt, with his sword prepared, which, as he breathed defiance to my ears, he swung about his head and cut the winds, who nothing hurt withal, hissed him in scorn. While we were interchanging thrusts and blows, came more and more and fought on part and part, till the Prince came, who parted either part.
LADY MONTAGUE: O, where is Romeo? Saw you him today? Right glad I am he was not at this fray. Sample
BENVOLIO: Madam, an hour before the worshipped sun peered forth the golden window of the east, a troubled mind drove me to walk abroad; where, underneath the grove of sycamore that westward rooteth from the city’s side, so early walking did I see your son. Towards him I made, but he was ’ware of me and stole into the covert of the wood.
I, measuring his affections by my own, which then most sought where most might not be found, being one too many by my weary self. Pursued my humour not pursuing his, and gladly shunned who gladly fled from me.
MONTAGUE: Many a morning hath he there been seen, with tears augmenting the fresh morning’s dew.
Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs. But all so soon as the all-cheering sun should in the furthest east begin to draw the shady curtains from Aurora’s bed, away from the light steals home my heavy son, and private in his chamber pens himself, shuts up his windows, locks far daylight out and makes himself an artificial night.
Black and portentous must this humour prove, unless good counsel may the cause remove.
BENVOLIO: My noble uncle, do you know the cause?
MONTAGUE: I neither know it, nor can learn of him.
BENVOLIO: Have you importuned him by any means?
MONTAGUE: Both by myself and many other friends. But he, his own affections’ counsellor, is to himself – I will not say how true – but to himself so secret and so close, so far from sounding and discovery, as is the bud bit with an envious worm, ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air, or dedicate his beauty to the sun. Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow; we would as willingly give cure as know.
[Enter ROMEO.]
BENVOLIO: See, where he comes. So please you, step aside; I’ll know his grievance, or be much denied.
MONTAGUE: I would thou wert so happy by thy stay. To hear true shrift. Come, madam, let’s away.
[Exeunt MONTAGUE and his wife.]
BENVOLIO: Good morrow, cousin.
ROMEO: Is the day so young?
BENVOLIO: But new struck nine.
ROMEO: Ay me! Sad hours seem long. Was that my father that went hence so fast?
BENVOLIO: It was. What sadness lengthens Romeo’s hours?
ROMEO: Not having that which having makes them short.
BENVOLIO: In love?
ROMEO: Out.
BENVOLIO: Of love? Sample