Lesson on William Shakespeare's play, "Romeo & Juliet". It introduces the basic aspects and concerns of the play. These are not meant to spoon-feed students, but to help them engage with and think about the text. google66b73a459600ce73.html

1. Introduction to ROMEO & JULIET
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Lesson by Bayanda Nhlapo

2. WHAT IS A “TRAGEDY” OR
A “TRAGIC PLAY”?

3. Setting: Time and Space
Renaissance Period (14th – 15th centuries)
• A period of significant change in beliefs and attitudes
towards existence, religion, art, gender and politics.
• From “Society” to the “Individual” – from “We” to “I”
• Subjectivity and Individualism (e.g. What does the world
mean to me as an individual?)
• Shift from medieval ways of living
• Sometimes called Early Modern Period

4. Setting: Time and Space
• Verona (Italy)

5. About Romeo & Juliet
• It is about two young lovers whose tragic deaths ironically
unite their feuding families.
• What is a “feud”?

6. Feuding Families (Characters)
Montagues Capulets
• Lord Montague
• Lady Montague
• Romeo (their son)
• Benvolio (Romeo’s
cousin)
• Friar Lawrence
• Lord Capulet
• Lady Capulet
• Juliet (their daughter)
• Tybalt (Juliet’s cousin)
• Nurse

7. Romeo and Juliet: Protagonists
• Romeo, the
“Montague”
• Juliet, the “Capulet”

9. Plot
• Events and actions ordered towards an artistic or emotional
goal.
Exposition
Rising action
Climax
Falling action
Catastrophe/denouement/resolution

10. Exposition
• Introduces (or exposes) the conflict and characters.
• Insertion of important background information within a
story.

11. Exposition
• Main conflict: clash between the Montagues and Capulets
• “In the streets of Verona another brawl breaks out between
the servants of the feuding noble families of Capulet and
Montague.” (Act 1)

12. Rising Action
• Series of events that begin immediately after the exposition.
• This implies the development in the story.
• Builds up to the climax.

13. Rising Action
• Romeo falls in love with Juliet (at first sight) at the party
• He knows that Juliet is a Capulet
• And that a Capulet and a Montague would never marry
• MAJOR THEME: Forbidden Love

14. Rising Action
• Tybalt reacts wildly at seeing Juliet dancing with a
Montague (Romeo) at the party.
• How would he react at finding that Juliet married Romeo?
• Can Hate overcome Love? (point to ponder)

15. Rising Action
• After the ball, Juliet declares:
• Irony?

16. Rising Action
• Romeo declares to renounce his name, “Montague”, to fall in
love with Juliet
• Further in the play, they both marry (though secretly)
MAJOR THEME: Force of Love

17. THEME: Force of Love
• In Romeo and Juliet,
Love is ecstatic and overpowering force that
supersedes all values, loyalties and emotions.
Romeo and Juliet are driven to defy their entire social
world: families, friends and rulers.

18. Climax
• The highest point of tension/conflict
• Romeo buys poison at hearing Juliet is dead.
• He kills himself because he thought Juliet is dead.

19. Climax
• Juliet wakes up after Romeo’s final kiss
• Horrified at seeing Romeo dead, she –tragically– kills herself
too

20. Falling Action
• Resolution or Catastrophe
• Two of the families are united by the deaths of the two star-
crossed lovers
• Irony??

21. Gender and Sexuality in R&J
• WHAT IS THE GENDER?
• Gender is a socially constructed definition of women and
men. It is not the same as sex (biological characteristics of
women and men) and it is not the same as women. Gender is
determined by the conception of tasks, functions and roles
attributed to women and men in society and in public and
private life (click here).
[Gender in practice.
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation]

22. Gender and Sexuality in R&J
• What do you think about representations of gender and
sexuality in the play?
• How do you connect this to the Renaissance context?