This document provides an overview of William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. It discusses the famous 1968 and 1996 film adaptations directed by Franco Zeffirelli and Baz Luhrmann. It also summarizes the play's setting in Verona, Italy over four days and nights, its protagonists from feuding families, and its tragic plot culminating in the deaths of the young lovers Romeo and Juliet. Key themes of the play like the power of love, fate, and the conflict between individuals and society are also outlined.

1. Romeo and Juliet
Prof Guidi Claudia
Class 3 S
School year 2020-2021
Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting
in Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet (1968).

2. • It’s one of Shakespeare’s best-known tragedies.
• It’s the most famous love story of all time.
• There are several film versions.
1. A very popular play
Performer Heritage
Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting
in Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet (1968).
Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio
in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet (1996).

3. • The setting in place
• The setting in time
• The protagonists
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Verona;
four days and four nights;
two rival families,
the Montagues
and the Capulets;
their children, Romeo and Juliet.
2. The plot

4. The first two acts are a love comedy.
• Romeo and Juliet meet at the Capulets’ ball
and it is love at first sight.
• They are secretly married by Friar Laurence.
Performer Heritage
2. The plot

5. • The real tragedy starts
in the third act with the deaths of
Mercutio, Romeo’s friend, and
of Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin; Romeo
is banished from Verona.
• In the fourth act Juliet drinks a
potion to avoid marriage with
Count Paris.
• In the fifth act tragic conclusion
of the play with the deaths of the
two lovers.
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2. The plot

6. • the tragic role of chance leading up
to the deaths of the two lovers.
3. A comedy or a tragedy?
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It is a tragedy
It is a comedy
• the instant attraction of the young
lovers;
• the masked balls;
• the comic servants;
• the surface life of street fights.

7. Romeo
• courteous lover, intense
adoration of a chaste woman;
• linked to the image of light.
4. The two lovers
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Juliet
• though she is set within the courtly love
convention, she is unconventional
because she stands for innocence;
• belongs to no characterisation;
• is a real woman.

8. • The power of love;
• The feud between two families;
• Individual against society;
• The power of fate;
• The lack of knowledge coming from
bad communication;
• Speed as the medium of fate.
5. Themes
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9. • Regular rhythm;
• Use of rhymes, often used in ‘couplets’;
• Use of sonnets in dialogues;
• Imagery of light
• Imagery of darkness
6. Style
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linked to life and the
courteous love convention
linked to death