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Learning Framework
Concept
Audience imperatives, characterisation, collaboration, context, genre, setting, style and theme.
Content
The student understands that playwrights communicate ideas about themes and characters through the use of dramatic conventions and stylistic choices.
Skills
- Communication
Resource Key
When accessing content use the numbers below to guide you:
LEVEL 1:
brief, basic information laid out in an easy-to-read format. May use informal language. (Includes most news articles)
LEVEL 2:
provides additional background information and further reading. Introduces some subject-specific language.
LEVEL 3:
lengthy, detailed information. Frequently uses technical/subject-specific language. (Includes most analytical articles)
History of Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet was based on real lovers who lived in Verona, Italy who died for each other in the year 1303. At that time the Capulets and Montagues were among the inhabitants of Verona.
(Romeo and Juliet, Play by Shakespeare. William-Shakespeare.info. http://www.william-shakespeare.info/shakespeare-play-romeo-and-juliet.htm)
Famous Quotes
The quotes from the play are amongst Shakespeare's most famous including:
"It is the east, and Juliet is the sun" . (Act II, Scene II).
"Good Night, Good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow." (Act II, Scene II).
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet". (Act II, Scene II).
(Romeo and Juliet, the play by William Shakespeare, http://www.william-shakespeare.info/shakespeare-play-romeo-and-juliet.htm.)
Information on Romeo and Juliet
- Romeo & Juliet Scotch College LibguideHas useful articles, links to databases and film adaptations.
- Romeo and Juliet Summary
Romeo and Juliet is a five-act tragedy about the protagonists’ ill-fated love. By chance, Romeo, the son of Montague, learns of the annual Capulet party, and he allows his kinsman Benvolio to persuade him to attend, even though the Capulets are mortal enemies of the Montagues. Romeo hopes to see his disdainful love, Rosaline, while Benvolio hopes that Romeo will find another woman there. - Romeo and Juliet
The prologue of Romeo and Juliet calls the title characters "star-crossed lovers"—and the stars do seem to conspire against these young lovers.
Romeo is a Montague, and Juliet a Capulet. Their families are enmeshed in a feud, but the moment they meet—when Romeo and his friends attend a party at Juliet's house in disguise—the two fall in love and quickly decide that they want to be married. - Characteristics of Shakespearean TragedyShakespearean tragedies are highly influenced by Greek drama and Aristotle's notion of tragedy. It was Aristotle who had first described the genre in his 'Poetics' which is followed even today to analyze modern drama. Take a look at the following characteristics shared by most Shakespearean plays.
Key terms
- DenouementThe final part of a play, film, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved:
'the film’s denouement was unsatisfying and ambiguous' - IronyThe expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect:
‘Don’t go overboard with the gratitude,’ he rejoined with heavy irony' - MetaphorA figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable:
'when we speak of gene maps and gene mapping, we use a cartographic metaphor'
'her poetry depends on suggestion and metaphor' - ParadoxA seemingly absurd or contradictory statement or proposition which when investigated may prove to be well founded or true:
'the uncertainty principle leads to all sorts of paradoxes, like the particles being in two places at once.' - PersonificationThe attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something non-human, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form:
'the book provides a sustained account of how literary personification works' - SimileA figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid (e.g. as brave as a lion).
- SymbolismThe use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities:
'he has always believed in the importance of symbolism in garden art'