Romeo and Juliet

romeo and juliet
lesson plans: themes
Ages 14 - 19
(Key Stage 4/5)
© 2016 The Shakespeare Globe Trust. Permission granted to reproduce for personal and educational use only. 1
Commercial copying, hiring, lending, is prohibited.
introductory note
Each Lesson Plan is designed to represent at least an hour’s worth of teaching material. These are organised into five
distinct sections:
Prologue – key learning question(s) and quick starter activities to orientate and enthuse students, to focus thinking
and to provoke debate and enquiry.
Enter the Players – detailed descriptions of activities (with linked resources) to support exploration of the key
learning questions through collaboration and participation (drama, speaking and listening tasks, group research and
investigation tasks, creative brief tasks, etc.).
Asides – margin boxes containing facts and quizzes as well as links to additional information, e.g. factsheets.
Exeunt – a pause for some structured reflection at the end of each learning episode including a suggested plenary
activity.
Epilogue – ideas to embed and enhance learning through assessment tasks, homework assignments and additional
extension ideas including links to other relevant sections of Teach Shakespeare.
Generally speaking, each Lesson Plan – indeed each individual activity – could be selected by itself and incorporated
into a unit of work as appropriate.
Where this symbol is displayed, the activity is provided in the accompanying Student Booklet.
Romeo and Juliet
THEMES AND ISSUES: LESSON 1
Ages 14 - 19 (Key Stage 4/5)
Key Questions for Students:

Can I identify why the themes of truth and secrecy in Romeo and Juliet are important and pick out
examples from throughout the text?
Key words: clandestine, concealment, hot-seating, mindmap, questions, secrecy, theme, truth
Prologue: Opening Discussion

Students should come up with three examples of when someone or something in the play is disguised,
hidden, done in secret, kept a secret, etc. The teacher could take feedback and build a mindmap on the
board that students could copy into their Student Booklets. An additional/homework task could be to
add textual references.
Enter the Players: Group Tasks

1) Hot-seating
Suggest to students that in contrast to the themes of secrecy and concealment, Romeo and Juliet is also a play in
which the main characters speak ‘truthfully’ to each other from the outset, risking everything to be ‘true’ to their word.
Prepare questions for Romeo and Juliet in groups, and then ask two students to ‘take the hotseat’ and answer the
questions that are put to them. Lines of questioning could include:
- who they trust and why

- where, when and with whom they can’t be entirely truthful, and why
- how they can be sure of their feelings after such a short time
Photograph: Kurt Egyiawan
2) Keeping track of themes
Students should use the mindmap from the ‘Prologue’ activity to help them track the themes of truth and
secrecy in the play. Students could be divided into five groups, each taking one act from the play that they
should read through carefully, looking for evidence before reporting back. Students could also prepare a
sheet of evidence that can be made accessible to all their classmates as a revision aid. Students should aim
to keep quotations short (under 10 words), and write a brief commentary about how their quotation links
to the overall theme. They should repeat this exercise for the play’s other themes on the appropriate pages of the
Student Booklet.
3) Interpreting and staging key scenes

Assign to groups the task of staging Act 4 Scene 5. Make notes around the scene in the Student Booklet
that reflect the importance of these themes in the scene. Try to make links to other parts of the play by
cross-referencing.
Exeunt: Closing Questions for Students

Why are truth and secrecy important themes in
the play? Asides:
How would I describe the development of these
themes throughout the play? shakespeare’s world
How do these themes link to the other major
themes in Romeo and Juliet that I have studied? - Courts wanted to make sure
that all marriages were legal,
Suggested plenary activity… so they punished priests who
Everyone in the class picks out three key moments that performed weddings under
they think are particularly important to bear in mind when irregular circumstances. Other
thinking about the themes of truth and secrecy. Compare people, including the parents, could
findings. challenge a marriage that they did
not think was lawful, and have it
declared void. All three could be
Epilogue: Teacher’s Note forced to pay a fine or serve public
penance for their actions.
Further materials relating to this theme in Romeo and
Juliet can be found in the Key Stage 3 materials under
Character, Themes and Language, and in the Key
Stage 4 materials under Text in Performance.
Romeo and Juliet

Can I identify why the theme of family is important and pick out examples from throughout the
text?
Can I explain the importance of these examples by placing them in the context of the play as a
whole?
Can I track the overall development of this theme?
Key words: dowry, family, gender, hierarchy, honour, relationship, status, theme

This drama game is taken from Jessica Swale’s book. One student is the wolf, one the sheep and the rest of the class
hold hands and create a protective ‘fold’, who must move as one to protect the sheep in their care. Students could
take it in turns to be ‘wolf’ and ‘sheep’, and then discuss who in the play acts like a wolf, like a sheep, or as part of a
protective ‘fold’.

1) Family portraits
This activity can be done in two ways: as a quickfire snapshot activity and/or by photographing and framing pictures
that you take in class of students’ tableaux. You could even make use of props, clothing and backdrops. Students
need to sculpt and position themselves and each other to produce portraits of the two families/households. How
would the portraits change as the play moves on?
2) Exploring key scenes

Students should choose or be
allocated one of the
following scenes:
- Act 1 Scene 2 lines 1-43

- Act 1 Scene 3
- Act 3 Scene 5 lines 64-204
- Act 4 Scene 2 & Act 4 Scene 3
Photograph: John Haynes
Students should prepare a reading of this

scene for the rest of the class. As they
rehearse the scene, they should discuss
what it shows us about the relationship
between Juliet and her parents,
recording their ideas about these
relationships in the Student Booklet.
3) Close analysis
Students could closely examine Act 3 Scene 4 lines 1-21, and make annotations in the Student Booklet:
Enter old CAPULET, his WIFE and PARIs.

CAPULET Things have fallen out, sir, so unluckily,
That we have had no time to move our daughter.
Look you, she loved her kinsman Tybalt dearly,
And so did I. Well, we were born to die.
‘Tis very late; she’ll not come down tonight.
I promise you, but for your company
I would have been abed an hour ago.
PARIS These times of woe afford no time to woo.

Madam, good night; commend me to your daughter.
CAPULET’S WIFE
I will, and know her mind early tomorrow.
Tonight she’s mewed up to her heaviness.
Paris offers to go in and Capulet calls him again.
CAPULET Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender

Of my child’s love. I think she will be ruled
In all respects by me; nay, more, I doubt it not.
Wife, go you to her ere you go to bed,
Acquaint her here of my son Paris’ love,
And bid her, mark you me, on Wednesday next –
But soft, what day is this?
PARIS Monday, my lord.
CAPULET Monday! Ha, ha. Wednesday is too soon.

A’ Thursday let it be, a’Thursday, tell her,
She shall be married to this noble earl.
Discuss:
- Capulet’s attitude towards his daughter

- Capulet’s attitude towards his daughter’s suitor
- what this suggests to us about attitudes to women and how marriages were arranged at this time (family pride
and honour, dowries, etc.)

Why is family an important theme in the play?
How does the theme of the family connect to some of the other major themes in Romeo and Juliet?
How do the scenes between Lord and Lady Capulet and Juliet help us to understand their
relationship?
Suggested plenary activity…

The class could discuss the following questions:
- How important is the ‘generation gap’ in this play?

- How does Shakespeare establish a contrast between the attitudes and emotions of the older and younger
characters?
- How have any productions or adaptations you have seen made use of the idea of intergenerational conflict?
Epilogue: Teacher’s Note
Further resources about Juliet and her family can be found
in the Key Stage 3 Character materials. asides:
further reading
- There is an interesting text about
the differences between the older
and younger generations in the
play on the Playing Shakespeare with
Deutsche Bank microsite: 2013.
playingshakespeare.org/
generation-gap.html.
links to other plays

- Students could compare the
relationship between Juliet and
her father with other plays by
Shakespeare that explore the
relationship between a controlling
father and a spirited and determined
daughter, such as The Taming of the
Shrew and The Merchant of Venice.
shakespeare’s world
- In Shakespeare’s time, women
typically married at age 24-26. Men
usually waited until age 27-29. Many
men had to finish an apprenticeship
and save money to set up a home.
Because people were encouraged
to marry someone from the same
social class, children of wealthy
people had fewer suitable choices.
A woman’s father would negotiate
a marriage contract for her saying
how much he would give as a dowry
(money or property given to her
husband on the wedding day).
Romeo and Juliet
Key stage 4

Can I identify why the themes of age and time are important in the play and pick out examples
from throughout the text?
Key words: age, chronology, haste, soliloquy, structure, theme, time, timeline, tragedy, urgency, youth

Ask students to open the play text at a random page and to scour the dialogue on that page for a reference to time,
however brief. Share findings as a class.

1) A Romeo and Juliet timeline
The events in the play take place over a period of days rather than months (as per Shakespeare’s source
material). Create a timeline of events, including quotations and pictures for the Student Booklet. How do
problems with timing and the sequence of events lead to the play’s tragic outcome?
2) Exploring key scenes

Students should choose or be allocated one of the following scenes:
- Act 2 Scene 6
- Act 3 Scene 5
- Act 4 Scene 1
- Act 5 Scene 2
Students should prepare a reading of this scene for the rest of the
class. As they rehearse the scene, they should notice references to
time and think about the importance of time in this scene, and how
this might be reflected in their performance, e.g. are the
characters in a hurry, agitated, lazy, relaxed, anxious? Add stage
directions for the actors and any other ideas you have about
creating a particular mood in relation to time. For example, how
Photograph: Manuel Harlan
might music be used to create a mood of haste or urgency?
3) Close analysis
Students could closely examine Juliet’s soliloquy from the beginning of Act 3 Scene 2, and make
annotations in the Student Booklet. Before reading, students should recap what has happened directly
before this scene and add this to their notes.
Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,

Towards Phoebus’ lodging. Such a wagoner
As Phaeton would whip you to the west
And bring in cloudy night immediately.
Spread thy close-curtain, love-performing night,
That runaways’ eyes may wink, and Romeo
Leap to these arms, untalked of and unseen.
Lovers can see to do their amorous rite
By their own beauties; or, if love be blind,
It best agrees with night. Come, civil night,
Thou sober-suited matron all in black,
And learn me how to lose a winning match,
Played for a pair of stainless maidenhoods.
Hood my unmanned blood, bating in my cheeks,
With thy black mantle, till strange love grow blood,
Think true love acted simple modesty.
Come, night, come, Romeo, come, thou day in night,
For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night
Whiter than new snow upon a raven’s back.
Come, gentle night, come, loving, black-browed night,
Give me my Romeo, and when I shall die
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.
O, I have bought the mansion of a love
But not possessed it, and though I am sold,
Not yet enjoyed. So tedious is this day
As is the night before some festival
To an impatient child that hath new robes
And may not wear them.
Ask students what happens next in this scene and to add this information to their annotations. Discuss the
idea of dramatic irony in relation to this scene and to a particular staging of it.

Why is time an important theme in the play?
How does the theme of time connect to some of the other major themes in Romeo and Juliet?
What is the dramatic effect of events following on so closely from one another?

The Montagues and Capulets had a long history of feuding, however, a ‘glooming peace’ is reached between them
following the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Read the very end of the play again, i.e. Act 5, Scene 3, line 291 onwards.
What is said about the future?
Students could compare the endings of several
Shakespeare plays, e.g. A Winter’s Tale, The Merchant of
asides:
Venice, Hamlet, Macbeth. How are the past events of the
play summarised in the closing lines? What is said about
the future?
further reading
- Students can read more about
the theme of time on the Playing
Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank
microsite here:
2013.playingshakespeare.org/
elastic-time.html.
links to other plays

- Shakespeare reduces Juliet’s age
from sixteen in Brooke’s version to
only thirteen in the play, and she
is due to be fourteen in just over a
fortnight. Students could think about
the symbolism of these numbers –
the unlucky connotations of thirteen
and the association of the number
fourteen with the sonnet form,
used so much in this play. Students
could also place these ages in
their historical and social context.
What is Lord Capulet’s view of her
age in relation to getting married?
When did Juliet’s mother marry and
become a mother?
Romeo and Juliet

Can I identify why the themes of fate and death are important and pick out examples from
throughout the text?
Can I reflect on what makes Romeo and Juliet a tragedy, and who or what is to blame for the
protagonists’ untimely deaths?
Key words: comedy, death, fate, foreshadowing, genre, outcome, responsibility, theme, tragedy

Ask students what they understand by the terms ‘comedy’ and ‘tragedy’. Now read the following extract of criticism
by John Wain:
“Characteristically, those comedies concern themselves with the inborn, unargued stupidity of older people and the life-
affirming gaiety and resourcefulness of young ones. The lovers thread their way through obstacles set up by middle aged
vanity and impercipience. Parents are stupid and do not know what it best for their children or themselves . . . [Romeo
and Juliet] begins with the materials for a comedy - the stupid parental generation, the instant attraction of the young
lovers, the quick surface life of street fights, masked balls and comic servants.”
The teacher could lead a discussion as to whether Romeo and Juliet should be viewed as a tragedy or not. Students
should consider:
- the play’s plot and structure

- Shakespeare’s characterisation of the two lovers
- the role of fate or destiny
How much does the play have in common with Shakespearean comedies?

1) Foreshadowing
As a class, look for places in the text where a tragic outcome is foreshadowed, e.g.:
- The Prologue: ‘A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life’

- Romeo’s dream and his misgivings in Act 1 Scene 4: ‘Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars,/Shall
bitterly begin his fearful date/With this night’s revels’
- Juliet’s comment ‘If he be married/My grave is like to be my wedding bed’ in Act 1 Scene 5
Students should mark such moments in their own play text. Ask students to consider the following questions:
- What kinds of words and motifs recur in the play to give these tragic hints?
- What do these references tell us about the characters’ belief in fate or destiny?
2) Police investigation
Students are to imagine that the police chief of Verona is conducting an investigation into what caused the
deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Students need to write the police chief’s report using textual evidence to
support each point. The purpose of the report is to establish to what extent Romeo and Juliet are
responsible for their own deaths.
- Paragraph 1 would provide evidence to prove that Romeo and Juliet are responsible for their own deaths
- Paragraph 2 would provide evidence of other important factors that led to their deaths
- Paragraph 3 would give the police chief’s verdict on who or what is responsible for the deaths of Romeo and
Juliet.
Photograph: Phoebe Gardiner
3) Essay task in exam conditions

This writing task is designed to be undertaken in exam conditions. Before they begin, students should be encouraged
to:
- identify the key words in the question

- think of suitable examples and find evidence from the passage and from the play as a whole
- write a plan of their ideas and how they will structure their answer
Exam style question:
To what extent do you agree with the critic John Wain that Romeo and Juliet is “essentially a
comedy that turns out tragically”.

Why are fate and death important themes in the play?
How would I describe the development of these themes throughout the play?
How do these themes link to the other major themes in Romeo and Juliet that I have studied?

Everyone in the class picks out three key moments that they think are particularly important to bear in mind when
thinking about fate and death. Compare findings.
asides:
The creative writing task could be dual-assessed for
reading and writing.
discussion Point:
- Ask students to consider how
many characters die in Romeo and
Juliet, at which point in the play,
and whether the deaths occur on
or off stage. Students will find a
gruesome top five of Shakespeare’s
further reading bloodiest plays in the blog post
‘Shakespearean tragedies by body
- The critic A. C. Bradley did not count’ at deadgoodbooks.co.uk/
consider Romeo and Juliet to be the shakespeare.
equal of Shakespeare’s four great
tragedies Othello, Macbeth, Hamlet
and King Lear, and leaves the play
extra activities
out of his book Shakespearean
- Students could stage a series of
Tragedies entirely. Another critic
interviews as part of the police
Frank Kermode gives a different
investigation.
view when he says that in Romeo
and Juliet, Shakespeare ‘called
for new thinking about tragic
experience, now less remote from
ordinary life’.
Photograph: John Haynes
Romeo and Juliet

Can I write about the themes of the play in a connected and coherent way?
Can I demonstrate confidence in my handling of abstract ideas, but continue to show that my
analysis is firmly grounded in the text?
Key words: abstract, analysis, coherent, issues, mood, symbolism, themes

Students could be given an item and have a minute to prepare an explanation of how it relates to the play. The items
can be chosen at random (e.g. a ball, pencil, a coat), as the idea of this activity is that it is a fun-thinking, skills warm
up to the activity that follows.

1) Museum cabinet
Ask the class to imagine they have been asked to create a display about Romeo and Juliet for a new Shakespeare
museum. They can only have five items for their display. Students should choose five items that they think convey
the essence of the play, i.e. not just the plot, but the play’s overall mood and the ideas which the play makes
audiences think about. Students could be given a list to choose from, e.g. dagger, vial of poison, mask, letter, sword,
invitation, bed, herbs/drugs, tomb, wall, heart. They are welcome to add their own ideas as well. Their items do not
even need to be mentioned in the play; students simply need to be able to justify their reasons convincingly. As an
extension task, students could write captions for the museum with a word limit of 100 words per item.
2) Analysing themes in a passage

The teacher could choose any passage from
the play (a very short scene or passage of
under a hundred lines from a scene) and
model:
- rereading and refamiliarising

- identifying the key ideas and themes
Photograph: Manuel Harlan
that arise from close analysis of the

passage
- making connections between these
themes, e.g. between Romeo’s line
‘O I am fortune’s fool!’ in Act 3 Scene 1
and references to fate and fortune from
elsewhere in the play, including the
prologue and the final scene
What are the play’s key ideas, symbols and
themes?
Why? Aside:
How are these ideas connected in the text?
extra activities
As a revision exercise, students could open their play text - Students could use the card game
at random and, after a few moments’ preparation, they mentioned in the Key Stage 3
should: materials, which generates different
aspects of the text in a random way.
- comment on what the scene is about Students can challenge themselves
- place it in context to make creative connections
- draw out some of the themes and ideas that arise between them!
from it.
Listen to a few examples.

The following learning sequence also supports students in
making connections across a substantial text - the skill of
cross-referencing.
Romeo and Juliet

Can I make cross-references, moving backwards and forwards within the text in order to
demonstrate a detailed knowledge of the whole play?
Can I put this reading skill into practice in my own essay planning and drafting?
Key words: cross-references, essay, plan, success criteria, theme

Encourage students to play a simple game that involves moving speedily around the text. Ask students (in pairs) to
find, e.g.
- the fifteenth word of Act 1 Scene 4, or

- Juliet’s first line in Act 2 Scene 2 , or
- the number of references to ‘love’ in the second Chorus
- a rhyming couplet from Act 1 Scene 2.
Give students a fixed amount of time (e.g. 3 minutes) to come up with as many search terms and to carry out as
many successful searches as they can!

1) Making connections
You should now develop the activity from the starter into one about making connections across the text.
Show students on the whiteboard a brief extract from Act 3 Scene 1 lines 55-66 (also available in the
Student Booklet). Then model:
- finding within this text a short quotation which shows Tybalt’s angry and violent feelings towards Romeo
- finding a quotation from another part of the play which shows Tybalt’s angry and violent feelings towards
Romeo
- a clear way to demonstrate the link between the two references within a copy of the play
Now give students more references to find from different places in the text, e.g.:
- two or more places in the text where Mercutio is witty

- two or more places where Romeo or Juliet speaks about loving their enemy
- two or more places where a character is mourning another’s death
2) Task bank: themes and ideas
The following tasks can be used in the modelling of planning and drafting of written tasks, as well as
for students’ more independently produced work for assessment:
1) Write about the importance of conflict and death in Romeo and Juliet.
2) To what extent are Romeo and Juliet in control of their destinies? What do you think Shakespeare is saying
in Romeo and Juliet about fate and free will?
3) ‘Romeo and Juliet is above all a play about youthful rebellion’. How far would you agree with this statement
about the play?

How do I annotate my text to show
cross-references between different parts of the text? Asides:
Why is this an important skill when writing about a
substantial text? additional resources
Suggested plenary activity… - The tasks in the question banks
Students could prepare a plan in timed conditions for one of can be used as the basis for devising
the tasks in ‘Task bank: themes and ideas’. further tasks to suit the needs of
your own class, curriculum and
Epilogue: Teacher’s Note syllabus.
As homework/revision, students could attempt one or more of

the writing tasks from the task bank.

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romeo and juliet

lesson plans: themes

Key Questions for Students:

Prologue: Opening Discussion

Enter the Players: Group Tasks

- who they trust and why

3) Interpreting and staging key scenes

Exeunt: Closing Questions for Students

Key Questions for Students:

Prologue: Opening Discussion

Enter the Players: Group Tasks

2) Exploring key scenes

- Act 1 Scene 2 lines 1-43

Students should prepare a reading of this

Enter old CAPULET, his WIFE and PARIs.

PARIS These times of woe afford no time to woo.

CAPULET Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender

PARIS Monday, my lord.

CAPULET Monday! Ha, ha. Wednesday is too soon.

- Capulet’s attitude towards his daughter

Exeunt: Closing Questions for Students

Suggested plenary activity…

- How important is the ‘generation gap’ in this play?

links to other plays

Key Questions for Students:

Prologue: Opening Discussion

Enter the Players: Group Tasks

2) Exploring key scenes

might music be used to create a mood of haste or urgency?

Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,

Exeunt: Closing Questions for Students

Suggested plenary activity…

links to other plays

Key Questions for Students:

Prologue: Opening Discussion

- the play’s plot and structure

Enter the Players: Group Tasks

- The Prologue: ‘A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life’

Photograph: Phoebe Gardiner

3) Essay task in exam conditions

- identify the key words in the question

Exam style question:

Exeunt: Closing Questions for Students

Suggested plenary activity…

Photograph: John Haynes

Key Questions for Students:

Key words: abstract, analysis, coherent, issues, mood, symbolism, themes

Prologue: Opening Discussion

Enter the Players: Group Tasks

2) Analysing themes in a passage

- rereading and refamiliarising

that arise from close analysis of the

Listen to a few examples.

Epilogue: Teacher’s Note

Key Questions for Students:

Key words: cross-references, essay, plan, success criteria, theme

Prologue: Opening Discussion

- the fifteenth word of Act 1 Scene 4, or

Enter the Players: Group Tasks

- two or more places in the text where Mercutio is witty

Exeunt: Closing Questions for Students

As homework/revision, students could attempt one or more of

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