Ask yourself:

■ Have you ever fallen in love with someone?

■ How would you feel if someone told you that you cannot see the person you love
(family member, friend, etc.)
 In this lesson you will:
•Learn about the life of William
Shakespeare.
AN •Learn about Elizabethan
society.
OVERVIEW: •Be introduced to Romeo and
Juliet.
•Learn about the cast of
characters that feature in the
play.
 The Man: William
Shakespeare
■ Born in Stratford upon Avon in 1564
■ Married Anne Hathaway when he was 18
and they had 3 children.
■ In 1591 he left his family and went to
London to pursue a career in writing.
■ He started out as an actor before writing
his own plays and by 1594 he was a
successful actor and owned part of a
theatre company.
■ He returned to his family in 1612 and
died in 1616.
Shakespeare, The Playwright:
■ Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets.
■ His plays are divided into comedies, histories and tragedies.
■ Romeo & Juliet is a tragedy and is one of Shakespeare’s most
famous plays.
■ It has led to many adaptations and is often referred to as the
“greatest love story of all time”.
Elizabethan Society:

■ In Shakespeare’s time, England had a very unequal society.

■ Most of the people were poor therefore only the rich could read and write.
■ Women did not have equal rights to men and were treated as second-class
citizens.
■ The Church played an important role in Elizabethan society as most people were
religious and went to church.
■ Elizabethans were superstitious and believed the stars and planets influenced
their lives
■ Diseases like the plague were common and people didn’t live long lives.
Shakespearean Theatre: The Globe
Shakespeare’s
Language:
 The English Shakespeare
used is very different from
the English we speak today.
 Shakespeare wrote his
plays in both prose and
poetry.
 He used figures of speech (
e.g. alliteration, assonance)
and imagery (e.g.
metaphor) in his writing.
 Shakespeare invented lots
of phrases and words we
use today.
Important Terms:
■ DRAMATIC TERMINOLOGY:
1. Tragedy – A play that deals with tragic events and ends unhappily,
usually with the death of the main characters.
2. Monologue - A long uninterrupted speech given by one character
onstage to an audience.
3. Soliloquy – A long uninterrupted speech given by one character alone
on stage, inaudible to other characters.
4. Aside - A short speech given by one character, traditionally the other
characters cannot hear.
5. Pun – A humorous play on words.
Important Terms:
■ POETIC TERMINOLOGY:
1. Iambic Pentameter - refers to a certain kind of line of poetry, and has to
do with the number of syllables in the line and the emphasis placed on
those syllables
2. Couplets – Two successive lines that rhyme and have the same
rhythm/meter.
3. Sonnet -A fourteen line poem using iambic pentameter and the following
rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg.
4. Run-on Line - Has NO punctuation at the end of the line and the
meaning is continued to following lines.
5. Alliteration – the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of
words.
6. Assonance - the repetition of a vowel sound anywhere in the word.
7. Consonance - the repetition of the same ending consonants.
8. Onomatopoeia - words that are spelled much like how they sound.
Romeo & Juliet –
More Information:
■ The setting of Romeo and Juliet is
Verona which is located in
Northern Italy
■ Italy was divided into
independent states, each centred
around a walled city.
■ Verona was ruled by Prince
Escalus, whose duty was to
enforce law and order.
■ Romeo and Juliet is a play about
love and the tragic fate of two
young lovers which is why it’s so
popular today.
 CAST OF THE

CHARACTERS MONTAGUES:
ROMEO MONTAGUE:
■ The son and heir of Lord
and Lady Montague.
■ A young man of about
sixteen, Romeo is
handsome, intelligent, and
sensitive.
■ He is not interested in
fighting, his only interest
is love.
 LORD AND LADY
MONATGUE:
■ Lord Montague is Romeo’s father,
the patriarch of the Montague clan
and bitter enemy of Capulet.
■ He is stubborn and not willing to
forgive.
■ Lady Montague is Romeo’s mother.
■ She does not seem close to Romeo,
but dies of grief after Romeo is exiled
from Verona.
BENVOLIO:
■ Montague’s nephew,
Romeo’s cousin and
thoughtful friend.
■ He is kind and gentle
and always tries to
keep the peace.
■ He spends most of the
play trying to help
Romeo get his mind off
Rosaline, even after
Romeo has fallen in
love with Juliet.
BALTHASAR AND
ABRAM:
■ Balthasar is Romeo’s dedicated
servant.
■ He brings Romeo the news of
Juliet’s death, unaware that her
death is a ruse.
■ Abram is Montague’s servant.
■ He fights with Sampson and
Gregory at the beginning of the
play.
CAST OF
CHARACTERS
THE CAPULETS
 JULIET CAPULET:
■ The daughter of Lord and Lady
Capulet. A beautiful thirteen-year-
old girl.
■ She is privileged and sheltered but
shows more determination
■ Juliet begins the play as a naïve
child who has thought little about
love and marriage, but she grows
up quickly upon falling in love with
Romeo, the son of her family’s
great enemy.
LORD AND LADY CAPULET:
■ Lord Capulet he patriarch of the
Capulet family, father of Juliet and
husband of Lady Capulet, and
enemy, for unexplained reasons,
of Montague.
■ He is a controlling father who gets
angry easily. He is moody,
hypocritical and selfish.
■ Juliet’s mother and Capulet’s wife.
■ She is an ineffectual mother,
relying on the Nurse for moral
and pragmatic support.
TYBALT:
■ Juliet’s cousin on her
mother’s side.
■ Vain, fashionable,
supremely aware of
courtesy and the lack
of it,
■ He becomes
aggressive, violent, and
quick to draw his
sword when he feels
his pride has been
injured.
 THE NURSE:
■ Juliet’s nurse, the woman who
breast-fed Juliet when she was a
baby and has cared for Juliet her
entire life.
■ She is over-talkative and often
uses coarse language.
■ The Nurse provides comic relief
with her frequently inappropriate
remarks and speeches.
SAMPSON &
GREGORY:
■ Two servants of the
house of Capulet,
who, like their
master, hate the
Montagues.
■ At the outset of the
play, they
successfully provoke
some Montague
men into a fight.
CAST OF OTHER

CHARACTERS CHARACTERS:
 MERCUTIO:
■ A kinsman to the Prince, and
Romeo’s close friend.
■ He is clever with words and is very
energetic and lively. He often
makes fun of Romeo’s romantic
passions.
■ He loves an argument and is quick
to get angry and fight.
■ He is also cynical and melancholic
and he finds Romeo’s romanticized
ideas about love tiresome,
FRIAR
LAWRENCE:
■ He is a secret advisor to
both Romeo and Juliet.
■ He is a kind man who
preaches self-control.
■ As well as being a
Catholic holy man, Friar
Lawrence is also an
expert in plants and
herbs.
■ He tries to help the
couple, but his plans fail
and end in tragedy.
COUNT PARIS:

■ A kinsman of the Prince, and

the suitor of Juliet most
preferred by Capulet.
■ He is a very polite nobleman
and does seem to love
Juliet.
■ Paris’s role in the play helps
to create conflict Lord and
Lady Capulet want him to
marry Juliet.
PRINCE ESCALUS:

■ The Prince of Verona. A

kinsman of Mercutio and
Paris.
■ He is a stern and strict ruler
but is also merciful and just.
■ He is concerned about
maintaining the public peace
at all costs.
FRIAR JOHN & THE
APOTHECARY:
■ Friar John is charged by Friar
Lawrence with taking the news of
Juliet’s false death to Romeo in
Mantua.
■ Friar John is held up in a
quarantined house, and the
message never reaches Romeo.
■ An apothecary in Mantua.
■ He is the person who sells Romeo
the poison which he uses to kill
himself.
ROSALINE:

■ The woman with whom

Romeo is infatuated at
the beginning of the
play.
■ She never appears
onstage but her name is
mentioned quite often,
especially in the first Act.