Shakespeare’s

Romeo and Juliet

Shakespeare Background

• Born 1564• Educated at Stratford

Grammar School• Parents John, a glove

maker, and Mary (Arden)• Married Ann Hathaway

when he was 18 and she 26

• Three children: Susanna, Judith and Hamnet

Shakespeare BackgroundContinued…

• Moved to London to be come an actor and playwright

• During plague outbreaks, he wrote poetry.

• In 1599 he built and became a partner in the Globe Theater.

• He wrote 37 plays and 154 Sonnets

• Member of the Lord Chamberlin’s men which became the King’s men when Elizabeth the first died, and James the I took the throne.

• Shakespeare died April 23, 1616 at the age of 52

Shakespeare’s Coat of Arms

The motto reads “Not without Reason”

Shakespeare’s Family Tree

Basis for the play…

• Shakespeare's primary source for Romeo and Juliet was Arthur Brooke's Romeus and Juliet, first published in 1562. The story was retold in prose in Palace of Pleasure by William Painter. Shakespeare’s version is believed to have been written between 1591-1595.

An 1870 oil painting by Ford Madox Brown depicting Romeo and

Juliet's famous balcony scene

Basic overview…• In William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet,

a long feud between the Montague and Capulet families disrupts the city of Verona and causes tragic results for Romeo and Juliet. Revenge, love, and a secret marriage force the young star-crossed lovers to grow up quickly — and fate causes them to commit suicide in despair. Contrast and conflict are running themes throughout Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet — one of the Bard's most popular romantic tragedies.

Key Facts• full title  ·  The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and

Juliet

• author  · William Shakespeare

• type of work  · Play

• genre  · Tragic drama

• language  · English

• time and place written  · London, mid-1590s

• date of first publication  · 1597 (in the First Quarto, which was likely an unauthorized incomplete edition); 1599 (in the Second Quarto, which was authorized)

Key Facts continued…

• protagonists  · Romeo; Juliet

• antagonists  · The feuding Montagues and Capulets; Tybalt; the Prince and citizens of Verona; fate

• settings (time)  · Renaissance (fourteenth or fifteenth century)

• settings (place)  · Verona and Mantua (cities in northern Italy)

• point of view  · Insofar as a play has a point of view, that of Romeo and Juliet; occasionally the play uses the point of view of the Montague and Capulet servants to illuminate the actions of their masters.

Key Facts continued…

• tones  · Passionate, romantic, intense, rhapsodic, violent, prone to extremes of emotion (ecstasy, rage, misery, etc.)

• themes  · The forcefulness of love; love as a cause of violence; the individual versus society; the inevitability of fate

• motifs · Light/dark imagery; opposite points of view

Thumb-biting

• Thumb-biting• In Act 1, scene 1, the buffoonish Samson begins a

brawl between the Montagues and Capulets by flicking his thumbnail from behind his upper teeth, an insulting gesture known as biting the thumb. He engages in this juvenile and vulgar display because he wants to get into a fight with the Montagues but doesn’t want to be accused of starting the fight by making an explicit insult. Because of his timidity, he settles for being annoying rather than challenging. The thumb-biting, as an essentially meaningless gesture, represents the foolishness of the entire Capulet/Montague feud and the stupidity of violence in general.

The House of Capulet

• Capulet is the patriarch of the house of Capulet. • Lady Capulet is the matriarch of the house of Capulet. • Juliet is the daughter of the Capulets, and is the play's

female protagonist. • Tybalt is a cousin of Juliet, and the nephew of Lady

Capulet. • The Nurse is Juliet's personal attendant and confidante. • Peter, Sampson and Gregory are servants of the

Capulet household. • Rosaline, a niece to Lord Capulet, is an

unseen character with whom Romeo is in love before meeting Juliet.

The House of Montague

• Montague is the patriarch of the house of Montague. • Lady Montague is the matriarch of the house of

Montague. • Romeo is the son of the Montagues, and is the play's

male protagonist. • Benvolio is a cousin, and friend, of Romeo. • Mercutio is another kinsman of Escalus, and a friend of

Romeo. • Abram and Balthasar are servants of the Montague

household.

Other Characters

• Ruling house of Verona • Prince Escalus is the ruling Prince of Verona • Count Paris is a kinsman of Escalus who wishes to

marry Juliet.

• Others • Friar Lawrence is a Franciscan friar, and is Romeo's

confidant. • A Chorus reads a prologue to each of the first two acts. • Friar John is sent to deliver Friar Laurence's letter to

Romeo. • An Apothecary reluctantly sells Romeo poison.