Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Romeo Juliet The nurse Father Laurance Balthasar Mercutio Paris Chief prince Benvolio Apothecary Abba Gregory Peter Tybalt
Two Houses
Juliet Lord and lady Capulet Tybalt Nurse Paris Friar Laurance Father John Prince Escalus Romeo Lord and Lady Montague Benvolio Balthasar Mercutio Friar Laurance Father John Prince Escalus
two households both alike in dignity in fair Verona where we lay our scene from ancient grudge break to new mutiny where civil blood makes civil hands unclean from forth the fatal lions of those foes pair of star-crossd lovers take their life Whose misadventurd piteous overthrows Dot with their death bury their parents strive the fearful passage of ther death-markd love
new fights arise out of an old feud W causing bloodshed in the city F
Metre is the number of stresses beats/feet in a line of poetry Short beat Long beat
We are working with iambic pentameter There is a rising rhythm of two syllables and there are five groups in each line Shakespeare wrote is plays and poetry in iambic pentameter Eg. Em ploy , in vite
Look at the first two lines from Romeo and Juilet two households, both alike in dignity. In fair Verona where we lay our scene shall I compare thee to a summers day?
Metre creates special effects to suit the mood of the poem. It can create the mood of serenity. Metre can give a physical effect. Metre can also convey movement.\
Thumb Biting
Unless you're fluent in childish Elizabethan gestures, you might be wondering what the heck Sampson's up to when he spots the Montague's servants on the streets and announces, "I will bite my thumb at them, which is disgrace to them if they bear it" (1.1.13). Basically, thumb biting, which involves biting and then flicking one's thumb from behind the upper teeth, is a Shakespearean version of flipping someone the bird and saying "nanny nanny boo boo." It's an insulting gesture that, more often than not, ends up coming across as wildly immature. Here's how it all goes down in the play: ABRAHAM Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? SAMPSON I do bite my thumb, sir. ABRAHAM Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? SAMPSON [Aside to GREGORY] Is the law of our side, if I say ay? GREGORY No. SAMPSON No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I bite my thumb, sir. (1.1.1) Sampson doesn't have a good reason to insult the Montagues' servants he's basically looking to stir up trouble because his masters (the Capulets) are feuding with the Montagues. The funny thing is, Sampson's too much of a coward to own up to his silly gesture because the "law" won't be on his "side" if his thumb biting causes a big old brawl (he doesn't want to get busted for causing a fracas). It doesn't get any more ridiculous than this, folks, which seems to be Shakespeare's point. The Capulet/Montague feud, which has obviously trickled down to involve their servants, is completely absurd. Just like Sampson's thumb biting
lies, / Flower as she was, deflowered by him. Death is my son-in-law, death is my heir" (4.4.9). (By the way, Capulet has no idea at this point that Juliet is married to Romeo he still thinks she was all set to marry Paris and is still a virgin.) Shakespeare scholar Marjorie Garber offers one of the most interesting insights when she notes that even the way that Romeo and Juliet each literally die carries symbolic sexual meaning. Romeo drinks his poison from a goblet, a traditional symbol of female sexuality. (This same symbolism is used in the Da Vinci Code, where the Grail, a big V-shaped goblet, symbolizes, well, a woman's vagina.) Juliet, in contrast, stabs herself with Romeo's dagger a traditional symbol of male sexuality. What's this all about, you ask? Symbolically, Romeo and Juliet combine physical death and sexual climax. It's all pretty ironic, really. Typically, sex acts between men and women are supposed to result in the creation of life (making babies, that is). Yet, in the play, that's just not the case.
"oxymoron" and a "paradox"? Well, a paradox is different from an oxymoron because it contains contradictory words that are separated by one or more intervening words.
Queen Mab
Studying Mercutio's famous "Queen Mab" speech has become a rite of passage for students, but we've got to admit that the fantastical speech is a bit baffling to us (though, it's baffling in a fun, we want to know more about it kind of way). Let's start with the basics. Who the heck is Queen Mab? According to Mercutio's vivid description, Queen Mab is a tiny fairy that rides around in a coach made out of an "empty hazelnut" with spider's "legs" for wheel spokes (1.4.11). The coach is driven by an even tinier "grey-coated gnat" and drawn by a "team of little atomi" (tiny atoms). Queen Mab spends her time galloping over the noses and lips of sleepers, filling their dreams with wild fantasies (lovers dream of love, soldiers dream of slitting throats, lawyers dream of winning lawsuits, etc.). Mab (whose name is also a slang word for "whore") is also kind of scary. When she's in a bad mood, she plagues women who dream of "kisses" with nasty cold sores
("blisters") and she's fond of making young, virginal girls have naughty dreams. We know what you're thinking. Why is everything about Queen Mab so tiny and sexual? Well, in order to answer that question we need to think about what it is that prompts Mercutio's wild rant in the first place. Fed up with Romeo's lovesick moping for Rosaline and his claim that he had a steamy "dream" the night before, Mercutio taunts his buddy by saying that Queen Mab must have paid him a visit. Mercutio also informs Romeo that dreams "are the children of an idle brain," which is another way of saying that Romeo is an idiot and his dreams about Rosaline are ridiculous (1.4.12). Given the context of the speech, it seems like Mercutio is suggesting that, like Queen Mab, dreams (especially Romeo's) are small and insignificant. Pretty wild stuff, don't you think? It's easy to see why, in Baz Luhrmann's 1996 film, Romeo + Juliet, Mercutio takes a hit of ecstasy before delivering his "Queen Mab" speech the whole thing can seem like drug-induced nonsense. Romeo all but says so when he yells, "Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace! Thou talk'st of nothing" (1.4.12).
Light in Darkness
Light in darkness this is the imagery that constantly recurs in Romeo and Juliet. "O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright," Romeo says when he first sees Juliet. "It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night / Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear" (1.5.1). Variations on this imagery are repeated again and again images of Juliet as a sun rising in the darkness, of Juliet's eyes shining in the sky, images of Romeo's body cut out in little stars, of Romeo and Juliet's love as a bright furious lightning flash. At times, the image of a flash of light disappearing into the dusk seems to symbolize both the brilliant strength of Romeo and Juliet's love, as well as its transience. The imagery of light and darkness also picks up the play's emphasis on the contrasts between love and hate, passion and death.
Night
Night is a pretty important time in the play. It's when all the passionate love scenes occur so, night seems to shelter and protects the lovers, while the glare of day threatens to reveal them. In contrast, the heat of the sun makes the young men of Verona irritable and prone to violence and the street brawls occur during the day time. We often think of night as both a time for romance and liberation, as well as a time of danger, and the imagery of night and darkness in Romeo and Juliet carries both night's promises and its threats. Hidden in darkness, Romeo and Juliet's love is free from the social rules that would divide them. But danger also lurks in the darkness, and the secrecy of Romeo and Juliet's marriage will prove fatal to them.
buys the poison is described as looking like death thin, starving, with hollow eyes. Romeo buys his suicide weapon from a man that symbolizes death