STUDY GUIDES / RESOURCES
for Romeo and Juliet
http://www.shmoop.com/intro/literature/w...
http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/Eng9/rom...
http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/ro...
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/love-in-the-arts/romeo.html
http://pages.towson.edu/quick/romeoandjuliet/rnjmisc.htm
http://www.alchemistmatt.com/shakespeare/romeojul.html
http://www.pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/barrons/romeojl01.asp
http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xRomeoJul.html#Romeo
http://www.absoluteshakespeare.com/guides/romeo_and_juliet/romeo_and_juliet.htm
for Romeo and Juliet
http://www.shmoop.com/intro/literature/w...
http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/Eng9/rom...
http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/ro...
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/love-in-the-arts/romeo.html
http://pages.towson.edu/quick/romeoandjuliet/rnjmisc.htm
http://www.alchemistmatt.com/shakespeare/romeojul.html
http://www.pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/barrons/romeojl01.asp
http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xRomeoJul.html#Romeo
http://www.absoluteshakespeare.com/guides/romeo_and_juliet/romeo_and_juliet.htm
Shmoop has some excellent Romeo and Juliet background information...Follow the link below:
http://www.shmoop.com/romeo-and-juliet/
Here's a sample from Shmoop:
Romeo & Juliet
In A Nutshell
Before young William Shakespeare wrote his play about two poetry speaking, hormone-driven teenagers who defy their families' long-standing feud and risk everything to be together, love wasn't even considered a suitable subject for a "tragedy."
Not anymore. Written at the beginning of Shakespeare's career as a playwright, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (c. 1595) is now considered to be the greatest love story of all time. It wasn't a sleeper hit, either: the play was so popular in its own time that it was published twice during Shakespeare's life (1597 and 1599). Considering the state of printing press technology at the time, that's kind of a big deal.
Shakespeare adapted the storyline from Arthur Brookes' popular Tragicall History of Romeus and Juliet (1562), a long English poem based on a story that dates back to a novella by Masuccio Salernitano called "Mariotto and Giannozza" (1476). But it's not just a remake. Ever heard of the Tragicall History of Romeus and Juliet? Yeah, we thought not. Shakespeare made the story immortal—or, at least extremely long-lived. The balcony scene alone (Act 2, Scene 2 in most editions of the play) is one of the most memorable and recognizable moments in all of Western literature.
Despite its fancy pedigree, Romeo and Juliet is also considered to be one of Shakespeare's most accessible works. Along with Julius Caesar, it's typically one of the first Shakespeare plays studied by Western students, who get a dose of Elizabethan theater, Shakespearean language, and, of course, love poetry. And it's not just a school favorite; it's an audience favorite, too. Romeo and Juliet has been performed countless times by world-renowned theater companies and remains an audience favorite.
It's also one of the most adapted plays of all time—Franco Zeffirelli made it into an Oscar winning film in 1968 and the play was also adapted into a Tony Award winning musical, West Side Story (1957). Romeo and Juliet has inspired countless pop lyrics, like Taylor Swift's "Love Story," Dire Straits' "Romeo and Juliet," and The Reflections' doo-wop style "(Just Like ) Romeo and Juliet." Almost any "forbidden love" stories can trace their genealogy back to Romeo and Juliet, from Wuthering Heights to Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga.
But is it really nothing more than a silly blockbuster? Is reading Romeo and Juliet the equivalent of students 400 years from now studying Love Actually? Famous seventeenth-century journaler Samuel Pepys dismissed the plays as "the worst that ever [he] heard in [his] life" (source). And even we have to admit that Romeo seems a lot more like an emo teenager than a man in the grips of immortal passion.
Well, you're not going to wait around for us to tell you, are you?
Why Should I Care? A lot of people think the balcony scene is about as deep as a twelve-year-old interpretation of true love. Boy meets girl, they stare into each other's eyes and say a lot of poetic things. Cue sappy music. Anybody who makes it past the age of fourteen, of course, realizes that's not what love is about. Swearing undying commitment to each other fifteen minutes after they've met isn't love—it's infatuation.
But Romeo and Juliet is not just about what happens when two hormonal teenagers collide. It's clear to anyone who's watched Engaged and Underagedthat getting what you want out of young love isn't always all it's cracked up to be. The real moral of the story here is that sometimes love is doomed to fail, and that applies no matter how old you are and what time you're living in.
Why? Because no one loves in a vacuum. In the first few weeks of a love affair, you might feel like you and your lovah are in a world of your own—but pretty soon, reality comes crashing back. You've got homework to do, or jobs to go to; parents breathing down your neck, or employers wondering why you keep calling in sick. And that's not even to mention your friends, who've stopped inviting you to hang out.
But let's say that you do stay together. You marry your teenage sweetheart and set up house together. Pretty soon, you've got bills to pay, maybe kids to feed, or you're the one who's waking up at 6AM to take the dog for a walk again.
Our point? Romeo and Juliet is at least partly a tragedy about the clash between private love (you and your honey) and public interest (convenient marriages, or paying bills, or raising a family). We may not have quite the same roadblocks that Romeo and Juliet have, but intense, passionate love can be just as antisocial in the 21st century as it was in the 16th century. How do you negotiate the minefield? Well, hopefully better than Romeo and Juliet did.
Romeo & Juliet
In A Nutshell
Before young William Shakespeare wrote his play about two poetry speaking, hormone-driven teenagers who defy their families' long-standing feud and risk everything to be together, love wasn't even considered a suitable subject for a "tragedy."
Not anymore. Written at the beginning of Shakespeare's career as a playwright, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (c. 1595) is now considered to be the greatest love story of all time. It wasn't a sleeper hit, either: the play was so popular in its own time that it was published twice during Shakespeare's life (1597 and 1599). Considering the state of printing press technology at the time, that's kind of a big deal.
Shakespeare adapted the storyline from Arthur Brookes' popular Tragicall History of Romeus and Juliet (1562), a long English poem based on a story that dates back to a novella by Masuccio Salernitano called "Mariotto and Giannozza" (1476). But it's not just a remake. Ever heard of the Tragicall History of Romeus and Juliet? Yeah, we thought not. Shakespeare made the story immortal—or, at least extremely long-lived. The balcony scene alone (Act 2, Scene 2 in most editions of the play) is one of the most memorable and recognizable moments in all of Western literature.
Despite its fancy pedigree, Romeo and Juliet is also considered to be one of Shakespeare's most accessible works. Along with Julius Caesar, it's typically one of the first Shakespeare plays studied by Western students, who get a dose of Elizabethan theater, Shakespearean language, and, of course, love poetry. And it's not just a school favorite; it's an audience favorite, too. Romeo and Juliet has been performed countless times by world-renowned theater companies and remains an audience favorite.
It's also one of the most adapted plays of all time—Franco Zeffirelli made it into an Oscar winning film in 1968 and the play was also adapted into a Tony Award winning musical, West Side Story (1957). Romeo and Juliet has inspired countless pop lyrics, like Taylor Swift's "Love Story," Dire Straits' "Romeo and Juliet," and The Reflections' doo-wop style "(Just Like ) Romeo and Juliet." Almost any "forbidden love" stories can trace their genealogy back to Romeo and Juliet, from Wuthering Heights to Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga.
But is it really nothing more than a silly blockbuster? Is reading Romeo and Juliet the equivalent of students 400 years from now studying Love Actually? Famous seventeenth-century journaler Samuel Pepys dismissed the plays as "the worst that ever [he] heard in [his] life" (source). And even we have to admit that Romeo seems a lot more like an emo teenager than a man in the grips of immortal passion.
Well, you're not going to wait around for us to tell you, are you?
Why Should I Care? A lot of people think the balcony scene is about as deep as a twelve-year-old interpretation of true love. Boy meets girl, they stare into each other's eyes and say a lot of poetic things. Cue sappy music. Anybody who makes it past the age of fourteen, of course, realizes that's not what love is about. Swearing undying commitment to each other fifteen minutes after they've met isn't love—it's infatuation.
But Romeo and Juliet is not just about what happens when two hormonal teenagers collide. It's clear to anyone who's watched Engaged and Underagedthat getting what you want out of young love isn't always all it's cracked up to be. The real moral of the story here is that sometimes love is doomed to fail, and that applies no matter how old you are and what time you're living in.
Why? Because no one loves in a vacuum. In the first few weeks of a love affair, you might feel like you and your lovah are in a world of your own—but pretty soon, reality comes crashing back. You've got homework to do, or jobs to go to; parents breathing down your neck, or employers wondering why you keep calling in sick. And that's not even to mention your friends, who've stopped inviting you to hang out.
But let's say that you do stay together. You marry your teenage sweetheart and set up house together. Pretty soon, you've got bills to pay, maybe kids to feed, or you're the one who's waking up at 6AM to take the dog for a walk again.
Our point? Romeo and Juliet is at least partly a tragedy about the clash between private love (you and your honey) and public interest (convenient marriages, or paying bills, or raising a family). We may not have quite the same roadblocks that Romeo and Juliet have, but intense, passionate love can be just as antisocial in the 21st century as it was in the 16th century. How do you negotiate the minefield? Well, hopefully better than Romeo and Juliet did.
We start off with a little action: a duel between the servants of two enemy families of Verona: the Montagues and the Capulets. Exciting! After the swords are sheathed, Verona's Prince shows up to say that the next person who fights is going to get killed, and he means it this time.
Along comes Romeo Montague, mooning over some chick named Rosaline. Meanwhile, Juliet Capulet, age thirteen, has just heard that Verona's most eligible bachelor Paris has his eye on her. They're going to check each other out that night at a masquerade ball at the Capulets' house. (At least it's parentally sanctioned child abuse.) Romeo and his friends have decided to crash the Capulet ball—in costume—because Rosaline is on the guest list.
Things take a turn when Romeo meets Juliet. They fall instantly in love, obviously, but then—gasp!—find out they're from rival families. It's all very dire, but, being two crazy kids in love, they have a secret meeting and decide to get married. Vegas road trip, wooooooo!
Oh wait. No Vegas. Instead, Romeo meets with Friar Laurence to arrange the marriage, and Juliet gets her nurse to be a go-between. The Nurse meets Romeo and his friend Mercutio (who thinks the whole situation is hilarious), and they arrange to get Juliet to Friar Laurence.
Get ready for some more names: Benvolio, another member of the Montague posse, runs into Tybalt Capulet, who is angry about the Montagues crashing his family party the other night. Romeo, freshly married, strolls into the middle of a tense situation—which gets way tense when Tybalt kills Mercutio and Romeo promptly kills Tybalt in return. Romeo jets, but the Prince still shows up to banish him. (Hey, at least he's not going to be killed.)
Juliet hears from the Nurse that her new husband has murdered her cousin, which is a major bummer—but not enough of a bummer to keep her from being super stoked about her wedding night. The Nurse finds Romeo hiding at Friar Laurence's, and the Friar hatches a plan. Romeo can spend his wedding night with Juliet, but then he has to leave town while the Friar finds some way to get the Prince of Verona to pardon Romeo.
Meanwhile, back at the Capulet house, Lord Capulet decides a wedding (to Paris) is just the thing to distract Juliet from her grief. Oops! After Juliet's awesome, romantic wedding night, she finds out that she's supposed to marry Paris in two days. Even her nurse thinks she should marry Paris, since Romeo is "as good as dead" to her.
Juliet runs over to Friar Laurence's, where she has a weird kiss with Paris and then threatens to kill herself. The Friar comes up with a plan that is 100% guaranteed to work and doesn't sound risky At All (not): giving her an herbal concoction that will make her appear to be dead for 42 hours. Yes, exactly 42. So, she runs home, agrees to marry Paris, and takes the poison so she can be taken to the Capulet tomb where Romeo can find her and everyone can live happily ever after.
Sadly, Romeo is a little out of the loop off in Mantua, and the news of Juliet's "death" makes it to Romeo before word of the Friar's plan. He buys some poison so he can go to Juliet's grave and kill himself, which is obviously the mature response. But first, he murders Paris and then spends some time with Juliet's "dead" body.
He drinks the poison and dies just in time for Juliet to wake up and find him dead. Argh! We hate missed connections! The Friar, who apparently shows up at some point, tries to convince Juliet to run away, but she refuses and kills herself with a dagger. Just then, literally everyone shows up to the tomb at the same time and finds the dead lovers. Friar Laurence confesses everything, and the two lords of the rival houses are moved by their dead children's love story and agree to end the feud. Happy ending?
Along comes Romeo Montague, mooning over some chick named Rosaline. Meanwhile, Juliet Capulet, age thirteen, has just heard that Verona's most eligible bachelor Paris has his eye on her. They're going to check each other out that night at a masquerade ball at the Capulets' house. (At least it's parentally sanctioned child abuse.) Romeo and his friends have decided to crash the Capulet ball—in costume—because Rosaline is on the guest list.
Things take a turn when Romeo meets Juliet. They fall instantly in love, obviously, but then—gasp!—find out they're from rival families. It's all very dire, but, being two crazy kids in love, they have a secret meeting and decide to get married. Vegas road trip, wooooooo!
Oh wait. No Vegas. Instead, Romeo meets with Friar Laurence to arrange the marriage, and Juliet gets her nurse to be a go-between. The Nurse meets Romeo and his friend Mercutio (who thinks the whole situation is hilarious), and they arrange to get Juliet to Friar Laurence.
Get ready for some more names: Benvolio, another member of the Montague posse, runs into Tybalt Capulet, who is angry about the Montagues crashing his family party the other night. Romeo, freshly married, strolls into the middle of a tense situation—which gets way tense when Tybalt kills Mercutio and Romeo promptly kills Tybalt in return. Romeo jets, but the Prince still shows up to banish him. (Hey, at least he's not going to be killed.)
Juliet hears from the Nurse that her new husband has murdered her cousin, which is a major bummer—but not enough of a bummer to keep her from being super stoked about her wedding night. The Nurse finds Romeo hiding at Friar Laurence's, and the Friar hatches a plan. Romeo can spend his wedding night with Juliet, but then he has to leave town while the Friar finds some way to get the Prince of Verona to pardon Romeo.
Meanwhile, back at the Capulet house, Lord Capulet decides a wedding (to Paris) is just the thing to distract Juliet from her grief. Oops! After Juliet's awesome, romantic wedding night, she finds out that she's supposed to marry Paris in two days. Even her nurse thinks she should marry Paris, since Romeo is "as good as dead" to her.
Juliet runs over to Friar Laurence's, where she has a weird kiss with Paris and then threatens to kill herself. The Friar comes up with a plan that is 100% guaranteed to work and doesn't sound risky At All (not): giving her an herbal concoction that will make her appear to be dead for 42 hours. Yes, exactly 42. So, she runs home, agrees to marry Paris, and takes the poison so she can be taken to the Capulet tomb where Romeo can find her and everyone can live happily ever after.
Sadly, Romeo is a little out of the loop off in Mantua, and the news of Juliet's "death" makes it to Romeo before word of the Friar's plan. He buys some poison so he can go to Juliet's grave and kill himself, which is obviously the mature response. But first, he murders Paris and then spends some time with Juliet's "dead" body.
He drinks the poison and dies just in time for Juliet to wake up and find him dead. Argh! We hate missed connections! The Friar, who apparently shows up at some point, tries to convince Juliet to run away, but she refuses and kills herself with a dagger. Just then, literally everyone shows up to the tomb at the same time and finds the dead lovers. Friar Laurence confesses everything, and the two lords of the rival houses are moved by their dead children's love story and agree to end the feud. Happy ending?
Romeo and Juliet Theme of Family
In Romeo and Juliet, family means a lot more than a husband, wife, and 2.5 kids. "Family" means everyone from the head of the household down to the lowly servants—anyone who could possibly owe any the Capulets or Montagues loyalty. If you're thinking "street gang" or "mafia movie," you're not too far off. That's why Romeo and Juliet's little love affair isn't just going to get them grounded; it's a betrayal of absolutely everything—like dating someone from a rival school or, yeah, a rival gang. We might think of family as a place of refuse and security, but, in Romeo and Juliet, kinship is more often a source of danger and battle.
Questions About Family
Romantic love wins out over familial love in Romeo and Juliet.
In Romeo and Juliet, family means a lot more than a husband, wife, and 2.5 kids. "Family" means everyone from the head of the household down to the lowly servants—anyone who could possibly owe any the Capulets or Montagues loyalty. If you're thinking "street gang" or "mafia movie," you're not too far off. That's why Romeo and Juliet's little love affair isn't just going to get them grounded; it's a betrayal of absolutely everything—like dating someone from a rival school or, yeah, a rival gang. We might think of family as a place of refuse and security, but, in Romeo and Juliet, kinship is more often a source of danger and battle.
Questions About Family
- Why do the Capulets hate the Montagues?
- How does the Capulet/Montague family feud affect Romeo and Juliet's love affair and marriage?
- Why does Juliet face greater family conflict than Romeo? Is it because she is a woman and he is a man? Or because she's still so young?
- How do the prince's kinship bonds influence his decision to exile (rather than execute) Romeo?
Romantic love wins out over familial love in Romeo and Juliet.
Romeo and Juliet Theme of Foolishness and Foll
Friar Laurence might warn Romeo to move "Wisely and slow—they stumble that run fast" (2.4.94), but nobody (including Friar Laurence) spends much time pausing to think in Romeo and Juliet. Love and hatred propel the characters to immediate and frankly kind of dumb actions. Thinking Juliet is dead, Romeo kills himself—but if he'd waited just a few minutes longer (or, you know, recited a few more lines of poetry), he would have discovered that Juliet was actually alive. It may be dumb kids who die, but the foolishness of those who are supposed to be older and wiser has a lot to do with the play's tragic end.
Questions About Foolishness and Folly
Although the Friar warns against rash and foolish behavior on more than one occasion in the play, he's just as guilty of folly as anyone else.
Friar Laurence might warn Romeo to move "Wisely and slow—they stumble that run fast" (2.4.94), but nobody (including Friar Laurence) spends much time pausing to think in Romeo and Juliet. Love and hatred propel the characters to immediate and frankly kind of dumb actions. Thinking Juliet is dead, Romeo kills himself—but if he'd waited just a few minutes longer (or, you know, recited a few more lines of poetry), he would have discovered that Juliet was actually alive. It may be dumb kids who die, but the foolishness of those who are supposed to be older and wiser has a lot to do with the play's tragic end.
Questions About Foolishness and Folly
- Which characters are guilty of acting hastily or foolishly in the play? What are the consequences of refusing to act "wisely and slow"?
- Does the play ever critique the Capulet/Montague feud?
- Why does Romeo commit suicide, exactly? What happens just moments after he takes his life?
- In the last lines of the play, the Prince says, "Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished" for their roles in the tragedy. To which characters do you think he refers?
Although the Friar warns against rash and foolish behavior on more than one occasion in the play, he's just as guilty of folly as anyone else.
Romeo and Juliet Theme of Exile
In Romeo and Juliet, exile is a personal matter that becomes political: Romeo is banished for a private affair (revenge-killing Tybalt), in order to keep a public peace. And then that banishments ends up having private and public consequences: the deaths of two kids, and then a final, public truce between the Capulets and Montagues. So does the exile—which is supposed to be better than death—fail? Or does it ultimately succeed, by bringing peace back to Verona?
Questions About Exile
Juliet's threatened exile from her family is more dangerous than Romeo's exile, because she's a woman.
In Romeo and Juliet, exile is a personal matter that becomes political: Romeo is banished for a private affair (revenge-killing Tybalt), in order to keep a public peace. And then that banishments ends up having private and public consequences: the deaths of two kids, and then a final, public truce between the Capulets and Montagues. So does the exile—which is supposed to be better than death—fail? Or does it ultimately succeed, by bringing peace back to Verona?
Questions About Exile
- Why is Romeo banished from Verona, exactly? Is it his fault?
- Lord Capulet threatens to disown Juliet and throw her out on the street. Why does he do this?
- Does Romeo's exile have a symbolic function in Romeo and Juliet?
- In what way is Juliet herself metaphorically exiled while Romeo is literally exiled?
- For Romeo, is exile indeed worse than death?
Juliet's threatened exile from her family is more dangerous than Romeo's exile, because she's a woman.