ROJ - Romeo and Juliet Module Overview

English_OverviewBanner.png

Romeo and Juliet Module Overview

Introduction Romeo and Juliet. William Shakespeare. My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep; the more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite.

The prologue of Romeo and Juliet calls the title characters "star-crossed lovers"—and the stars do seem to conspire against these young lovers.

Romeo is a Montague, and Juliet a Capulet. Their families are enmeshed in a feud, but the moment they meet—when Romeo and his friends attend a party at Juliet's house in disguise—the two fall in love and quickly decide that they want to be married.

(Source Links to an external site.)

Romeo & Juliet is quite possibly Shakespeare's most well-known tragedy. We will study Shakespeare in this module and discover why Romeo and Juliet are often subjects of literary allusion. 

Essential Questions

  1. What key elements of a drama are seen in this play?
  2. Are there any adults watching out for Romeo and Juliet? 
  3. How old are Romeo and Juliet?

Key Terms

Your understanding of these terms will help you with the material in this module.

Allusion: A brief reference to a person, event, or place, real or fictitious, or to a work of art. An allusion may be drawn from history, geography, literature, or religion.

Aside: Words spoken by an actor directly to the audience, which are not ''heard'' by the other characters on stage during a play.

Catharsis: The purging of the feelings of pity and fear that, according to Aristotle, occur in the audience of tragic drama. The audience experiences catharsis at the end of the play, following the catastrophe.

Character: An imaginary person that inhabits a literary work. Literary characters may be major or minor, static (unchanging) or dynamic (capable of change).

Characterization: A portrayal or description the creation of convincing fictitious characters.

Conflict: Opposition between characters or forces in a work of drama or fiction, especially Opposition that motivates or shapes the action of the plot.

Connotation: The set of associations implied by a word in addition to its literal meaning.

Dialogue: The conversation of characters in a literary work. In fiction, dialogue is typically enclosed within quotation marks. In plays, characters' speech is preceded by their names.

Epilogue: A concluding part added to a literary work

Iamb: An unstressed syllable followed by an stressed one, as in to-DAY.

Irony: An outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected. Look for dramatic irony in this play - when the audience knows something before a character.

Mood: Distinctive emotional quality or tone of a literary work.

Monologue: A speech by a single character without another character's response.

Prologue: The writing before the story begins, often it's the backstory.

Props: Articles or objects that appear on stage during a play.

Setting: The time and location of a story.

Stanza: A unified group of lines of poetry how a poem is divided into sections (similar to paragraphs).

Soliloquy: A speech in a play that is meant to be heard by the audience but not by other characters on the stage. If there are no other characters present, the soliloquy represents the character thinking aloud.

Tragedy: A dramatic composition dealing with a serious theme, typically that of a great person destined, through a flaw of character or conflict, with some overpowering force to downfall or destruction.

Tragic Flaw: A weakness or limitation of character, resulting in the fall of the tragic hero.

Tragic Hero: A privileged, exalted character of high repute, who, by virtue of a tragic flaw and fate, suffers a fall from glory into suffering.

Understatement: To state or represent less strongly than the facts would bear out.

Verse: A poem, or piece of poetry.

English_OverviewBottomBanner.png IMAGES CREATED BY GAVS