KWL

William Shakespeare

Learned

Know/Think

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William Shakespeare
Shakespeare

was born in
1564 and died in 1616.
He grew up in a town called
Stratf0rd-on-Avon and later
moved to London to become an
actor and playwright.

Shakespeares Personal
Life

Shakespeare married Anne

Hathaway in 1582.
He was 18 and she was 26.
She was three months
pregnant at the time and
whatever their relationship
was like, which we dont
know anything about, he
had no alternative other
than to marry her.
They had three children, but
lived apart for many years
of their marriage.

The Plays
He

wrote 37 plays as well as 154 sonnets, but

Shakespeare never published any of his plays!

Shakespeare is considered the greatest writer in the

English language.
Ironically, Shakespeare's family was illiterate!

The Globe

Actors and Actresses

In Shakespeares
time, it was
considered
immoral for a
woman to appear
onstage. So the
female roles in
Shakespeares
plays were
performed by

Shakespeares England
Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603) ruled
England and helped her country become a
leading naval and commercial power in the
western world.

In the 16th century, London was being

Queen Elizabeth ruled

England as a single woman
She was really quite amazing!

transformed. Its population grew 400%

during the 1500s, to nearly 200,000 people
in the city and outlying areas.

The plague known as the Black Death,

which swept through England and Europe,
was the major cause of death during this
time. This disease was carried by rats living
in the streets. Unfortunately, only the very
rich were able to afford doctors and many
people died.

James VI of Scotland ascended to the

English throne after the death of Elizabeth
I in 1603.

Some scholars believe that over half the

population of Europe died because of
the plague!

If you were born in

Elizabethan England: 5% of
you would die within the first
week of your life. 40% of you
wouldnt survive to your 15th
birthday. Approximately one
out of every 100 mothers
died in childbirth.
When a baby was born,
families might consult an
astrologer to determine if the
date and time of the babys
birth was fortunate. Peoples
lives were thought to be
determined by God and could
be read in the alignment of
the stars and planets.
This is why the chorus refers
to Romeo and Juliet as a pair
of star-crossed lovers. Their

The people not only believed in ghosts and

witches, but in magic of every sort. Alchemy was
a common hobby.
Astrology, or astronomical fortune-telling, was so
thoroughly a factor of the age that every one
desired the casting of his horoscope.
There were innumerable superstitious rites
performed at births, christenings, weddings, on
certain days of the year, and in certain places; as,
the churchyard, the cross-roads, etc. Every hour
in the day, every article in the world stone,
plant, or animal had its cluster of
superstitions.

Most babies born to middling and well to do families were breast fed
by wet-nurses, women hired out to perform this service. It was
generally believed that a womans breast milk contained elements of
her character and so wet nurses known for their virtuous character
were in demand. Poorer women nursed their own children and might
try to hire themselves out as wet nurses to privileged families.

In Shakespeares time, wealthy families arranged their childrens

marriages. Poorer and middling class families had more freedom of
choice for marriage partners. While a generation earlier it was
uncommon to marry a partner for love, this was changing in 1594.
Many parents might arrange a marriage, but children increasingly had
the right to refuse a potential partner, and their opinion was solicited
in the matter.

Elizabethans rarely drank water because it often got mixed with sewage. You
rarely bathed, and if you did, it was no more than once a year. Bathing was
thought to spread disease, not prevent it.
You lost many of your teeth, if not most of them, by the time you were in your
40s and 50s. If a tooth bothered you, you could visit a barber and have it
pulled, without painkillers or anesthesia.

What Is Drama?
A drama is a story enacted onstage for a live
audience.

Dramatic Terminology
Tragedy: A narrative about serious and important actions
that end unhappily, usually with the death of the main
characters.
The play is broken up into acts and the acts are broken up
into scenes.
Stage Directions: Playwright describes setting and
characters actions and manner.
Dialogue: conversations of characters
Monologue: A long uninterrupted speech given by one
character onstage to everyone.
Soliloquy: A long uninterrupted speech given by one
character alone on stage, inaudible to other characters
Aside: A short speech given by one character,
traditionally the other characters cannot hear.

Dramatic Terminology
Dramatic Foil: A
pair of characters
who are opposite
in many ways and
highlight or
exaggerate each
others
differences.

 So

Why we read

why do we still read plays like Romeo

and Juliet? When Shakespeares world
was so different from ours, what can we
learn from his plays?
Well, the plays are not only great,
powerful storiesthey also teach lessons
about life that apply to people in all
cultures and time periods, and those
lessons can help us when we come across
hard times in our own lives.

Romeo and
Juliet

Setting
The story is set in
the
late
1500s
mostly in the town of
Verona,
Italy.
However, there are a
few acts set in
Mantua,
Italy
a
smaller town just a
few miles away.

Shakespeares 5 Part
Storytelling Pattern:
Act III: Climax/Turning
Point
A series of complications
Act IV: Falling Action
Act II: Rising Action
A series of
complications
Act I: Exposition
Establishes setting,
characters,
conflict, and
background

Results of the turning

point; characters
locked into deeper
disaster
Act V:
Climax/Resolution/Denouement
Death of the main characters and
then the loose parts of the plot
are tied up

*Basic*

Timeline

(There is overlap with days and acts)

Sunday Act
One
Monday Act
Two
Tuesday Act
Three
Wednesday Act
Four

Themes in Romeo and Juliet

Power of Love
Violence from Passion
The Inevitability of Fate

The Feud
Romeos
family,
the
Montagues,
have
a
long
standing
feud
with
Juliets
family,
the
Capulets.
While
the
audience
never
learns
about the source
of the ancient
quarrel, we do

Star-Crossed
Lovers
Star-crossed lovers refers
to two people who are in
love but have conflicting
astrological
signs.
In
Shakespeares times, people
believed the course of their
lives was determined by the
exact second they were

Uh oh

http://www.astrology-zodiac-signs.com
/
Astrology-zodiac-signs.com

https://www.izodiacsigns.com/
Izodiacsigns.com
http://www.elle.com/horoscopes/lo
ve/
Elle.com/horoscopes/love

More than literally meaning he will go

against the stars in the sky, Romeo means
he will defy his fate or destiny!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVo
wtjzjiWo

Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing:
hints about what is going to
happen
It isnt difficult to figure out what
is going to happen to Romeo and
Juliet. After all, the prologue tells
us that the star-crossed lovers
take their life (Shakespeare).
While reading the play, there are
many hints or clues that support
the prologue.

Elizabethan English
In order to better understand Shakespeares
plays play, it is good to understand some of the
terminology Shakespeare uses in the writing of
his plays. The language is called Elizabethan
English, named after Queen Elizabeth the I.
ere ~ the old English word for before
hence ~ the old English word for here
swearst ~ the old English word for swear
thee, thy, thou ~ are old English words for you
thine ~ the old English word for your
wert ~ the old English word for were
wherefore ~ the old English word for why

Poetry

We speak in prose (language without metrical

structure). Shakespeare wrote both prose
and verse (poetry). Much of the language
discussion we will have in this guide revolves
around Shakespeare's poetry. So, it is important
that you understand the following terms:
Blank Verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Iambic Pentameter: five beats of alternating
unstressed andstressedsyllables; ten syllables
per line.
'Sofair/ andfoul/ aday/ Ihave/ notseen'
'Thecourse/ oftrue/ lovenev/erdid/
runsmooth'

Shakespeare wrote the way he did for poetic and dramatic

purposes.(Think poetry, rap songs, etc) There are many
reasons why he did this--to create a specific poetic rhythm,
to emphasize a certain word, to give a character a specific
speech pattern, etc.

I ate the sandwich.

I the sandwich ate.
Ate the sandwich I.
Ate I the sandwich.
The sandwich I ate.
The sandwich ate I.

 To

destroy the beauty from which

one came
Maybe its hatred I spew, maybe its
food for the spirit
Men would rather use their broken
records than their bear hands
I was not born under a rhyming
planet
The most benevolent king
communicates through your dreams
Socrates, philosophy and
hypotheses cant define me

Wordplay

Some of the most difficult passages of Shakespeare occur

when the Bard is purposely playing with language. Many
words are used with intentional double meanings. This is
especially prevalent in the numerous sexual innuendoes
that appear in the works.

Literary Term
Pun: A humorous play on words
A carpenter must have been
here. I saw dust.
Energizer Bunny arrested charged with battery.
The executioner decided to drop
out of Executioner School. It was
just too cut throat for him.

PROLOGU
E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
uSKF_O3rwww