Website part E:
For the play overall:
1. My initial reaction was the the play was confusing. A reason for this was because I haven't ever read any type of Shakespearean writing before. While reading Romeo and Juliet for the first time, I found that I was not prepared for it. Another reason for my confusion was that when we read "Romeo and Juliet" in class I only listened and went the same pace as everyone else. To fix my confusion I took the play home and re-read it slowly making notes as I went. Also, another initial reaction I had was that everyone in the play seemed to not think about their decisions before they reacted, but they rather just acted first and thought later. The characters seemed very irrational. For example, in Act 3, Scene 1 after Tybalt kills Mercutio, Romeo, without thinking about the consequences, fights and kills Tybalt. Romeo is banished for breaking the law. He then goes to complain to Friar Lawrence and hide in his cell. If Romeo would have just thought before he went heedlessly into the situation. I thought that it was childish and made me think that the characters could have been a little more smart in making their decisions.
2. The play, "Romeo and Juliet", is about two star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet. In Italy, in the two cities of Verona and Mantua, the play is set in. Romeo and Juliet takes place in the fourteenth century, over a period of five days. Acts one through four completely take place in Verona but Romeo lives in exile in the City of Mantua, so Act 5, Scene 1 takes place in Mantua. Romeo and Juliet are the main characters. Some minor characters are Friar Lawrence, Nurse, Count Paris, Tybalt, Mercutio, Benvolio, and Prince Escalus. Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet, is centered around Romeo and Juliet, the play tells us how Romeo and Juliet fall in love and eventually leads up to their deaths. Their deaths make their families realize how childish their fighting was and they make amends. Scene 1, Act 1's prologue summarizes the play. Also, in Act 5, Scene 3 lines 229-279 Friar Lawrence summarizes all that happens to Romeo and Juliet.
3. The play, “Romeo and Juliet”, has a hidden meaning behind it and there can be lessons taught from it. One of the many lesson that you can learn from is sometimes love is worth dying for. In “Romeo and Juliet” the two main characters, Romeo and Juliet, both die because they love each other so much that they can’t picture a world without each other.
4. "Romeo and Juliet" teaches us that love at first sight exists. In Act 1, Scene 5 line 42-51 Romeo instantly thinks Juliet is beautiful and says "Did my heart love till now?". The play also teaches us not to put your own hate first because others could end up paying for it. Shakespeare's entire play is an example of it. Romeo and Juliet pay for the hatred between the two families. It take the death of two family's only children to notice that their fighting was petty and childish.
For a specific passage:
CHORUS. Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From an ancient grudge break new munity,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadeventur'd piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
I think that the passage is meant for the reader to understand what will happen throughout the play. The passage I picked is the prologue for the play. Being the prologue it sets the tone for the play. The tone in the passage I picked is somber Also, the words are all solemn. Words make a big part of an play and set the tone for a play.. A quote to support this is; " Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean." Line four is somber and it sets a tone for violence and death to come. The passage tells us that Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy. Some words in the passage to support this is line six, "A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;" In line six, it tells us that two people that are in love each commit suicide. That tells us that the play is a tragedy. A theme for the passage is; Sometimes a tragedy can fix the bigger scheme of life. Evidence to support this theme is line ten and eleven, "And the continuance of their parents' rage, Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,". Those two lines tells us how their children's end, the tragedy, could only remove their rage, fixing the bigger scheme in life. The mood in the passage is melancholy. The passage is tragic.
For the play overall:
1. My initial reaction was the the play was confusing. A reason for this was because I haven't ever read any type of Shakespearean writing before. While reading Romeo and Juliet for the first time, I found that I was not prepared for it. Another reason for my confusion was that when we read "Romeo and Juliet" in class I only listened and went the same pace as everyone else. To fix my confusion I took the play home and re-read it slowly making notes as I went. Also, another initial reaction I had was that everyone in the play seemed to not think about their decisions before they reacted, but they rather just acted first and thought later. The characters seemed very irrational. For example, in Act 3, Scene 1 after Tybalt kills Mercutio, Romeo, without thinking about the consequences, fights and kills Tybalt. Romeo is banished for breaking the law. He then goes to complain to Friar Lawrence and hide in his cell. If Romeo would have just thought before he went heedlessly into the situation. I thought that it was childish and made me think that the characters could have been a little more smart in making their decisions.
2. The play, "Romeo and Juliet", is about two star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet. In Italy, in the two cities of Verona and Mantua, the play is set in. Romeo and Juliet takes place in the fourteenth century, over a period of five days. Acts one through four completely take place in Verona but Romeo lives in exile in the City of Mantua, so Act 5, Scene 1 takes place in Mantua. Romeo and Juliet are the main characters. Some minor characters are Friar Lawrence, Nurse, Count Paris, Tybalt, Mercutio, Benvolio, and Prince Escalus. Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet, is centered around Romeo and Juliet, the play tells us how Romeo and Juliet fall in love and eventually leads up to their deaths. Their deaths make their families realize how childish their fighting was and they make amends. Scene 1, Act 1's prologue summarizes the play. Also, in Act 5, Scene 3 lines 229-279 Friar Lawrence summarizes all that happens to Romeo and Juliet.
3. The play, “Romeo and Juliet”, has a hidden meaning behind it and there can be lessons taught from it. One of the many lesson that you can learn from is sometimes love is worth dying for. In “Romeo and Juliet” the two main characters, Romeo and Juliet, both die because they love each other so much that they can’t picture a world without each other.
4. "Romeo and Juliet" teaches us that love at first sight exists. In Act 1, Scene 5 line 42-51 Romeo instantly thinks Juliet is beautiful and says "Did my heart love till now?". The play also teaches us not to put your own hate first because others could end up paying for it. Shakespeare's entire play is an example of it. Romeo and Juliet pay for the hatred between the two families. It take the death of two family's only children to notice that their fighting was petty and childish.
For a specific passage:
CHORUS. Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From an ancient grudge break new munity,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadeventur'd piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
I think that the passage is meant for the reader to understand what will happen throughout the play. The passage I picked is the prologue for the play. Being the prologue it sets the tone for the play. The tone in the passage I picked is somber Also, the words are all solemn. Words make a big part of an play and set the tone for a play.. A quote to support this is; " Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean." Line four is somber and it sets a tone for violence and death to come. The passage tells us that Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy. Some words in the passage to support this is line six, "A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;" In line six, it tells us that two people that are in love each commit suicide. That tells us that the play is a tragedy. A theme for the passage is; Sometimes a tragedy can fix the bigger scheme of life. Evidence to support this theme is line ten and eleven, "And the continuance of their parents' rage, Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,". Those two lines tells us how their children's end, the tragedy, could only remove their rage, fixing the bigger scheme in life. The mood in the passage is melancholy. The passage is tragic.