Shakespeare’s
Life & Times
Life & Times
What is an example in the play of a dramatic convention?
Using torches to suggest it is night
The following is an example of what literary term: “Gregory, on my word, we’ll not carry coals. No for them we shall be colliers
verbal irony
The following is an example of what literary term: “Death lies on her like an untimely frost
Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.”
simile
1. How many days pass from the beginning of the play to the end?
2. How many characters die in the play?
3. How many people know that Romeo and Juliet are married?
1. 6
2. 6
3. Five: Romeo, Juliet, Nurse, Friar Lawrence, and Balthasar
Why does Benvolio suggest that Romeo attend the Capulet party? Why Does Romeo agree to go to the party?
To get over Roseline
To see Roseline
What does “wherefore” mean in the play?
why
The following is an example of what literary term: “O anything of nothing first create.”
paradox
The following is an example of what literary term: “hide me nightly in a charnal-house o’recovered quite with dead men’s rattling bones.”
imagery
1. Who thinks they see the ghost of Tybalt in their room?
2. Who calls Romeo a villain?
3. Who curses the families by calling a plague on both houses?
4. Who says “Palm to palm is holy palmer’s kiss?”
1. Juliet
2. Tybalt
3. Mercutio
4. Juliet
1. Why does Lord Capulet, at first, reject Paris’s offer to marry Juliet?
2. Why does Lord Capulet chide Tybalt for threatening Romeo at the party?
1. She is too young.
2. He doesn't want his party ruined.
When and where did Shakespeare live?
England 1554-1616
The following is an example of what literary term: “there lies more peril in thine eye than twenty of their swords.”
hyperbole
Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter is called?
blank verse
Who dies by poison? Who by dagger? Who by foil (sword)? Who by natural causes?
Romeo
Juliet
Tybalt, Mercutio, and Paris
Lady Montague
1. Why is Friar Lawrence, at first, reluctant to marry Romeo and Juliet?
2. Why does he agree to marry them?
1. He knows Romeo was in love with Roseline yesterday.
2. He hopes it will end the feud.
What does chide mean?
scold
The following is an example of what literary term: “How silver-sweet sounds lovers tongue by night.”
The following is an example of what literary term: Mercutio: “Alas, poor Romeo, he is already dead, stabbed with a white wench’s black eye.”
They fight; Tybalt falls
situational irony
1. Who wishes to be buried by Juliet?
2. Who talks about Queen Mab? What is the point being made?
1. Paris
2. Mercutio - dreams do not tell the future
1. Why does Romeo kill Tybalt?
2. Why does Juliet forgive Romeo?
1. Tybalt killed Mercutio
2. Tybalt would have killed Romeo
Sets for plays in the Renaissance times were very limited. There were no lights or curtains. So how did Shakespeare’s audiences know where and when the action of the play was taking place?
Shakespeare wrote it into the dialogue
The following is an example of what literary term: "But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun."
metaphor
The following is an example of what literary term: Nurse: I saw the wound, I saw it with mine eyes. Juliet: Vile earth to earth resign, end motion here and thou and Romeo press one heavy bier?”
dramatic irony
1. Who threatens to send an assassin to Mantua with a dram of poison?
2. Who is so confused by love that they call it a “heavy lightness” a “serious vanity?”
3. Who tells Romeo that Juliet is dead and buried in the Capulet monument?
1. Lady Capulet
2. Romeo
3. Balthasar
1. Why does Romeo NOT arrive at the tomb at the prearranged time?
2. Why is Romeo reluctant to kill Paris?
3. Why does the Friar leave Juliet alone in the tomb?
1. Friar John was held up in a suspected plague house.
2. He does not want another sin upon his head.
3. He hears a noise.