Imagery: Shakespeare Paints Pictures With Words

Tonight's reading takes you through the rest of scene one. As the Prince leaves the stage with the Capulets, the focus shifts to the Montagues, Romeo's parents. Naturally, they are wondering where on earth Romeo is; afterall, the rest of his peers were out in the middle of the brawl at the crack of dawn. As luck would have it, they see Romeo's friend Benvolio, and he agrees to ask Romeo what he's been up to. Lord Montague explains to Benvolio that he has noticed that Romeo is often up before dawn and that when Romeo comes home, he closes himself up in his room, drawing the curtains to keep out the light. Lord Capulet agrees to slip off with his wife so that Benvolio have a private talk with Romeo and try to find out what's bothering him.



What does this sound like to you? Is it normal for a teenage boy to get up early in the morning? Sounds like trouble to me! He's either sick or can't sleep because something is on his mind...maybe a girl? Do you know any guys who always have to have a girlfriend? Romeo might be the kind of guy who is always in love. The funny thing is that it seems like Romeo enjoys being sad about being in love, and as he explains to Benvolio, he's in love with someone who won't love him back. His poetry sounds silly, too. He uses oxymorons - words that don't make sense together- like cold fire- to explain his confused feelings of love.



Hang in there on the reading. Act I of Romeo and Juliet is the exposition or set up. We meet most of the characters and learn what the story will be about. Right now we see that Romeo really doesn't know what true love is all about. Seeing him as a love sick young man in the beginning of the play is a nice contrast to the way we see Romeo when he meets his true love, Juliet.


Shakespeare's use of imagery creates some of the most beautiful lines of poetry, particularly in the famous balcony scene. On Friday we'll look closely at imagery in other poetry, and as a way of expressing our impressions of the images, we'll create photo stories to display our interpretations.



So...adieu. Parting is such sweet sorrow. Keep reading. By the way, our readers today were awesome.

Too Tough To Tackle? Methinks Not!

Yesterday we read interesting - and somewhat unbelievable - facts about the time period for our play. Everything from superstitions, knowledge of medicine and dentistry, social classes, and religious beliefs affect the storyline. I found an interesting site which details a webquest type activity about the Capulet ball. There is a lot of information here about the time period, food, music, art, costumes, and more. Check it out. It's fun!



As our play opens, we are barraged with puns. The two servants, Sampson and Gregory, are showing off their wit, bragging about how tough they are. It would be impossible to see the humor in their exchange without an understanding of how words were used in that day. In their dialogue, the word "coal" becomes "collier," "choler," and "collar." It would help to know that the job of carrying coal was dirty and low class, and that a "collier" was the equivalent of a garbage collector. To be in "choler" is to be in anger (remember the four humours), and finally to draw a sword to fight meant being sentenced to death, and thus, finding your neck in the hangman's "collar." See? The two servants are bantering back and forth in an attempt to show how clever they are...and tough and loyal, too.




As we continue reading, you'll see that puns are an important way of showing quick wit. We learn that the whole town seems to be affiliated with either the Capulets or the Montagues, and these guys love to fight to display their macho and fierce loyalty to one family or the other.


Words that relate to our study so far: Shakespearean sonnet, iambic pentameter ,couplet, blank verse, dramatic irony, pun, rhyme scheme, soliloquy, aside. Yesterday we studied the Prologue and the form of the sonnet. We'll review the rest of your vocabulary list (on yesterday's post) today.




Tonight's reading will take you through the rest of Act I, scene one (page 744 of your text). Don't give up! Reading over the lines the night before will make the review the next day in class more meaningful. If you try, the words will indeed become clear.

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*Yesterday there was an interview on a national morning news show about how Shakespeare was being "fazed" out of some high schools because it was thought that students today did not have the reading ability to study this literature because it is too hard. How sad!

Romeo and Juliet: A Brawling Love Story

• I'm sorry that the flu swept through my house, but I'm glad to be back today to begin actually reading Romeo and Juliet. Today we'll talk about setting and vocabulary as it applies to our play. (The picture for this post is of the Montague gang from Luhrman's modern day version of the play.) The vocabulary for our play is made up of the following words:

• dramatic irony
• imagery
• soliloquy
• protagonist
• antagonist
• aside
• monologue
• tragedy
• paradox
• irony
• reversal
• climax
• prophecy
• fate
• hypocrite
  

For those of you who need extra help with translating the script, here is a site! For those of you struggling with not enough side notes, you'll see this site gives a line by line translation.

Today we'll begin to read the play, including the Prologue and scene 1, and we will also take some time to fill out your study notes over the play. As Act I opens, we'll get a glimpse of downtown Verona, the street action, and what teenage boys think is cool. You may wonder how much life has changed and if teenagers still value the same things! Is it still important for a guy to be seen as tough? Do guys still like to fight? Are there rival gangs who struggle for power?

When we finally meet Romeo, the fact that he's in love with being in love becomes obvious. It might be confusing that he's in love with a girl that we never get to meet because she's not actually in the play, just referred to as Rosaline. Romeo loves a girl who won't love him back. She has sworn off love, so he just mopes around. The fact that he's not really in love - just thinks he is - sets up a nice contrast for the audience to see when he REALLY falls in love. Aye me, sad hours seem long.