Romeo & Juliet

This teaching guide for high-ability students is designed as a self-contained unit which can be used to produce the AQA A GCSE Shakespeare coursework. The AQA A Shakespeare coursework is what is termed as a ‘cross-over’ piece; therefore, if you are using it for assessment for both English and English Literature GCSEs (the most common approach), you need to be able to address the assessment objectives for both. The resources referred to in this guide are listed at the end of the page under ‘Associated Resources’.

Let us...

Alfred Tennyson’s The Charge of the Light Brigade

Overview and Context

Written following the disastrous 1854 Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War, this poem can be read as both jingoistic and as highlighting the horrors of war. Whilst Tennyson was Poet Laureate at the time and might have been expected to produce patriotic poetry, there is a...

Wilfred Owen’s Futility

Overview and Context

Futility is one of the 5 poems that WW1 poet Owen had published during his lifetime. Composed most likely in Ripon – though perhaps in Scarborough – this lyric is set against the First World War, a kind of macrocosm when placed against the feud in Verona in Romeo and Juliet. It explores the...

Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 43

Overview and Context

Browning wrote a 44 sonnet series about her love for her fiancé Robert Browning which was never intended for publication. It was entitled Sonnets from the Portuguese with the title stemming from the epithet ‘my little Portugee’ Browning used for her. Sonnet 43 is a Petrarchan sonnet...

Andrew Marvel’s To His Coy Mistress

Overview and Context

The poem might be viewed as a literary exercise in logic as much as a ‘love’ poem’. Marvell’s speaker uses a tripartite structure to follow his argument to its conclusion, effectively forming a ‘syllogism’.

Love and Conflict

In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare explores several themes but perhaps the twin themes of love and conflict were uppermost in his mind when he conceived and wrote the play. At GCSE, the play is often used as part of a controlled assessment task in which students explore the presentation of one of these themes and compare it with...

Teacher’s Note

This first part of this EnglishEdu guide is aimed at students who are studying any Shakespeare play – but they can easily and profitably be adapted to suit any play.

The second part of the guide is an analysis and commentary of Act 3 Sc. 1 of Shakespeare’s play, ‘Romeo and Juliet’, with accompanying notes that are based upon ideas discussed in the guide’s first section.

• The notes accompanying Act 3 Scene 1 of the play are designed to work towards helping students who are planning their Controlled Assessment essay,...

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Romeo and Juliet Characters.doc

Call_My_Bluff.doc

Overview

A 4 week (12 lessons) scheme based on Romeo & Juliet for GCSE English and English Literature Pre-1914 Drama Coursework.

This unit covers the following topics:

1. Sequence the prologue in the correct order using rhymes and the order of the events to help you – Copy Out In The Right Order
2. Underneath your sequenced prologue, write a modern day translation for each of the 14 lines.
3. The prologue is written in the form of a sonnet. Write a) why you think it has been written in this form b) how many lines there are c) what the rhyme pattern is (use letters A, B, C etc.)
4. Produce a storyboard, doing one picture for each pair of lines ( = 7 pictures in total). Use a quotation for each caption.

The Elizabethan stage

Elizabethan attitudes to fate

Elizabethan attitudes to violence

Elizabethan attitudes to love (including courtly love)

Elizabethan attitudes to women

The Elizabethan family

Elizabethan attitudes to loyalty

Elizabethan Religion

Prologue

Two households, both alike in dignity,

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

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;

Whole misadventured piteous overthrows

Do 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,

Is now the two hours’...

How does Shakespeare use dramatic devices in Act 1 Scene 1 in order to make it an interesting, exciting and important scene?

Introduction:

Your introduction should begin to address the question immediately. It should introduce some of the key ideas you will explore in more detail later. Ensure you introduce some of the key ‘dramatic devices’ discussed in class. You should aim to give some Brief details about:

• How this scene sets in motion the key ideas/themes that are played out in the rest of the play (e.g. love, violence, conflict)
...

OVERALL:

***WELL DONE EVERYONE – I AM VERY IMPRESSED!***

What you’ve done really well

• Shown a very good understanding of the play as a whole
• Started to use quotation to back up your ideas
• Shown an understanding of what quotations mean
• Structured your essays clearly and effectively
• Analysed how characters’ attitudes to violence change
• Explained why violence is important to the play as a whole
• Used a wide range of vocabulary
• Started to show a personal response
• Shown how Shakespeare is still relevant today

What you need to develop

• ...

Question: In Act 3 Scene 1, what do we discover about the characters’ various attitudes to violence in this scene?

Consider:

• The language used by the key characters (Benvolio, Mercutio, Tybalt, Romeo, Prince, Lady Capulet)
• Who the characters are speaking to and how this affects their attitude
• What each character’s attitude is and what it tells you about them
• What the audience’s reaction would be to each character
• How the language might reflect social, historical and cultural attitudes

• Use the planning grid to gather quotations and...

What happens between Act 1 Scene 1 and Act 3 Scene 1?

Act 1 Scene 1

Sampson, Gregory, Abraham and Balthasar fight. Tybalt enters to fight and Benvolio tries to keep the peace. The Prince warns the citizens not to fight on pain of death. The Montague parents wonder where Romeo is. Romeo and Benvolio discuss the trouble of love.

Act 1 Scene 2

Lord Capulet and Paris discuss the possibility of Paris marrying Juliet. Capulet sends a servant out with the party invitations. The servant meets Romeo and Benvolio; Romeo sees the name of Rosaline (his...

This scene of hate and murder contrasts with Romeo and Juliet’s wedding in the previous scene. It marks the point where the lovers’ fortunes turn. The feud between the families runs too deep to be overcome by Romeo and Juliet’s new, ideal love. Despite Romeo’s best attempts to turn away from conflict he is drawn into it. Shakespeare’s skill as a dramatist is displayed as the audience are torn by their understanding of his desire to avenge his friend’s murder, yet we cannot doubt he has committed a crime. Focus here on the language...

This scene of hate and murder contrasts with Romeo and Juliet’s wedding in the previous scene. It marks the point where the lovers’ fortunes turn. The feud between the families runs too deep to be overcome by Romeo and Juliet’s new, ideal love. Despite Romeo’s best attempts to turn away from conflict he is drawn into it. Shakespeare’s skill as a dramatist is displayed as the audience are torn by their understanding of his desire to avenge his friend’s murder, yet we cannot doubt he has committed a crime. Focus here on the language...

First performed: 1594
First published: 1597
Revised for publication in The First Folio, 1623

What was happening at the time: Rodrigo Lopez, the Queen’s physician, executed for treason. A Spanish invasion attempted in Cornwall, beaten off by Sir Walter Raleigh

The play is based on a true story. The two lovers died in 1307

There were two families named Montague and Capulet living in Verona at the time.

Romeo and Juliet is probably the most famous of all Shakespeare’s plays.

Although the play is usually described as a tragedy, it...