The Literary Elements of Romeo and Juliet

The Literary Elements ofRomeo and Juliet

Prologue

 Chorus   1    Two households, both alike in dignity,   2    In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,   3    From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,   4    Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.   5    From forth the fatal loins of these two foes   6    A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;   7    Whose misadventured piteous overthrows   8    Do with their death bury their parents' strife.   9    The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,  10    And the continuance of their parents' rage,  11    Which, but their children's end, nought could

remove,  12    Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;  13    The which if you with patient ears attend,  14    What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

The Myth of Pyramis and Thisbe

The settings and summaries

Act 1

Setting Action

Scene 1Scene 2Scene 3Scene 4Scene 5

Act 2

Setting Action

Scene 1Scene 2Scene 3Scene 4Scene 5

Act 3

Setting Action

Scene 1Scene 2Scene 3Scene 4Scene 5

Act 4

Setting Action

Scene 1Scene 2Scene 3Scene 4Scene 5

Act 5

Setting Action

Scene 1Scene 2Scene 3

Characters

Members of the Capulet family

1.2.3.4.5.

Employed by the Capulets

1.2.3.4.

Members of the Montague family

1.2.3.4.

Employed by the Montagues

1.2.

The clergy

1.2.

The Women Romeo Loves

1.2. 

Romeo’s Friend

1. 

Royalty/Servant of Royalty

1.2.3. Friend of Romeo4.

Character in Mantua

1.

Miscellaneous Characters

Important Quotes

Vocabulary

Character Grave Heaven Mask Sword Peace Ball Banish Curse Friar Poison Rope ladder Crowbar

Types of irony

Dramatic irony - "when words and actions possess a significance that the listener or audience understands, but the speaker or character does not"

Verbal irony - "when a speaker says one thing but means another, or when a literal meaning is contrary to its intended effect. An example of this is sarcasm"

Situational irony - "when the result of an action is contrary to the desired or expected effect“

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080611141557AAVi9v8

Types of Irony

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Tragedy

Characteristics of a Greek Tragedy

Characteristics of a Tragic Hero The tragic hero is a man of noble stature.

He is not an ordinary man, but a man with outstanding quality and greatness about him. His own destruction is for a greater cause or principle.

Common characteristics of a tragic heroAccording to Aristotle:

1. Usually of noble birth

2. Hamartia – a.k.a. the tragic flaw that eventually leads to his downfall.

3. Peripeteia – a reversal of fortune brought about by the hero’s tragic flaw

4. His actions result in an increase of self- awareness and self-knowledge

5. The audience must feel pity and fear for this character.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090402145906AAkAt0W

http://shakespeare.nuvvo.com/lesson/4435-elements-of-a-tragic-hero-in-literature

Characteristics of a Shakespearean Tragedy

The tragic story will be primarily concerned with one character.   It leads up to and includes the death of the tragic hero.   It depicts the troubled part of the hero’s life which precedes and leads up to his death.   The hero is an exceptional person; the suffering and the calamity are therefore extraordinary.   The suffering and calamity frequently contrasts with the hero’s previous happiness and/or glory.   These calamities came from the actions of the characters. Action leads to reaction until there is a

catastrophe. Therefore the tragedy not only happens to the character but is caused by him or her.   Actions are the dominant factor in Shakespearean tragedy. These are characteristic actions that are

expressive to the doer. The centre of the tragedy may be said to lie in action issuing from character.   Tragic heroes are exceptional beings. In most of them there is a marked one-sidedness, a predisposition in

one particular direction or an obsessiveness of thought or action. This is frequently referred to as the tragic flaw.

  The tragedy can be seen as an example of justice. The form of justice acts through the characters and is

usually severe and terrible. In spite of our fear or pity, we accept the conclusion because our sense of justice is satisfied.

  Tragedy assumes a sense of justice and also assumes the dignity and worth of man. Good and evil must

exist, but there is no tragedy in the expulsion of evil. The tragedy is that this expulsion involves the waste of good.

  The upheaval of order in the lives of the characters is paralleled in the upheaval of political and social

institutions and is mirrored by events in the natural environment.

Dramatic Structure

Timeline of those who die/how

Essays

Who is your favorite character and why?Who is the tragic hero and why?Explain Friar Lawrence’s plan and tell what

is good about it and what isn’t? Why does it fail? Is it his fault?

What do you think the letter from Friar Laurence to Romeo would have said?

Create a dialogue between Lord Montague and Lord Capulet on the anniversary of the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.