English 10: Introduction to Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

For each category below, brainstorm everything you already know:

1. William Shakespeare

• married in 1557
• lived in a town called Stratford in England and then he moved to London
• the most well known writer in the English language
• wrote poems, comedies, tragedies, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello

2. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet

• both characters kill themselves but before they die, they must learn something about themselves
• the story is set in Italy in a town called Verona
• Romeo and Juliet's families are in a feud so they cannot be involved
• They fall in love 
• Similarities between love and hate (both obsessions, both are powerful emotions, both consume energy, can love turn to hate?/ fond of hate,

3. The Renaissance Era

• a re-birth of culture (art, science, inventions, literature, architecture, religion) 
• a time of great change
• Queen Elizabeth -- she became queen at 25, she never married,  

4. The Shakespearean sonnet (also called The English sonnet)

• it's a poem with a lot of RULES
• has to be 14 lines long
• it has to have a specific rhyme scheme
• idealize the woman (she was beautiful, perfect, the man longed for her but could never have her) 
• written in iambic pentametre ( a very specific form of rhythm)

5. iambic pentametre

• iambic is an adj: iamb is two syllables and the second syllable is stressed (when you have two syllables, it's called a FOOT) 
• pentametre (five feet) 5 X 2 (feet) 

Homework: Study the vocab words 26 to 36. Pre-test tomorrow. Study all the notes above.