william shakespeare’s romeo and juliet€¦ · cymbeline, romeo and juliet, much ado about...

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STUDY GUIDEWilliam Shakespeare’s

ROMEO AND JULIET

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classic repertory company

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mosesian center for the arts

Funded in part by generous individual contributors, the National Endowment for the Arts, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Foundation for MetroWest, Esther B. Kahn Foundation, Fuller Foundation, The Marshall Home Fund, Peter Fuller Car Rentals, Roy A. Hunt Foundation, and Watertown Community Foundation. This program is also supported in part by grants from the Andover Cultural Council, Framingham Cultural Council, Hudson Cultural Council, Hull Cultural Council, Saugus Cultural Council, Waltham Cultural Council, Watertown Cultural Council, and Westford Cultural Council, local agencies which are supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.

Romeo and Juliet Study Guide 2

Biography William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564. Some believe that he was born on

April 23, which is when we typically celebrate his birthday in modern day. He was the oldest son of

John and Mary Shakespeare’s eight children. In

November of 1582, when Shakespeare was 18,

he married Anne Hathaway, a 26 year-old woman.

At the time, due to his young age, William would

have needed permission to marry Anne from her

father. In May of 1583, William and Anne’s oldest

daughter, Susana, was born, followed a few

years later, in 1585, by twins, Judith and Hamnet.

Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, would die at 11

years-old.

In the late 1580’s, Shakespeare began to split his time between London, working in theatre there,

and Stratford-upon-Avon, where his family was living. Not much is known about Shakespeare’s life

from 1585 to 1592, at which point he was already an established playwright in London. Shakespeare

wrote his earliest poem, Venus and Adonis, in 1593. In 1594, Shakespeare and other actors in London

formed the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. The Lord Chamberlain’s Men was a new theatre company and

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1564 Born in Stratford-upon-Avon

1582 Marries Anne Hathaway

1585 Moves to London to pursue theatre career

1592 London closes theatres due to plague

1593 Starts to write sonnets

1594 Publishes first works of poetry

1594 Starts managing, as well as writing for, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men

1596 Romeo and Juliet first performed

1599 Lord Chamberlain’s Men begin performing at the newly built Globe Theater

1603 The Lord Chamberlain’s Men is renamed the King’s Men in honor of the new King James’ patronage

1604 Retires from acting

1613 The Globe Theatre burns down

1614 The Globe Theatre is rebuilt

1616 Dies and is buried at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-Upon-Avon

adapted from http://absoluteshakespeare.com/trivia/timeline.htm

A Timeline of Shakespeare’s Life

SHAKESPEARE’S GRAVESTONE AT STRATFORD-UPON-AVON


Shakespeare acted as the manager and main writer. Shakespeare wrote for the Lord Chamberlain’s

Men for almost twenty years. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was first performed by the Lord

Chamberlain’s Men in 1596. In 1599, the theatre company moved to a new space, the Globe Theater

and in 1603, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men were renamed the King’s Men. This name change was

to honor the new King James’s support of the

group. In 1604, Shakespeare retired as an actor.

The Globe Theater burned down in 1613, but

was rebuilt by 1614. In 1616, at the age of 52,

Shakespeare died in Stratford-upon-Avon.

He was buried in Holy Trinity Church on April

25, 1616. His wife, Anne, would die in 1623.

Shakespeare’s grave in the Holy Trinity Church

reads, “Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare, To

digg the dust encloased heare, Blest be the man

that spares these stones, And curst be he that

moves my bones.”

Why do we read Shakespeare?Shakespeare’s works are over 400 years old. Since his time, countless other books and plays have

been written, so why do we still read and perform his words?

People often refer to Shakespeare’s work as timeless and universal because the issues and themes

prevalent in his works apply to humans of all ages and backgrounds; themes of love, self-discovery,

relationships, and political strife are relevant in any society, whether in 1600, 1850, or 2019. Through

watching or reading Shakespeare, we can easily draw parallels to contemporary and historical issues.

Shakespeare’s plays are also driven by human psychology. His characters are so well developed

that we do not merely view the wide range of human emotions and the changes that each character

experiences, but we also identify with these characters and their personal struggles throughout

each play.

Shakespeare also made many contributions to the English language. He created thousands of

new words and phrases that we still use today. For instance, the common phrase “all’s well that ends

well” actually comes from the title of one of Shakespeare’s comedies! One might even say that

Shakespeare’s plays were part of the birth of modern English due to his creative wordplay, clever

imagery, and evocative, if sometimes crude, analogies.

So, why do we still choose to read and watch Shakespeare today? We can learn so much about his

culture and time that are still relevant. We can enhance our vocabulary greatly by studying his use of

words and contributions to the English language.

SHAKESPEARE’S GLOBE THEATER TODAY


CHARLOTTE AND SUSAN CUSHMAN AS ROMEO AND JULIET, 1846. HARVARD THEATRE COLLECTION.

In watching or reading Shakespeare’s plays, challenge

yourself to try and find something that applies to you and

your life. It could be a character, a specific line, one of the

main themes, or even a relationship. Everyone can connect

to and identify with these plays in some capacity, so find

the reason or multiple reasons his plays apply to you. ■

Questions1. What do you already know about Shakespeare

coming into this experience? What are your preconceived notions about him and his work?

2. What is something you would like to learn about Shakespeare?

Writing Prompt

1. While reading or watching Romeo and Juliet, try to find something or someone that you can connect to personally. It could be a character, a specific line, one of the main themes, or the relationship between two characters. Where is your point of connection?

Romeo and Juliet Performance History

“Of all Shakespeare’s plays, this is perhaps the one that is performed, if not the oftenest, with most

pleasure to the spectator.” So begins Hazlitt’s 1819 edition of Shakespeare’s “most excellent tragedie,”

Romeo and Juliet. This play, above all others, has proved most popular with audiences through the

ages. The Bodleian First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays held in the Oxford Library during the 1600s was

sold in 1664, but reclaimed in 1905. When historians examined it, they noted that the pages of Romeo

and Juliet were by far the most worn. It has long held a special place in audience’s hearts.


Romeo and Juliet was first performed sometime

close to 1596, when Shakespeare was with the Lord

Chamberlain’s Men. While records of the period

do not list the players according to parts, we can

assume that the famed Richard Burbage played the

titular Romeo, with the fourteen-year-old Robert Goff

as the first Juliet. It wasn’t until William Davenant

produced the play in 1662 that Mary Saunderson

took the stage as the first female Juliet.

During the early 1700s, the script was censored

by those who felt some of the writing was immoral.

David Garrick, who was famous for publishing

censored editions of Shakespeare’s major plays,

produced his edition of the text, with several large

changes. The most notable of which is that the final

scene between Romeo and Juliet shows Romeo still

alive when Juliet wakes up, allowing them a final

farewell before Romeo succumbs to the poison. This edition was performed in 1730 by an amateur

company in the United States; making it the first American production of Romeo and Juliet. In 1845,

Charlotte Cushman became the first female Romeo, performing the play with her sister Susan as

Juliet on a world tour to unanimous critical acclaim. Most importantly, she made the brave decision to

restore Shakespeare’s original text.

In 1935, the renowned Sirs Laurence

Olivier and John Gielgud performed a

critically acclaimed version of the play at

the New Theatre in London. Olivier and

Gielgud, interestingly, swapped roles

every night between who would play

Romeo and who would play Mercutio.

Franco Zeffirelli, an Italian director, was

hired by The Old Vic in London to direct the

play in 1960 for what became a two year run.

The play starred Dame Judi Dench and was

notably shortened, with 1,000 lines, or one-third

of the play, cut. Although Shakespeare purists were outraged at the omission of the Bard’s language, many

critics loved the ease of Zeffirelli’s storytelling. When Paramount Pictures wanted to create a film version

of Romeo and Juliet they hired Zeffirelli, who used similar cuts to his stage version. The film was an instant

LAURENCE OLIVIER AND PEGGY ASHCROFT IN THE JOHN GIELGUD NEW THEATRE PRODUCTION, 1935

LEONARD WHITING, MILO O’SHEA, AND OLIVIA HUSSEY IN FRANCO ZEFFIRELLI’S FILM, 1968


success, and nearly universally loved by critics. No other

film version would be made for another 28 years, until Baz

Luhrmann directed Romeo + Juliet, a “punk rock opera

bursting with vitality, violence, noise, and camp humor” in

1996. It, like its predecessor, was a smash hit.

Source: Shakespeare, William, and Rene Weis. Romeo and Juliet. New York:

Bloomsbury, 2012. Print..

Shakespeare’s Sources

The story of Romeo and Juliet, drawn from a feud between

two Italian families, existed long before Shakespeare’s play. In

1298 Dante Alighieri wrote a letter to the Holy Roman Emperor

Albert I, warning him of the danger between two Italian families,

the Montecchi and Capelletti. Luigi da Porto, an Italian writer,

popularized the story with his novel Historia novellamente ritrovata di due nobili amanti (c. 1530). The story then fascinated writers and

readers alike, being re-told by many writers, notably Matteo Bandello,

an Italian writer who compiled a series of stories into a volume called Novelle in 1554. Shakespeare

read these stories as translated by Willam Paynter in his Palace of Pleasure in 1567. He frequently

turned to the stories that Bandello had recorded, most notably using him as a source for his plays

Cymbeline, Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing, and Twelfth Night. .Still, no source is more important for Romeo and Juliet than Arthur Brooke’s The Tragicall Historye

of Romeus and Juliet, written in 1562 and reprinted in 1582 due to high demand. The poem was 3,020

lines long, almost exactly as long as the play it inspired. Many scholars insist that Shakesepare had

the text at his desk as he was writing, noting the fact that Shakespeare frequently borrows some of his

most famous imagery from Brooke’s poem, including the famous “holy palmers” exchange between

PORTRAIT OF MATTEO BANDELLO

BAZ LUHRUMANN’S1996 FILM ADAPTATION ROMEO + JULIET


Romeo and Juliet.

Despite the numerous similarities between Brooke’s and

Shakespeare’s versions of the story, it is Shakespeare’s changes that

are most interesting. Some are very simple, and most likely practical.

Shakespeare retains the English version of Juliet’s name – her Italian

name is Giulietta – but uses Romeo’s Italian name rather than the

English Romeus as used by Brooke. These simple changes can be

easily ascribed to the fact that Romeo and Juliet are far easier to

rhyme with than their unwieldy counterparts.

There are, however, many differences that are more profound.

Shakespeare’s Juliet is thirteen, a full three years younger than Brooke’s

sixteen-year-old heroine. This younger version of Juliet creates a

greater sense of trepidation in an Elizabethan audience, who would

consider marriage to be appropriate for a 16 year old, but not for a 13

year old. He also compresses the action of the play to a mere four

days, whereas Brooke extends the action over nine months, with

Romeus and Juliet remaining married for a full three months before they

die. Shakespeare’s shortened timeline makes the play almost impossibly

fast-moving, giving the lovers no time to act and denying them any

chance of escape from their tragic end.

It is important to note that Shakespeare rarely invented his stories,

but sourced them from history and other pieces of literature. At

least three other writers had already written about Romeo and Juliet

before Shakespeare, and audiences were very familiar with the story.

Shakespeare is most famous not for his ability to invent a plotline, but for

his ability to re-invent his source material and shape a compelling story.

Romeo and Juliet, one of his most popular works, is a testament to his

ability to take an existing, familiar story and shape it into a dramatic play

that can shock, awe, and touch the hearts of young and old alike.

The Power of Love vs. HateRomeo and Juliet is one of the most famous love stories, but one of the main themes of the play is hate.

The play’s conflict centers on the feud between the Montague and Capulet families and the plot can only

unfold with the help of this intense hatred. In the play, we also see characters, like Tybalt, who are motivated

by hate. As soon as he sees Romeo, Tybalt decides that he will kill him, “Now, by the stock and honor of my

kin, / To strike him dead I hold it not a sin” (1.5.57-58). His hatred of Romeo and the Montagues, drives him to

act impulsively and attack Romeo. Shakespeare shows how powerful of an emotion hate can be; but the love

in the play is also shown as violent passion that can overwhelm the characters’ senses, values and loyalty. We

see that Romeo and Juliet are both motivated by love; to them love is more important than anything else. For

FRONTISPIECE OF BROOKE’S TRAGICALL HISTORYE OF ROMEUS AND JULIET.

MATTEO BANDELLO NOVELLE, 1791


their love, Romeo and Juliet go against the norms of their society, including their families. After first meeting

Romeo, Juliet cries, “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? / Deny thy father and refuse thy name, /

Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, / And I’ll no longer be a Capulet” (2.2.36-39).

Her love for Romeo is so powerful and all encapsulating that she disregards everything this has been taught.

Similarly forgetting his own safety, Romeo exclaims,

“With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls,

For stony limits cannot hold love out,

And what love can do, that dares love attempt.

Therefore thy kinsmen are no stop to me . . .

Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye

Than twenty of their swords. Look thou but sweet,

And I am proof against their enmity (2.2.66-74).”

Shakespeare also demonstrates the close link between love and hate and how these two powerful emotions

often cannot be separated. When Juliet realizes that she loves a Montague, she says, “My only love sprung

from my only hate! / Too early seen unknown, and known too late! / Prodigious birth of love it is to me, / That I

must love a loathèd enemy” (1.5.38-41).

This demonstrates how love can often develop out of hate, or vice versa. Shakespeare shows that though hate

and love are often seen as opposites, they are more connected than we know. The play ends with the Prince

saying, “A glooming peace this morning with it brings.” (5.3.321) The love and death of Romeo and Juliet has

begun to mend the feud between their families.

Fate vs. Free WillAudiences frequently ponder if Romeo and Juliet

were doomed from the start or if the “star crossed

lovers” controlled their destinies through their own

mistakes. Whichever side you’re on, there’s no question

that the idea of fate is constant in the play. Shakespeare

shares his opinion in the prologue, introducing the

inevitable before the play has even begun.

“From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,

Whose misadventured piteous overthrows

Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.

The fearful passage of their death-marked love” (Prologue.5-9)

In Shakespeare’s time, and still today, many believe that our outcomes are controlled by the stars. Not only

were Romeo and Juliet’s death “marked” by love from the very beginning, it was written in the stars before

they were born. Additionally, when Romeo decides to take his own life, he says that he will defy the stars

(5.1.24). Romeo believes that by killing himself he is controlling his destiny, when if fact he may only be fulfilling

FATE VS FREE WILL, PHOTO BY ANANTPAL SINGH SALUJA

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PLAYERS’ AID


his fate. Fate has a hand in all of the plays events, from the feud between the two families, to Friar Lawrence’s

plan, and the poor timing of Romeo’s death. Shakespeare implies that none of these events are accidents;

instead, they were fated to fulfill the deaths of these young lovers.

While not Shakespeare’s original intent, many modern readers may see the events of the play as a series of

unfortunate accidents. For example, Romeo and Benvolio happen to meet on the day of the Capulets’ ball. If

they had met even a day before or after, Romeo maybe would not have even met Juliet. Therefore, we can ask

if the characters have free will, does this free will affect the outcome of the play or is free will powerless in the

face of fate?

Questions1. Several characters in Romeo and Juliet have very different opinions about the nature of love.

What do you think Shakespeare believes about love?

2. Do you think that the deaths of Romeo and Juliet were preventable or inevitable? Were their deaths caused more by fate or free will? Why?

3. What other themes do you see in Romeo and Juliet?

Writing Prompt1. Choose a theme within Romeo and Juliet and describe how it develops over the course of the

text. Cite specific examples from the text.

Classic Repertory Company Production

Throughout the past 400 years, Romeo and Juliet has been performed hundreds of times on stages across

the globe, and each production is unique. Every company has the opportunity to decide how they want to

tell the story. The actors and director may decide to place the story in a different setting, or to change the

gender or ethnicity of one of the characters, or add new elements like movement or music. Making these

changes can provide the opportunity to highlight new themes in the story, to draw connections between

the play and our modern day, or simply to mix things up! Our production is no different. To start, we have

our own unique group of actors who have their own ideas and interpretations of the play. Our production

is 90-minutes long, which means we’ve had to cut some of the text and a few minor characters to focus on

what we think is most important. We also have a cast of six actors, which means you’ll see actors playing

multiple characters. Look out for actors changing costumes and the addition of particular props to show


when they are playing different characters. We take our shows

on the road to venues of all sizes, which means our set needs

to be light and mobile. We have lots of musicians in our cast,

so we like to use live music. Our actors are all recent college

graduates, which means some of them will play characters that

are older or younger than they are. All of these things make

our production unique, in the hopes of offering you a new way

to experience the story. We look forward to talking with you

after the show, and hearing about your experience!

Post Show Questions

1. Now that you have seen Romeo and Juliet performed, how have your feelings about the play, characters, or themes changed?

2. Shakespeare’s language is specific, complex and can sometimes be hard to understand. Did you struggle to understand the text at times when you read the play? Was it easier to comprehend when you heard the words spoken by the actors and the actions played out on stage? Did the story make more sense to you when you read it or when you watched it on stage? Why or why not? Do you think your experience of seeing the play would have been different if you hadn’t read it first?

Writing Prompt

1. Look through your local newspapers or online for theatre reviews. Read a few, then write your own review of Classic Repertory Company’s Romeo and Juliet. Think about what parts of the show you enjoyed, what parts you didn’t understand, how the performers embodied the characters, and whether any production elements hindered or enhanced the telling of the story. Feel free to send the review over to us when you’re done!

CRC’S 2016-2017 PRODUCTION OF ROMEO AND JULIET. PHOTO BY CHRIS MCKENZIE

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