Group Review of The Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet

Group Review of
The Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet
DIRECTIONS: In your small group, you will have 30 seconds to
discuss your answer to the question before delivering it to the
class. Select one person to speak for your group. Other groups
will have a chance to steal if the group gets it wrong.
Act I, scene i
Act I, scene v
Shakespearean Trivia Board
Act I review
Conflict
5 pts.
Characterization
5 pts.
Motivation
5 pts.
Foreshadowing
10 pts.
Pun
10 pts.
Paradox
10 pts.
Aside
15 pts.
Family Tree
15 pts.
Analogy
15 pts.
•Conflict. Discuss the
sources of tension in the
first scene. Why are
these characters upset?
•Characterization.
Describe the Nurse.
Describe her
relationship with Juliet.
• Motivation. Who are
Romeo’s friends and what is
their plan in scenes 2-5?
Discuss the debate they have
with Romeo, as well as their
motivations for this plan.
• Foreshadowing. The Prologue
states that this is the story of
“star-crossed lovers.” There are
four strong foreshadowings of
evil in Act 1. Identify at least one
foreshadowing and explain its
purpose.
• Pun. A pun is a play on words. Usually a pun
involves words that sound alike, even though
they are spelled differently and have
different meanings. In scene 4, Romeo is
punning when he tells Mercutio why he
cannot dance. “You have dancing shoes /
With nimble soles. I have a soul of lead / So
stakes me to the ground I cannot move”
(1.4.14-16). What is Romeo’s pun? Find
another example of punning in Act I.
– SAMPSON- I mean, an we be in choler, we'll draw.
GREGORY- Ay, while you live, draw your neck out o'
the collar.
– ROMEO- I dream'd a dream to-night.
MERCUTIO- And so did I.
ROMEO- Well, what was yours?
MERCUTIO- That dreamers often lie.
• Paradox. A paradox is a statement that appears to contradict
itself, but on closer examination reveals a truth. For example,
when Juliet describes Romeo as “My only love, sprung from
my only hate!” (1.5.152) she appears to contradict herself. On
closer examination, however, you understand that she realizes
a sad fact: Romeo, her “only love,” belongs to the Montague
family, a family she has been taught to despise since birth,
hence, her “only hate.” In scene 1, Romeo describes his love
for Rosaline in a series of paradoxes. Choose two paradoxes
and explain them.
Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still,
Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will!
Where shall we dine? O me! What fray was here?
Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.
Here's much to do with hate, but more with love.
Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O any thing, of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire,
sick health!
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
Dost thou not laugh?
• Aside. An aside is a remark
whispered by one character to
another, which other characters on
stage are not supposed to hear. In
Scene 1, for example, when Sampson
and Gregory pick a fight with the
Montagues, they plan their strategy
through whispered asides. Find
another example of an aside in Act 1
and explain how it is used.
• Family Tree. Match each of the following
characters to one the families:
• Montagues, Capulets, or Prince Escalus.
Benvolio
Mercutio
Tybalt
Nurse
Paris
Juliet
Gregory
Romeo
Analogy: In Act I, scene 5 lines 92-105 Romeo and Juliet
speak to each other in a sonnet. Paraphrase the lines of the
sonnet, explaining the analogy that Romeo uses to woo Juliet.
ROMEO: If I profane with my
unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready
stand
To smooth that rough touch with a
tender kiss.
JULIET: Good pilgrim, you do wrong your
hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims'
hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.
ROMEO: Have not saints lips, and holy
palmers too?
JULIET: Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must
use in prayer.
ROMEO: O, then, dear saint, let lips do
what hands do;
They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to
despair.
JULIET: Saints do not move, though grant
for prayers' sake.
ROMEO: Then move not, while my
prayer's effect I take.
Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is
purged.
JULIET: Then have my lips the sin that
they have took.
ROMEO: Sin from thy lips? O trespass
sweetly urged!
Give me my sin again.