Romeo and Juliet

"A greater power than we can contradict / Hath thwarted our intents."

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(1) What do we learn from the opening conversation between the two servants and from their encounter with the servants from the other house? Why might Shakespeare have chosen to begin this play with these characters and this scene?

(2) Despite the fact that Act II ends with the wedding of Romeo and Juliet, there are strong elements of foreshadowing even in the first two acts to suggest that their love will come to a tragic end. What are some of these?

(3) How does the comment "The course of true love never did run smooth" from A Midsummer Night's Dream seem to be applicable to this play?

(4) Who is Rosaline and what has been her relationship with Romeo in the past?

(5) How does Romeo come to meet Juliet?

(6) Compare Shakespeare's treatment of Time in this play to his treatment of it in the Sonnets.

(7) How would you characterize the Nurse? What is her view of love? How does her view contrast with other views of love expressed by various characters in the play?

(8) What are some of the dominant image patterns in the play? How does Shakespeare use them to contribute to theme and characterization?

(9) Note the poetic qualities of this play. What are some instances of Shakespeare's use of paradox, simile, and metaphor? In what kinds of verse do the various characters speak? Do you find any sonnet forms interwoven into the text of the play?

(10) Read carefully Friar Lawrence's speech in Act II, scene iii. What is the significance of his comments on the herbs? How sound is his advice to Romeo, and on what is it based (since presumably he has never been in love himself)?

(11) Who or what are the enemies that impede love in this play?

(12) Romeo cries out at one point that he is "Fortune's fool." Is this true? To what extent is Fate responsible for the play's outcome? The lovers themselves? Coincidence?

(13) According to the definitions of tragedy in your text supplement, are Romeo and Juliet tragic characters? Is Paris a tragic character?

(14) What ironies appear in this play?

(15) Are the main characters in this play consistent, that is, are their actions believable and predictable knowing what we do about them? Do they seem realistic?

(16) Critics have commented that each comic character and event in this play also contains the seeds of serious or tragic outcomes. Do you find this observation to be true?

(17) Think about the staging of the play in the various scenes in which we see Romeo and Juliet together. is it true that we ordinarily see the two of them in an isolated microcosm of love that is removed (although only slightly) from the dangers of the real, macrocosmic world?

(18) What powers does Shakespeare attribute to love in this play?

(19) How is Death portrayed in this play? How do various characters view it (particularly the lovers)?

(20) Is love in this play portrayed as "real" or as "ideal," or somewhere in between? In what dies its power lie?

(21) What is the function of dreams in this play (as opposed to A Midsummer Night's Dream)?

(22) Examine the death scene in the tomb and the final eulogy for the lovers. What kinds of imagery predominate in these scenes? What might be the significance of this imagery's being used here?

(23) Who is the final speaker in the tragedy? Why might Shakespeare have chosen this person to deliver the play's concluding lines?

(24) In A Midsummer Night's Dream, love is described and portrayed as a discordia concors. Is that true of love in this play as well? Is love ultimately a reconciling force in this play? Is it ultimately a force that creates disorder?

Scott Walters, Romeo and Juliet: Consumed by Fire (Illinois Shakespeare Festival article)

Insightful articles available in the library include these:

Dowden, Edward. "Atmosphere and Character in 'Romeo and Juliet'" in Siegel, His Infinite Variety, 268-78.
* Granville-Barker, Harley. "Tragic Irony in 'Romeo and Juliet'" in Siegel, His Infinite Variety, 280-82.
Lawlor, John. "'Romeo and Juliet'" in Early Shakespeare, 123-43.
Levin, Harry. "Form and Formality in 'Romeo and Juliet'" in Kernan, Modern Shakespearean Criticism, 279-89.
Mahood, M. M. "Wordplay in 'Romeo and Juliet'" in Lerner, Shakespeare's Tragedies, 17-32.
* Spurgeon, Carolyn. "The imagery of 'Romeo and Juliet'" in Dean, Shakespeare: Modern Essays in Criticism, 72-78.

Romeo and Juliet Itinerary, part of a larger tour of Verona: City of Art and History site

Illustrations of scenes from the play

Baz Luhrmann's recent modernized Romeo and Juliet (Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes)

Justin Shaltz, Review of Illinois Shakespeare Festival performance, summer 1994 (Shakespeare Bulletin Review)

Performance reviews available in the library include these:

Brown, John Russell. "Three Adaptations" in Shakespeare Survey 13 (1960): 142-45.
Kirschbaum, Leo. "Romeo, Character and Style" in Character and Characterization in Shakespeare, 111-18.
Shrimpton, Nicholas. "Shakespeare Performances in London, Manchester and Stratford-upon-Avon 1985-6" in Shakespeare Survey 40 (1988): 178-79.

You could easily do a Film Review paper on the play.

In addition to the recent film listed above, Zeffirelli's 1968 film received much critical attention
A take-off on Shakespeare's story is "West Side Story" (1961) directed by Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise