Romeo and Juliet

We will be studying this play after Christmas! In the meantime, why not mug up on Shakespeare and R&J...

...with the lovely Stephen Fry and friends...
...by finding out about the history of the English language...
...by watching an angry dad...
...with Franco Zeffirelli.



7 comments:

  1. Shakespeare showed comedy through love, sometimes the characters mocked love however some characters experienced love. Romeo goes through hamartia and anagnorisis because he doesn’t know the true meaning of love and changes his feelings several times in the play. At first he likes Rosaline then he suddenly falls in love with Juliet. This shows the audience that Romeo is capricious in his emotions at first but as you go on through the play he discovers the true meaning of love and his love with Juliet is more serious because he ends up dyeing for her.
    Juliet is a tragic hero because the audience looks up to her and when she dies in the end the audience experiences a more intense catharsis. At first Juliet obeys her parents and the fact that she is a Capulet. She keeps her options open with Paris she says
    “I’ll look to like, if looking liking move;
    But no more deep will I endart mine eye
    Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.” However as you go on she goes against her parents and is noble to Romeo and gets married to him.
    The audience experiences pitty and fear throughout the play which builds up to the catharsis at the end of the play. This is not only because of the deaths but how all the conflict is shown between the Capulets and Montagues. Also the way each individual character shows comedy in different ways for example: comedy through language, love, complex plots and mistaken identities.
    I think in the first half of Romeo and Juliet is more of a comedy than a tragedy because all the tragedy is shown through comedy. Although as you go on towards the end it is more of a tragedy because the audience can really engage with what is going on in the play. For example in the first half Sampson says “I do bite my thumb, sir.” This makes the audience laugh because although he is swearing is shown through comedy.
    BY VLERA

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  2. Well done Vlera. This is a very good overview of the play, and an impressive response using these Greek terms for the first time.

    Comments:

    -You should capitalise Tragedy and Comedy to show that you are discussing genres
    -Romeo doesn't 'go through' hamartia or anagnorisis; he has hamartia and experiences anagnorisis. In the first paragraph, it looks like you're trying to say that his capriciousness is his hamartia. If this is the case, you should make this point more explicit.
    -I like your idea that the tragedy is shown through comedy, but you should give some examples of this.

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  3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmQUyGBUKpo

    I deleted the first post by mistake!

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  4. One word: Wow! This is superb! You have really captured the tone of an intellectual panel show. I love the animation, the music and the discussions between the presenter and the guests.

    You make some interesting comments on whether it is a Comedy or a Tragedy. I like the argument you make that the play doesn't have to exactly fit into Aristotle's definition for it to be a Tragedy.

    Target- Use more of the specific Aristotlean terms, e.g Hamartia, Catharsis, Anagnorisis etc.

    Overall, you have set the bar very high- the rest of the class would be hard pushed to beat this in terms of the presentation!

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  5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGhaX6qj5IA
    By Will, Nadiyah and Aysha

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  6. The shakespeare play Romeo & Juliet at times crosses two main genres, Comedy and Tragedy. The character Romeo is shown to experience hamartia because he changes his feelings towards females several times during the play.First loving Rosalind and then moving onto Juliet. The way the audience interprets Romeo is as being unsure about his feelings and who his heart is really set on. However as the play progresses Romeo reveals himself as being a true hero, as the love he has for Juliet drives him towards death.Juliet is more serious and mindset when it comes to love.Her tragic death in the end gets the audience to experience catharsis. Although Juliet doesn't change when it comes to romeo, she changes her attitude towards her parents at a point.She keeps her options open when marrying Paris is first mentioned to her, however she decides to stay loyal to Romeo after they get married.She disobeys her parents and betrays the Capulets. Which leads to a death cycle in the story. The audience is in constant fear and remorse their feelings build up and eventually at the end of the play causes catharsis. As well as Romeo&Juliet mostly seeming like a Tragedy, it crosses paths with Comedy too. In the play there is a scene where Mercutio mocks love. Making sexual jokes and mimicking Romeo with how hard he has fallen for Juliet. Comedy is also shown within each individual character with mistaken identities,love and comedy just shown with speech/ language .

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  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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