Homework for Monday 26th

 Watch West Side Story starring Natalie Wood, 1961 (streaming...)

Read the balcony scene again (on the blog) and your notes (a summary is given here)

Compare the lovers in the play and the film...

HAVE A NICE HOLIDAY!

 

Here is a summary of what you said (April 8th)

Lesson one : "impossible matches"

A)  Romeo and Juliet… the balcony scene

 

NB: Thou = you

 

Thy father= your father

 

Will in old English = want

 

Where are the characters ? Why is it important?

Juliet is on a balcony while Romeo isn’t; Juliet doesn’t know he is in her garden at the beginning and she imagines she is speaking alone.

 

What happened before this scene?

The very young lovers (Juliet is supposed to be 14) met at a ball…. It was love at first sight

But their two families (the Montagues and the Capulets) hate each other.

 

FOCUS ON THE SCENE

A)   1)  Pick out all the elements showing it is a “love” scene

 

The vocabulary and stylistic devices are  typical (bright+ angels…/ hyberboles / the fact Romeo is ready to give up his name/ he would gladly be baptized again/ Juliet uses the metaphor of the rose to show she will love Romeo whatever his name is…/ comparisons (as glorious as the night…) / “dear saint”/

 

“My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words
Of that tongue's utterance, yet I know the sound”=

even if I have just heard a few words from you, I can immediately recognize your voice…

 

Romeo refers to Cupid (with his wings…)

He shows the power of love (which enabled him to climb walls…!)

 

B)  2)   Show there are many elements which disturb the scene….

Juliet fears he MAY   be killed by her family as he is regarded as a foe (= enemy) because of an old feud. (quarrel/ conflict)

Juliet said she feared he MIGHT be killed.

 

Romeo keeps referring to Juliet as a supernatural creature as if she came from heaven (after dying???) or as if she was impossible to reach (they cannot be together)

 

She is in the sky, he is in the garden (orchard) / (in one of the films Juliet is even wearing the costume of an angel).

 

The reference to baptism implies Romeo is ready to die (to get another, better life)…

 

So this is dramatic irony: we know what the characters don’t:  we are made to understand that everything is leading them to their untimely death

We know what is in store for them.

All the clues foreshadow their tragic end. Their love is doomed to failure.

 

 

Let’s take a last example: “there lies more peril in your eye / Than twenty of their swords…”

 

As they are exchanging their vows (of love) Romeo explains her beauty is more dangerous to him than a real weapon; moreover the final antitheses (love and hate/ life and death) show that Romeo is ready to accept the challenge…

 They run away together...

NB: the end:

Thinking Juliet is dead, Romeo kills himself; So does Juliet when she actually wakes up... So both commit suicide.