Prologue
Today,
theatre-goers are usually given a printed program. This program tells the
audience about the playwright, the actors, and the play itself. Often the
program gives a brief overview of the entire story. Howerver,
in Elizabethan days, most people could not read. Moreover, printing was a new
craft and few books existed. Therefore, playwrights offered their audience a
prologue in place of a printed program. Elizabethan audiences listened
carefully to the information in such prologues.
Directions: There are Reading Questions
for each prologue and scene in the play. Read the questions BEFORE you read
each scene. These questions will guide you to important facts and ideas as you
read. After you read the scene, return to the Reading Questions and fill in
your responses, making sure you list the line number in the text where you
found the answer.
Before
Act I there is a short prologue narrated by the chorus. This prologue tells
where the play is set. It also reveals the problems the main characters will
face and how the play will end.
1.The two families are
fighting because they have an old grudge.(1.0. 3)
2. Who is involved in the fight besides
the two families.__________________________________________
3.This is a sad story of a
young couple’s ____________________________________________________
4.The parents’ anger is
finally ended by____________________________________________________
5.How many hours will it take
for this story to be acted out on the stage?_______________________________
Act I, Scene i
In
Italian city-states, noble families often feuded. Fights might be caused by an
insult. Or families might disagree over land ownership. Other feuds might be
caused by struggles for political power. Sometimes families feuded over
religious loyalties. For example, some people were loyal to the Pope and others
were not. Whatever the cause, the feuds proved dangerous and destructive. As
you read the first scene, notice how the characters are affected by a family
feud.
Romeo and Juliet takes place in Northern
Italy in the early 1300s (the 14th century). The play opens on a Sunday in the
streets of the city. Two Capulet servants, Sampson and Gregory, come onstage.
They boast of their bravery and what they will do to their enemies. Soon their
bragging will lead to fighting.
1.Scene i
opens in the streets of ________________which is a city in
____________________.
2.Two families in the play
hate one another. These families are the ________________& the
______________.
3.Prince Escalus
breaks up a fight caused by the feud between the two families. He says that if
a fight happens again, those involved
will____________________________________________.
4.Benvolio, Lord Montague and Lady
Montague discuss Romeo’s mood. List three things they say about Romeo that show he is depressed.
a.________________________________________________________________
b.________________________________________________________________
c.________________________________________________________________
5.Romeo confesses that he is
depressed and sad because__________________________________.
Act I, Scene ii
During
the Middle Ages, girls from noble families were
generally expected to marry young. A family was embarrased
if a daughter wasn’t married by the time she was fifteen. Unmarried girls might
be sent to a convent to receive training to be proper wives.
Marriages
were usually arranged by families of young people. Most of the time, the
engaged couple didn’t complain about the arrangements. Sometimes betrothals, or
engagements, were made when the children were as young as three. However, they
weren’t expected to marry until they were teenagers.
In
this scene, notice how a
marriage proposal is made.
Lord
Capulet and young Paris, Capulet’s distant relative, talk on a street in
Verona. Paris makes an important request of Capulet.
1.
2.What are rwo
reasons that Capulet hesitates to give his permission to
a._________________________________
b._________________________________
3.Benvolio tells Romeo, “Take thou
some new infection to thy eye, And the rank poison of the old will die.” The
infection Benvolio refers to is ____________.
a.In this quotation, Benvolio is urging Romeo to find someone else than____________to love.
b.How do you think Benvolio feels about love?_________________________________
Act I, Scene iii-iv
In
Shakespeare’s time, mothers from noble families commonly turned over the care
of their infants to other women. These women, called wet nurses, were usually
young peasant mothers. Often the children felt closer to their nurses than
their own mothers.
In
Scene iii, the audience meets Juliet. We are also introduced to Juliet’s
28-year-old mother and her talkative nurse. The three women talk of love and
marriage.
1.The Nurse talks about
Juliet’s childhood. Write two phrases below that show the Nurse is fond of
Juliet.
a.______________________________________________________
b.______________________________________________________
2.The Nurse is impressed with
_____________because he is a very __________young man.
3.Lady Capulet says that
4.Juliet promises her
________________that she will become acquainted with ____________but she will
not promise to
fall in ___________with him.
5.Romeo, ____________and Benvolio are on their way to the _____________.
____________friends
tease him about his feelings for ____________.
6.Romeo is afraid to go to the
banquet because he had a bad ____________. Their going may cause his _________.
THIS IS THE FIRST EXAMPLE OF FORESHADOWING IN
THE PLAY.
Act I, Scene v
The
ways that a person “wins the heart” of another person in Romeo and Juliet
are different from today. In the world of Romeo and Juliet, young women from
noble families were kept away from boys. When a teenage couple spent time
together, they were carefully champeroned. The
meeting usually occurred in the young woman’s home.
The
language of young noble lovers was very formal, too. Love and marriage were
considered holy. Therefore, lovers used words similar to those in a religious
ceremony.
Wearing
masks, Romeo and his friends sneak into the Capulet banquet. Romeo has come to
the party to find Rosaline. Juliet is there to get better acquainted with
Paris. However, when Romeo and Juliet see each other, it is love at first
sight.
1.Romeo describes Juliet’s
beauty. On the lines below, write two phrases that Romeo uses to describe
Juliet.
a.___________________________________________________________________
b.___________________________________________________________________
2.Capulet forbids Tybalt to fight with Romeo. From Capulet’s words, find two
lines that show how he feels about Romeo.
a.___________________________________________________________________
b.___________________________________________________________________
3.When Romeo and Juliet first
meet, they refer to each other in reliigous terms. He
speaks as though she is a _____________, and she calls him
a ____________.
4.Romeo is ___________when he
learns that Juliet is a ____________. He is worried that the family
________will keep he
and ______________ apart.