ROMEO AND JULIET - By William Shakespeare - Complete Works Theatre Company
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ROMEO AND JULIET
By William Shakespeare
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020
CONTENTS
Director's Notes 2
Creative Team 2020 3
About Complete Works’ Production 3
Synopsis of Romeo & Juliet 9
List of Scenes 11
Key Themes 13
Motifs 21
Symbols 22
An Actor’s Perspective – Juliet 25
Key Questions 28
Background Notes 29
Curriculum Links 37
Online Resources & References 41
Ó Notes copyright Complete Works Theatre Company 20203
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020
DIRECTOR’S NOTES
I am yet to meet anyone who at the mention of Romeo and Juliet, doesn’t at least offer in
recognition, “Oh, yes, that’s the play about love.” Such is the universal reach of William
Shakespeare’s great tragedy. The cover page of the first printed copy, the Quarto of 1597 is titled,
An Excellent conceited Tragedie OF Romeo and Juliet. For us to label the play a tragedy about love is
simplistic; it is much more than that.
A brilliant young Shakespeare was still learning his craft in the mid 1590s and many scholars believe,
as I do, that Romeo and Juliet is a play transitioning between comedy and tragedy, both in the canon
and within the play. Indeed, until the death of Mercutio in Act 2, Sc 2 the play’s structure follows
that of his earlier comedies, full of jocularity, naughtiness and wit. The energy of the play shifts so
dramatically at this point that events give way to an inescapable momentum that must play out to
the inevitable and tragic deaths of the central characters. Tragedy, in the Shakespearean sense of
the word, is reserved for a cataclysmic society-changing event like the fall of Troy. In the conflict-
riven society of Verona it takes the untimely deaths of Romeo and Juliet for the warring families to
initiate a lasting peace.
Romeo and Juliet will be many students’ first experience of a Shakespeare play. As students are
forming opinions about themselves and the world around them they will be able to identify with
many of the themes in the play. We are also aware that some students will find some of the issues
challenging and confronting. A performance must be sensitively and sensibly supported, by the
performers and teachers, pre and post show. We refuse to ‘dumb-down’ Shakespeare’s language
and take a view that new ideas, new concepts and new words are part of a students everyday
reality, so too is Shakespeare’s language, the rhythm and musicality of text to be approached as new
and exciting.
We look to past to make sense of the present and plan for the future.
Andrew Blackman
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020
CREATIVE TEAM 2020
Director Andrew Blackman
Performers:
Gregory & Sampson Two students from your school
Abraham & Balthazar Two students from your school
Capulet Gang Member Sarah Clarke
Montague Gang Member Louis Reed
Prince Lachlan Martin
Romeo Louis Reed
Juliet Naomi Klemens
Lord Capulet Louis Reed
Nurse/Mercutio/Tybalt/Friar Lachlan Martin
Set and Costume Design: Claire Mercer
Fight Choreographer: Lyndall Grant
Production Manager: Patrick Tucker
Photography: Jack Dixon-Gunn
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020
ABOUT COMPLETE WORKS’ PRODUCTION
Complete Works’ production of Romeo and Juliet is a 60-minute edited version of The Bard’s famous
romance tragedy, pitched for Year 9 and 10 students. Our aim is to approach the show with a
youthful vibrancy that enables a young audience, who may not be familiar with Shakespeare’s plays,
to easily understand the plot, the main themes, motifs, symbols, characters and of course, the
language.
Three actors play multiple roles and we also invite four students (pre-selected by teachers) to play
gang members at the start of the play; they help establish the conflict against which the story is set.
This helps endear the audience to the performers whilst giving participating students the
opportunity to speak Shakespeare’s dialogue and be part of the action.
Because of the obvious time constraints and casting difficulties when using a small team of actors,
we have edited the play in such a way as to keep the story flowing, with emphasis on the romantic,
tragic and comedic elements of the play. Narration joins the major scenes and helps students follow
those parts of the story that aren’t performed. As three actors play multiple roles, we have
substituted Lady Capulet with Capulet.
Post show Question and Analysis will be presented in a Hot Seat format where students will have
the opportunity to ask questions directly to the actors in character as to their motives, feelings and
reactions to events.
STAGING FOR SCHOOLS
When staging Romeo and Juliet as an incursion we are immediately faced with a set of obstacles.
The play must be edited down to 60 minutes, three actors will double and sometimes triple roles,
the set needs to be adaptable for touring and a range of playing spaces and costumes need to
endure up to 80 performances.
Editing
Romeo and Juliet is an extremely poetic play that is mostly written in blank verse. The prologue that
encapsulates the essence of the story, as well as the first fourteen lines that Romeo and Juliet share
when they first meet, are perfect sonnets. We have to leave out so much in the editing process that
is brilliant, but we have to continually ask - what is essential? What can we simply not do without to
retain a dramatic narrative that remains consistent with Shakespeare's vision? In all instances of
major edits within a scene, we have been mindful to maintain a rhythm that allows the poetry to
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020
flow naturally. I have selected scenes that centre on the main characters and are clear and precise
examples of the major themes, motifs and symbols of the play.
Audiences are called upon to activate their imaginations in the shared experience of the theatre, and
just as the actors in Shakespeare's company used minimal set, props and costume in the storytelling,
we pursue the same simplicity in presentation.
Actors
The poetry in the text, coupled with an artistic structure that doesn’t imitate real life but heightens it
and compresses time, allows us a freedom in the staging of the play.
Three actors are called upon to play several characters, in some cases doubling and tripling roles.
They approach the text with muscularity, energy and relish and use transformation of their voice and
body to inhabit different characters - very much in the way we imagine the travelling players of
Elizabethan theatre would have.
DESIGN
Set
The team is required to travel to venues all over Victoria. Playing spaces vary from modern, state-of-
the-art theatres and all purposes entertainment venues to the classroom and school gym. The set is
designed to be adaptable, easily managed by the performers and also pack down for easy storage
and touring. In the 2020 production we utilise three boxes of various sizes as stage pieces and a free-
standing curtain . The boxes also help to create different levels for the performers to utilise and in
concert with the curtain, help set the scene, e.g. Juliet’s balcony. The simplicity of the set pieces
allows us to contain and focus the action or stretch it out to an open stage; the curtain allows for
costume changes behind and entrances to the playing space either side. All aspects of the stage are
explored for dramatic effect, e.g. symmetry for moments of balance and harmony, asymmetry for
moments of disruption and chaos, use of diagonals and arcs, and down stage centre for soliloquies
and audience interaction.
Lighting
The plays staged at the Globe and other theatres were performed during the day. We emulate this
to some extent by having a 'general wash' as our playing state. We travel with 4 x LED lights for use
in venues without adequate lighting. If a venue has a lighting rig available to use, we access the
lighting desk to set a performance state.
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020
Costume
Romeo and Juliet is a timeless narrative that could be set in almost any period of history. To highlight
this fact, we have chosen to set this year's production in late 1940's rural Australia.
Romeo and Juliet Colour Palette & style
Costume Designer, Claire Mercer
As discussed, the idea is to set R&J in a rural Australian town in the 1940’s, imagining that the
Montagues and Capulets are feuding migrant families.
I’m thinking that they should could perhaps be styled to look fairly poor, as though they live in a run
down area / suburb; instead of being of the aristocracy, the families could have a sort of covert
prestige, like a street gang almost. Perhaps the men work in the mines, for example, or some other
hard labour; they’d be in 40’s workwear perhaps, like woollen or cotton trousers held up by braces,
lace up shoes, button up shirts etc. and then slightly smarter jackets and ties for the feast.
I think this ‘working class’ styling would work really strongly with the bleak, windblown / dusty idea
we discussed for the backdrop & set, and we could further tie in the working class backyard
aesthetic with clothes hanging on a clothesline as discussed.
The colours would be essentially the colours of the Australian bush – soft browns, greyish greens,
smoke-haze grey and dusty pinks and purples, burnt orange etc.
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020
I’m thinking that the Montagues and Capulets should be distinguished subtly by colour of costume –
ie. Montagues in cooler hues and Capulets in warmer hues, all fairly muted though so it doesn’t look
too disparate. That way there’s always a subtle distinction between them, which should help to
illustrate the underlying animosity without being too overt. Obviously the characters that are
associated with neither family directly will just be in whichever colours are most appropriate, eg. The
friar will probably be in black.
ß Montague
colour
palette
Nurse and Juliet, 2018 Rehearsals (L to R: James Biasetto and Naomi Klemens)
ß Capulet
colour
palette
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020
SYNOPSIS OF ROMEO AND JULIET
'Romeo and Juliet was written by William Shakespeare around the year 1595, during the reign of
Elizabeth I, and reflects the way that people of the time viewed the world. This play, about two
young lovers and their feuding families incorporates elements of strict social order, symbolism,
destiny, courtly love and tragedy.' - Shakespeare Unplugged, Romeo & Juliet
An ongoing feud between the Capulets and the Montagues breaks out again on the streets of
Verona. Both sides are warned by Prince Escalus that “on pain of death” they must not disturb the
peace again.
Romeo, love-sick for Rosaline, is comforted by his friend Benvolio. Romeo and his friends learn of a
party being held by the Capulets, and decide to gatecrash. At the party, Tybalt sees Romeo and is
furious that his enemy has trespassed on Capulet property, but is prevented from fighting him by
Capulet himself. Romeo meets Juliet, and they instantly fall in love. After leaving the party, Romeo
eludes his friends, scales the walls of the Capulet orchard and overhears Juliet declare her love for
him as she stands on her bedroom balcony. They exchange vows of love and they agree to marry in
secret. Romeo tells Friar Lawrence what has happened and he consents to marry them.
Benvolio tells Mercutio that Tybalt has sent Romeo a challenge. Romeo joins them, and is visited by
the Nurse, who is told the marriage plan. She tells Juliet, who then goes to Friar Lawrence’s cell, and
the lovers are married. Tybalt, looking for Romeo, finds Benvolio and Mercutio. Romeo returns, and
is challenged by Tybalt, but refuses to fight. Mercutio draws on Tybalt and is fatally wounded. Tybalt
then fights with Romeo, and is killed. Romeo flees, and Benvolio reports what has happened to the
Prince, who banishes Romeo to Mantua. The Nurse tells Juliet of Romeo’s banishment and promises
to bring him to her. The Friar tells a distraught Romeo he is banished, but advises him to visit Juliet
secretly, then to leave for Mantua, until they can secure his return.
Meanwhile, Capulet tells Paris he may marry Juliet in three days, and Lady Capulet brings the news
to Juliet, who has just bid Romeo a hasty farewell. Juliet refuses to marry Paris, persisting in the face
of her father’s anger. She goes to the Friar for help, and finds Paris there arranging the marriage.
After he leaves, the Friar devises a plan: he will give her a drink that will make her appear dead and
thus avoid the marriage, and will write to Romeo to tell him; they can then elope to Mantua.
Juliet tells her father she will now marry Paris, and Capulet brings the wedding forward to the next
day. Juliet retires, and drinks the liquid. When her ‘body’ is discovered, all mourn, and she is taken to
the family crypt. In Mantua, Balthazar tells Romeo that Juliet is dead. He vows to lie dead next to her
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020
that night, and obtains a poison from an apothecary. Friar John tells Friar Lawrence that he was
unable to deliver Lawrence’s letter to Romeo. Realising the danger, Lawrence leaves to tell Juliet
what has happened.
Paris goes to Juliet’s tomb to mourn her, and encounters Romeo. They fight, and Romeo kills Paris.
Romeo then drinks the poison and dies beside Juliet. The Friar arrives to see Romeo dead and Juliet
waking. She refuses to leave, and kills herself with Romeo’s dagger. Officers arrive and rouse the
families and the Prince. The Friar explains what has happened. Montague and Capulet agree to make
peace with each other.
For a scene by scene synopsis of the play, go to the Globe Education website, Playing Shakespeare
here
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020LIST OF SCENES
PROLOGUE
ACT 1
Scene 1 Verona, Market Place
The Capulets and Montagues fight in the market place. Two students play
Montagues and two students play Capulets alongside the CWTC actors.
Scene 3 Capulet’s House
Substitute Lady Capulet for Capulet. Capulet tells Juliet that Count Paris will be her
suitor. The Nurse rambles and reminisces.
Scene 4 Street in Verona
Romeo, Mercutio and Benvolio are on the street on the way to the
Capulet party.
Scene 5 Capulet’s House
Romeo and Juliet meet at a ball held at the Capulets’ house.
ACT 2
Scene 2 Capulet’s Orchard
Balcony scene: Romeo and Juliet swear their love and agree to marry.
Scene 3 Friar Lawrence’s Cell
Romeo persuades Friar Lawrence to perform the marriage.
Scene 4 Verona, Market Place
Romeo gives his message to Juliet’s Nurse.
Scene 5 Capulet’s Orchard
Nurse teases Juliet.
Scene 6 Friar Lawrence’s Cell
Romeo and Juliet are married.
ACT 3
Scene 1 Verona, Public Place
After Mercutio’s death Romeo stabs and kills Tybalt.
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020Scene 2 Capulet’s Orchard
Juliet is impatiently waiting for Romeo to arrive.
Scene 3 Friar Lawrence’s Cell
Romeo learns of his banishment from Verona.
Scene 5 Capulet’s Orchard
Romeo leaves Juliet for Mantua.
Substitute Lady Capulet for Capulet. Capulet warns Juliet to prepare to marry Paris.
ACT 4
Scene 1 Friar Lawrence’s Cell
The Friar counsels Juliet about his plan to bring the married young lovers together.
Scene 3 Juliet’s Chamber
Juliet doubts the Friar’s motives but takes the sleeping potion.
ACT 5
Scene 1 Churchyard, Capulet Tomb
Romeo breaks into the tomb. Romeo and Juliet’s deaths. Conclusion
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020KEY THEMES
We concentrate on several key themes in the production:
• love as an overwhelming, ecstatic and violent force that overrides all other values and
emotions
• the struggle against public and social institutions that either explicitly or implicitly oppose
the existence of their love i.e. families and the placement of familial power in the father
• conflict
• religion and the social importance placed on masculine honour
• the central characters awareness of the inevitably of fate
• the play’s most consistent visual motif- the contrast between light and dark, often
expressed in terms of day/night imagery
There are many online resources that can be accessed for resource material, as well as published
study notes. For the section below we have used our own in-depth knowledge of the play alongside
edited extracts from ‘Themes, Motifs & Symbols’ from Spark notes. We found Spark Notes an
excellent resource for our text work in rehearsal. Other online resources include The Globe Theatre's
education site, Playing Shakespeare - http://2013.playingshakespeare.org/
The Forcefulness of Love
Romeo and Juliet is the most famous love story in the English literary tradition. Love is naturally the
play’s dominant and most important theme, but it is also about hate, and about the disastrous
consequences when these extremes meet. The play focuses on romantic love, specifically the
intense passion that springs up at first sight between Romeo and Juliet. In Romeo and Juliet, love is a
violent, ecstatic, overpowering force that supersedes all other values, loyalties, and emotions. In the
course of the play, the young lovers are driven to defy their entire social world: families (“Deny thy
father and refuse thy name,” Juliet asks, “Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, / And I’ll no
longer be a Capulet”); friends (Romeo abandons Mercutio and Benvolio after the feast in order to go
to Juliet’s garden); and ruler (Romeo returns to Verona for Juliet’s sake after being exiled by the
Prince on pain of death in 2.1.76–78). Love is the overriding theme of the play, but a reader should
always remember that Shakespeare is uninterested in portraying a prettied-up, dainty version of the
emotion, the kind that bad poets write about, and whose bad poetry Romeo reads while pining for
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020Rosaline. Love in Romeo and Juliet is a brutal, powerful emotion that captures individuals and
catapults them against their world, and, at times, against themselves.
The powerful nature of love can be seen in the way it is described, or, more accurately, the way
descriptions of it so consistently fail to capture its entirety. At times love is described in the terms of
religion, as in the fourteen lines when Romeo and Juliet first meet. At others it is described as a sort
of magic: “Alike bewitched by the charm of looks” (II.Prologue.6). Juliet, perhaps, most perfectly
describes her love for Romeo by refusing to describe it.
“But my true love is grown to such excess
I cannot sum up some of half my wealth.” (3.1. 33–34)
Love, in other words, resists any single metaphor because it is too powerful to be so easily contained
or understood.
Romeo and Juliet does not make a specific moral statement about the relationships between love
and society, religion, and family; rather, it portrays the chaos and passion of being in love, combining
images of love, violence, death, religion, and family in an impressionistic rush leading to the play’s
tragic conclusion.
As the story unfolds we witness many kinds of love. The most obvious type of love in Romeo and
Juliet is Romantic love. Shakespeare has written an entire play where two young lovers attempt to
express to each other how they feel, and he uses these characters to show us that words are almost
inadequate. As Romeo and Juliet attempt to express their love we see the violence of their
affections – Love as an ecstatic state that overrides all other values and emotions. When Juliet firsts
meets Romeo she says of him;
"My only love sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
That I must love a loathed enemy." (1.5. 137-140)
Romeo says to Juliet;
"I have night's cloak to hide me from their eyes;
And but thou love me, let them find me here.
My life were better ended by their hate,
Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love." (2.2. 75-78)
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020Juliet eludes to Romeo both how violent her love is, and in the next breath how tenderly she feels.
"Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing.
Good-night, good-night! Parting is such sweet sorrow
That I shall bid goodnight till it be morrow." (2.2. 183-187)
Romeo responds with the tender lines;
"Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast!
Would I were sleep and peace, so sweet to rest."
Love can cross boundaries, it is a transcendental emotion. Romeo says to Juliet;
"With love's light wings did I o'erperch these walls;
For stony limits cannot hold love out.” (2.2. 66-67)
Juliet says to Romeo;
"My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
my love as deep; the more I give to thee,
the more I have, for both are infinite." (2.2. 133-135)
Click here to watch a clip of the balcony scene from our 2015 rehearsals.
Another type of love present in the play is friendship – love between mates, in particular Romeo and
Mercutio. Mercutio teases Romeo early on in the play when Romeo is seemingly melancholy. It is
Romeo's affection for Mercutio that convinces him to go to the party that the Capulets are hosting.
He has a bad feeling but after much campaigning on Mercutio's part Romeo ultimately says;
"But He that hath the steerage of my course
Direct my sail! On, lusty gentlemen." (1.4. 112-113)
Later on in the play Mercutio is killed by Tybalt and Romeo avenges his death, murdering Tybalt in
turn. When he is injured Mercutio shouts his curse;
"A plague o' / both your houses!" (3.1. 98-99)
Love turns to hate in an instant when Mercutio dies. Romeo's motivation shifts from keeping peace
to avenging his friend's death. Romeo says to Tybalt;
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020"Alive in triumph, and Mercutio slain!
Away to heaven, respective lenity,
And fire-ey'd fury be my conduct now!" (3.1. 122-124)
The murders create another huge rift between the Capulet family and the Montagues.
Yet another type of love in the play is intergenerational love. This love is particularly present
between Juliet and her Nurse and Romeo and Friar Lawrence. Both the Nurse and Friar Lawrence
serve as surrogate parental figures, and tied up in this type of relationship is intergenerational
conflict. The Nurse and Friar Lawrence are supportive of the young couple's love, in contrast with
the expectations their real parents place on them. The Nurse quips to Juliet;
"Thou wast the prettiest babe that e'er I nurs'd." (1.3.60-62)
When she acts as a go-between later for Juliet and Romeo she says to Juliet;
"I am the drudge, and toil in your delight." (2.5.75)
This is in contrast to Juliet's relationship with her own mother Lady Capulet. When Juliet tells her
parents she will not marry Paris, Lady Capulet refuses to listen;
"Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a word.
Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee." (3.5. 203-204)
And Lord Capulet reacts even more harshly.
Love as a Cause of Violence
The themes of death and violence permeate Romeo and Juliet, and they are always connected to
passion, whether that passion is love or hate. The connection between hate, violence, and death
seems obvious. But the connection between love and violence requires further investigation.
Love, in Romeo and Juliet, is a grand passion, and as such it is blinding; it can overwhelm a person as
powerfully and completely as hate can. The passionate love between Romeo and Juliet is linked from
the moment of its inception with death; Tybalt notices that Romeo has crashed the feast and
determines to kill him just as Romeo catches sight of Juliet and falls instantly in love with her. From
that point on, love seems to push the lovers closer to love and violence, not farther from it.
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020Romeo and Juliet are plagued with thoughts of suicide, and a willingness to experience it. In 3.3
Romeo brandishes a knife in Friar Lawrence’s cell and threatens to kill himself after he has been
banished from Verona and his love. Juliet also pulls a knife in order to take her own life in Friar
Lawrence’s presence just three scenes later. After Capulet decides that Juliet will marry Paris, Juliet
says;
“If all else fail, myself have power to die” (3.5. 242)
Finally, each imagines that the other looks dead the morning after their first, and only, sexual
experience.
“Methinks I see thee,
... as one dead in the bottom of a tomb” (3.5. 242; 3.5. 55–56)
This theme continues until its inevitable conclusion: double suicide. This tragic choice is the highest,
most potent expression of love that Romeo and Juliet can make. It is only through death that they
can preserve their love, and their love is so profound that they are willing to end their lives in its
defence. In the play, love emerges as an amoral thing, leading as much to destruction as to
happiness. But in its extreme passion, the love that Romeo and Juliet experience also appears so
exquisitely beautiful that few would want, or be able, to resist its power.
The Individual Versus Society
Much of Romeo and Juliet involves the lovers’ struggles against public and social institutions that
either explicitly or implicitly oppose the existence of their love. Such structures range from the
concrete to the abstract: families and the placement of familial power in the father; law and the
desire for public order; religion; and the social importance placed on masculine honour. These
institutions often come into conflict with each other. The importance of honour, for example, time
and again results in brawls that disturb the public peace.
Each of these societal institutions in some way present obstacles for Romeo and Juliet. The enmity
between their families, coupled with the emphasis placed on loyalty and honour to kin, combine to
create a profound conflict for Romeo and Juliet, who must rebel against their heritages. Further, the
patriarchal power structure inherent in Renaissance families, wherein the father controls the action
of all other family members, particularly women, places Juliet in an extremely vulnerable position.
Her heart, in her family’s mind, is not hers to give. Lord Capulet outlines his rule to Juliet;
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020“An you be mine, I’ll give you to my friend;
An you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets,
For, by my soul, I’ll ne’er acknowledge thee,
Not what is mine shall never do thee good.
Trust to it, bethink you; I’ll not be foresworn.” (3.5. 195-199)
Here is a man dominating his daughter to the point of reminding her in a vicious attack that he owns
her, she is his possession and he will give her away to whoever he wishes. The law and the emphasis
on social civility, tradition and duty, demands terms of conduct with which the blind passion of love
cannot comply.
Religion similarly demands priorities that Romeo and Juliet cannot abide by because of the intensity
of their love. Though in most situations the lovers uphold the traditions of Christianity (they wait to
marry before consummating their love), their love is so powerful that they begin to think of each
other in blasphemous terms. For example, Juliet calls Romeo “the god of my idolatry,” (2.2. 113)
elevating Romeo to the level of God. The couple’s final act of suicide is likewise un-Christian. The
maintenance of masculine honour forces Romeo to commit actions he would prefer to avoid. But
the social emphasis placed on masculine honour is so profound that Romeo cannot simply ignore
them.
It is possible to see Romeo and Juliet as a battle between the responsibilities and actions demanded
by social institutions and those demanded by the private desires of the individual. Romeo and
Juliet’s appreciation of night, with its darkness and privacy, and their renunciation of their names,
with its attendant loss of obligation, make sense in the context of individuals who wish to escape the
public world. But the lovers cannot stop the night from becoming day. And Romeo cannot cease
being a Montague simply because he wants to; the rest of the world will not let him. The lovers’
suicides can be understood as the ultimate night, the ultimate privacy. After the lover's deaths Lord
Capulet and Lord Montague converse and Capulet says that the two lovers were "Poor sacrifices of
our enmity" (5.3. 303).
The Inevitability of Fate
Fate vs. free will is one of the most potent themes of the play. Fate is the idea that our lives follow a
preordained path. In its first address to the audience, the Chorus states that Romeo and Juliet are
“star-crossed”– that is to say that fate (a power often vested in the movements of the stars) controls
them.
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020"From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadeventured piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents' strife." (Prologue. 6-9)
This sense of fate permeates the play, and not just for the audience. The characters also are quite
aware of it: Romeo and Juliet constantly see omens. When Romeo believes that Juliet is dead, he
cries out, “Then I defy you, stars,” (5.1. 24) completing the idea that the love between Romeo and
Juliet is in opposition to the decrees of destiny. Of course, Romeo’s defiance itself plays into the
hands of fate and his determination to spend eternity with Juliet results in their deaths.
The mechanism of fate works in all of the events surrounding the lovers: the feud between their
families (it is worth noting that this hatred is never explained; rather, the reader must accept it as an
undeniable aspect of the world of the play), the horrible series of accidents that ruin Friar
Lawrence’s seemingly well-intentioned plans at the end of the play; and the tragic timing of Romeo’s
suicide and Juliet’s awakening. These events are not mere coincidences, but rather manifestations of
fate that help bring about the unavoidable outcome of the young lovers’ deaths.
The concept of fate described above is the most commonly accepted interpretation. There are other
possible readings of fate in the play: as a force determined by the powerful social institutions that
influence Romeo and Juliet’s choices, as well as fate as a force that emerges from Romeo and Juliet’s
very personalities (their capacity for love is a 'fatal flaw').
As mentioned above, the central characters have a strong awareness of the inevitably of fate.
Romeo himself is quite fatalistic. Before the Capulet's party, and after a long-winded argument to
attend from Mercutio, Romeo says;
"[… ]my mind misgives
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night's revels, and expire the term
Of a despised life clos'd in my breast
By some vile forfeit of untimely death." (1.4. 106-109)
Click here to watch a clip of this speech from our 2015 rehearsals.
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020Juliet also has an awareness of fate, but terms it differently. After spending the night with Romeo, as
he leaves she cries out against her fortune. Her use of the word 'fortune' can be defined as 'chance
or luck as an arbitrary force affecting human affairs' - in short, her fate.
"Oh Fortune, Fortune! All men call thee fickle;
If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him
That is renowned for faith? Be fickle, Fortune;
For then, I hope, thou wilt not keep him long,
But send him back." (3.5. 60-64)
Click here to watch a clip of this speech from our 2015 rehearsals.
In Shakespeare's time, the Humanist movement had arrived. As Europe moved out of the Dark and
Middle Ages knowledge became more available to the ordinary folk. People started to take their
lives into their own hands and challenge the idea of 'fate' and the long-held power of the church.
One such character who rails against fate is Mercutio. During his Queen Mab speech Mercutio shows
Romeo that he thinks Romeo's idea of "some consequence, yet hanging in the stars" (1.4. 107) is
utter nonsense. But as evidenced in the text, Mercutio should have listened to Romeo's premonition
because as a result of their appearance at the party Mercutio is eventually killed at the hand of a
Capulet. So in the text of Romeo and Juliet fate is still alive and well. The purpose of their fate - the
young couple's untimely deaths – seems to be to bring about peace between the two warring
families.
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020MOTIFS
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the
text’s major themes.
Light/Dark Imagery
One of the play’s most consistent visual motifs is the contrast between light and dark, often in terms
of night/day imagery. Darkness conceals and hides away, light reveals and radiates. This contrast is
not always given a particular metaphoric meaning—light is not always good, and dark is not always
evil. On the contrary, light and dark are generally used to provide a sensory contrast and to hint at
opposed alternatives. One of the more important instances of this motif is Romeo’s lengthy
meditation on the sun and the moon during the balcony scene, in which Juliet, metaphorically
described as the sun, is seen as banishing the “envious moon” (2.1.4-6) and transforming the night
into day.
From the moment Romeo see Juliet he attributes her the qualities of light.
“Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night." (1.5. 43-45)
And then;
"But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!" (2.1. 2-3)
And also;
“Her eyes in heaven,
Would through the airy region stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night." (2.2. 20-22)
And again
"Oh speak again, bright angel – for thou art
As glorious to this night, being o'er my head
As a winged messenger of heaven" (2.2. 26-28)
And later in the tomb
"For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes
This vault a feasting presence full of light." (5.3. 85-86)
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020Conversely to this initial idea of light and dark, the night is where acts of transgression can take place
– much of the young lovers' interactions happen at night or just before dawn – and the light/day
brings with it the stifling realities of their situation. Juliet pleads;
"Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-brow'd night,
Give me my Romeo. And when I shall die
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the garish sun." 3.1. 20-25)
After their wedding night Romeo and Juliet share the following couplet;
"O now be gone; more light and light it grows.
More light and light; more dark and dark our woes." (3.5. 35-36)
They are each other's light in the dark.
Opposite Points of View
Shakespeare includes numerous speeches and scenes in Romeo and Juliet that hint at alternative
ways to evaluate the play. Shakespeare uses two main devices in this regard: Mercutio and servants.
Mercutio consistently skews the viewpoints of all the other characters in play: he sees Romeo’s
devotion to love as a sort of blindness that robs Romeo from himself; similarly, he sees Tybalt’s
devotion to honour as blind and stupid. His punning and the Queen Mab speech can be interpreted
as undercutting virtually every passion evident in the play. Mercutio serves as a critic of the
delusions of righteousness and grandeur held by the characters around him.
Where Mercutio is a nobleman who openly criticizes other nobles, the views offered by servants in
the play are less explicit. There is the Nurse who lost her baby and husband, the servant Peter who
cannot read, the musicians who care about their lost wages and their lunches, and the Apothecary
who cannot afford to make the moral choice, the lower classes present a second tragic world to
counter that of the nobility. The nobles’ world is full of grand tragic gestures. The servants’ world, in
contrast, is characterized by simple needs, and early deaths brought about by disease and poverty
rather than duelling and grand passions. Where the nobility almost seem to revel in their capacity
for drama, the servants’ lives are such that they cannot afford tragedy of the epic kind.
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020SYMBOLS
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colours used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
Poison
Poison symbolizes human society’s tendency to poison good things and make them fatal, just as the
pointless Capulet-Montague feud turns Romeo and Juliet’s love to poison. After all, unlike many of
the other tragedies, this play does not have an evil villain, but rather people whose good qualities
are turned to poison by the world in which they live.
In his first appearance, in Act 2, scene 2, Friar Lawrence remarks that every plant, herb, and stone
has its own special properties, and that nothing exists in nature that cannot be put to both good and
bad uses. Thus, poison is not intrinsically evil, but is instead a natural substance made lethal by
human hands. Friar Lawrence’s words prove true over the course of the play. The sleeping potion he
gives Juliet is concocted to cause the appearance of death, not death itself, but through
circumstances beyond the Friar’s control, the potion does bring about a fatal result: Romeo’s suicide.
As this example shows, human beings tend to cause death even without intending to. Romeo
suggests that society is to blame for the apothecary’s criminal selling of poison, because while there
are laws prohibiting the apothecary from selling poison, there are no laws that would help the
apothecary make money in a legal manner.
The young lovers' relationship is entirely 'poisoned' from start to finish, by the feud between their
families. This illustrates the human tendency to take something natural, in this case a good emotion
(love), and to make it fatal. When given the sleeping potion by Friar Lawrence, everything that has
happened to Juliet so far has prepared her to expect the worst, even though she knows the Friar to
be a holy man.
"What if it be a poison, which the Friar
Subtly hath ministered to have me dead,
Lest in this marriage he should be dishonour'd,
Because he married me before to Romeo?
I fear it is; and yet, methinks, it should not,
For he hath still been tried a holy man." (4.3. 24-29)
Thumb-biting
In Act I, scene I, the buffoonish Samson begins a brawl between the Montagues and Capulets by
flicking his thumbnail from behind his upper teeth, an insulting gesture known as biting-the-thumb.
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020He engages in this juvenile and vulgar display because he wants to get into a fight with the
Montagues but doesn’t want to be accused of starting the fight by making an explicit insult. Because
of his timidity, he settles for being annoying rather than challenging. The thumb-biting, as an
essentially meaningless gesture, represents the foolishness of the entire Capulet/Montague feud
and the stupidity of violence in general.
Sampson: I will bite my thumb at them; which is disgrace to them, if they bare it.
[bites his thumb]
Abraham: Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
Sampson: I do bite my thumb, sir.
Abraham: Do you bite your thumb as us, sir?
Sampson: [Aside to Gregory] Is the law of our side if I say ay?
Gregory: [Aside to Sampson] No.
Sampson: No, sir. I do not bite my thumb at you, sir; but I bite my thumb, sir.
Queen Mab
In Act I, Sc 4, Mercutio delivers a dazzling speech about the fairy Queen Mab, who rides through the
night on her tiny wagon bringing dreams to sleepers. One of the most noteworthy aspects of Queen
Mab’s ride is that the dreams she brings generally do not bring out the best sides of the dreamers,
but instead serve to confirm them in whatever vices they are addicted to—for example, greed,
violence, or lust.
"And in this state she gallops night by night
Through lover's brains, and then they dream of love;
O'er courtiers' knees, that dream on court'sies straight;
O'er lawyers fingers, who straight dream on fees;
O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream,
Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues" (1.4. 70-73)
Another important aspect of Mercutio’s description of Queen Mab is that it is complete nonsense,
albeit vivid and highly colourful. Nobody believes in a fairy pulled about by,
“a small grey-coated gnat
not half so big as a round little worm" (1.4.64-65)
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020Finally, it is worth noting that the description of Mab and her carriage goes to extravagant lengths to
emphasize how tiny and insubstantial she and her accoutrements are. Queen Mab and her carriage
do not merely symbolize the dreams of sleepers, they also symbolize the power of waking fantasies,
daydreams, and desires. Through the Queen Mab imagery, Mercutio suggests that all desires and
fantasies are as nonsensical and fragile as Mab, and that they are basically corrupting. This point of
view contrasts starkly with that of Romeo and Juliet, who see their love as real and ennobling.
AN ACTOR’s PERSPECTIVE - JULIET
Juliet is youthful, she does not stop to consider or to plot, she is driven by her heart and acts
according to how she feels at any given moment.
Hello, I’m Kali and I played the role of Juliet in Complete Works Theatre Company's 2015 in-school
touring team. The director of the show has asked me to write a little about my experience
performing the role. The funny little things I remember about the tour are:
• Performing in a freezing cold school gym while pretending to be in the tropical heat of Verona.
• Being kissed by the actor playing Romeo but being totally distracted by his morning coffee
breath. Ew!
• Getting my arm stuck in a costume during a quick change.
• Accidentally dying in an awkward and uncomfortable position on stage.
But above these things, I remember feeling immense joy during and after a performance of Juliet.
Juliet’s experience during the story, particularly the overwhelming love that she feels, would leave
me with a kind of residue of these feelings when I finished a performance. Love is a very powerful
emotion and a kind of drug which was channelled through me as an actor. And Romeo and Juliet is
the greatest love story ever told (more on this later). My work in rehearsal allowed me to ‘get inside
Juliet’s head’ and hopefully illuminate her story for you guys - our audience. By eliminating what
kind of character Juliet wasn’t, it showed me who she was. On the same tour as Romeo and Juliet, I
also performed the role of Lady Macbeth in another Shakespeare play, Macbeth. Lady Macbeth plots
with her husband to murder a King so that they will become King and Queen. Lady Macbeth is a lot
older than Juliet, she reasons things out and is quite cold and steely. Juliet is pretty much the exact
opposite. The contrast was illuminating. Juliet is youthful, she does not stop to consider or to plot,
she is driven by her heart and acts according to how she feels at any given moment.
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020I am obviously not 14 years old, but as the actor playing Juliet I had to summon the energy of a
young lover who is “not yet 14”. One of the first things I started exploring in rehearsals was ‘youth’
and trying to remember how new everything felt when I was young, and how every event feels so
dramatic at that age - a phenomenon which you guys are probably all experiencing right now! To
play Juliet is a fantastic challenge as you get to portray her as she discovers, and experiences love for
the first time. But when her dreams unravel she is confronted with the harsh reality of the society
she lives in. Both Romeo and Juliet make rash, youthful and inexperienced decisions defying their
‘set path’, their parents, and in Juliet’s case, her arranged marriage to Paris.
So, I said before that Romeo & Juliet is the greatest love story ever told. Here’s why I think this.
What makes it so beautiful to me is that it presents love as a powerful force that knows no
boundaries. In the play love is a violent, overwhelming and ecstatic emotion. But love is also
mirrored by hate. There is an ancient hatred between the Capulet and Montague families, and I
don’t believe it would be such a great story if this hate didn’t exist and Romeo and Juliet just lived
happily ever after. What makes Romeo & Juliet so enduring is the tragic nature of their love. Their
love cannot exist in their society - their families have an “ancient grudge” breaking to “new mutiny”
and there are strict rules about who they are supposed to marry. Their lives are lost as they rail
against the older generation of their strict society; yet with the same action, their love lives on as
they prove that neither can live without the other.
Probably the most important thing for an audience to believe when watching this play is that the
love between the characters of Romeo and Juliet is real. It is a difficult thing to fake! Love is one of
the most challenging emotions to portray. It is so complex and means different things to many
people… Shakespeare wrote the whole of Romeo and Juliet just trying to express what love is. One
of the techniques I used to portray love is called ‘personalisation’. It required me to find qualities
about the actor playing Romeo that reminded me of the person that I, Kali, love in my real life. One
exercise I used was to look at tiny physical similarities that my ‘Romeo’ had to the person I really
love. I also attached ‘images’ or ‘thoughts’ that made me feel a certain way to particular lines. It’s all
about using your imagination! For example, with the line:
“My bounty is as boundless as the sea
My love as deep. The more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.”
I was imagining what it would feel like to stare in to the eyes of the person that I loved and tell him
that I wanted to be with him forever. It’s pretty powerful play-acting really! And all the kissing that
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020has to happen between the actors playing Romeo & Juliet? Well it's just part of being an actor -
there are many things that push you outside your comfort zone. The most important thing about
that is knowing that whatever you’re doing in a scene, you’re in it together with your fellow actor
and that you feel supported.
One last thing I wanted to discuss with you is Fate. I know that many of you will analyse in class
whether it was free-will or Fate that brought Romeo and Juliet together. Here is what I think. The
prologue at the start of the play states “Two star-crossed lovers take their life”. This suggests that it
is written in the stars that Romeo and Juliet will fall in love. Their very first meeting seems to be love
at first sight. The first words they exchange are written in the form of a sonnet, a sonnet being a love
poem. This sonnet would have been recognised in Shakespeare’s time by the audience as an
exchange of love between the characters. This idea of ‘love at first sight’ seems to me to be an
indicator that something greater than each person is guiding their lives - Fate. So I think that their
love is fated, not the choice of free-will.
Also, it’s true love, not a crush. Just saying.
Kali Hulme, CWTC Ensemble Actor, 2015
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS TO CONSIDER
To help your students get the most out of a live theatre performance of Romeo and Juliet, we have
listed some pre-show questions for them to think about. These questions may help students pay
particular attention to various aspects of the performance and help them engage with the themes of
the play.
Two formats are offered for the post show session and are reliant on time.
1. Question and Answer
2. Character Hot Seat
If the time post show is restricted to less than 10 minutes, we recommend a standard Question and
Answer. If we have an allocated time of up to 30 minutes, we recommend the Character Hot Seat.
Question and Answer
Prompt Questions for students to consider asking the actors.
1. Do you think Romeo and Juliet were really in love or was it just a crush?
2. Do you think that the Nurse was acting in Juliet’s best interest?
3. Do you think that the Friar had Romeo and Juliet’s best interests in mind or was he acting
selfishly?
4. Do you think Romeo and Juliet put too much trust in their adult confidants? i.e. The Nurse
and Friar Lawrence.
5. Do you think Romeo and Juliet are responsible for their own deaths?
6. Do you think Romeo and Juliet marrying in secret was the best thing for them to do? Did
they have an alternative?
7. Romeo and Juliet always meet at night. What is the significance of light and dark in this play?
8. Romeo and Juliet seem to be aware that their lives are pre-determined. What does this
mean for each of them? Do they believe in Fate or Free will?
9. How do traditional gender roles directly affect Romeo and Juliet?
Character Hot Seat
Students will have the opportunity to forensically question the actors in character to uncover their
motives, actions and feelings.
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020BACKGROUND NOTES
Who is William Shakespeare?
Shakespeare is England’s most celebrated dramatist and poet. His works have been translated into
80 languages. He helped shape the English we use today, introducing up to 300 words and dozens of
well-known phrases.
Yet much about the playwright is a mystery. Historians don’t know his date of birth, where he was
educated or how he spent seven years of his life.
BBC - William Shakespeare: The Life and legacy of England's bard
Why do we study Shakespeare?
Almost every aspect of our modern lives has been influenced in some way the plays and the
characters of Shakespeare’s plays. Many of the turns of phrase we use today and even take for
granted as clichés have been written by Shakespeare.
Shakespeare’s plays are known around the world for their universal themes and insight into the
human condition. His ability to summarise the range of human emotions in simple yet profoundly
eloquent verse is perhaps the greatest reason for his enduring popularity.
Shakespeare told every kind of story – comedy, tragedy, history, melodrama, adventure, love stories
and fairy tales. Contemporary storytellers continue to adapt Shakespeare’s tales to suit our modern
audiences. The film Ten Things I hate About You which is based on The Taming of the Shrew,
Disney’s The Lion King, based on Hamlet and the Twilight series, much of which draws on Romeo and
Juliet are a few examples.
Elizabethan Theatre
Plays at The Globe Theatre were staged during daylight hours. The ‘wooden O’ was like a small arena
open to the heavens above. A coloured flag was run up a flagpole during the performance to let
playgoers know what sort of play was being performed. A black flag announced a tragedy, red was a
history and white for a comedy.
Shakespeare wasn’t writing just for the art of making plays, he was writing to make money. For his
plays to be a success they had to appeal to all the classes of society. The audience that paid a penny
to stand in the pit before the stage were called the groundlings; above were tiered rows of seating
where the nobility and rich patrons sat. Stories for his plays were not always original and were often
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020based on well known plots or fables. Shakespeare excelled in being able to adapt these stories in
way that appealed to London audiences. In doing so he developed a style that was a runway success.
Structure and Style
When reading and watching his plays, it is necessary to be familiar with some of the devices
Shakespeare employed in their execution.
Puns: All his plays contain puns and witty wordplay. They appealed to the uneducated groundlings
enormously (as well as everyone else). An example of a pun in Romeo and Juliet is when the boys
are on the way to the party. Romeo protests to Mercutio;
“You have dancing shoes
With nimble soles; I have a soul of lead
So stakes me to the ground I cannot move.” (1.2. 14-16)
The pun here being a play on the meaning of sole/soul – ‘sole’ being the bottom of Mercutio’s shoe
and ‘soul’ being Romeo’s immortal spirit. Double meanings populate all of Shakespeare's play.
Bawdy Jokes: Romeo and Juliet is littered with bawdy jokes and innuendo, particularly in the
comedic first half. Many belong to Mercutio & the servant characters, also the Nurse. Even Juliet is
not immune. During her famous balcony speech she asks rhetorically, ‘What’s Montague?’, and
replies, ‘It is nor hand, nor foot, nor arm, nor face, nor any other part belonging to a man.’ The
innuendo at the end of the list wouldn’t have been lost on his audience.
New Language: When Shakespeare couldn’t find the words he was looking for he made invented
them.
Poetry
Blank Verse: Shakespeare wrote his plays in Blank Verse and Prose. Blank verse is constructed using
iambic pentameter which is made up of 10 syllables per line that take the form of a soft stress
followed be a hard stress. It is the same rhythm of our beating heart and is used as much today in
our common language as it is in poetry. Shakespeare’s blank verse would often rhyme and was
spoken by major characters and the nobility. Actors who have to remember and understand a text
quickly find that blank verse has a rhythm and rhyming structure much easier to learn than regular
language.
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020Prose: The distinguishing feature of prose is that it doesn’t rhyme and was always given to the
servant characters to speak.
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Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 202032 Complete Works Theatre Company - Romeo & Juliet Teachers Notes 2020
Understanding the Text: Shakespeare plays are meant to be performed! The best way to understand
what is going on in his plays to read them out loud and to read to the punctuation not just to the line
breaks. Reading in the rhythm of a heart beat (iambic pentameter) will also help and refer to the
side notes in your text to understand words in the vocabulary that we don’t use today. Like
understanding anything we learn practice is important. Practice speaking the text regularly and
enjoyment will grow with understanding.
THE ELIZABETHAN WORLD VIEW
How did men and women living in Shakespeare’s time see themselves and the world around them?
To begin with, we must realise that it was an age of great change. At times of great change people
are generally excited, confused and frightened. Like the times we live in, the old ways were being
questioned.
The Roman Catholic Church was under attack in a movement known as the Reformation. The
Medieval power of the church was threatened by an age of discovery and information. Knowledge
began to be freely available to the general populace, schools and universities were established and
the bible was translated into English from Latin, making it available to ordinary people for the first
time. New discoveries were made in science and Queen Elizabeth promoted privateers like Sir
Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Drake in the search for wealth and undiscovered land following
Columbus’ discovery of the New World for Spain.
The Great Chain of Being
During the middle ages it was believed that everyone and everything was arranged in a certain order
known as the Great Chain of Being. Exciting new discoveries in science and astronomy were
challenging this long established view.
According to belief, God was at the head of all things; the King was the head of state and the Pope
was the head of the church. The human head ruled all bodily functions. The most humble form of
plant life was superior to the highest mineral, gold. Among trees, the most superior was the oak; and
among flowers, it was the rose. All animals were placed above plants. The king of the beasts was the
lion. Mankind stood at the pinnacle of life on Earth, but was below the angels and God. The angels,
too, were ordered according to rank from archangels to seraphs.
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