Romeo & Juliet - The Complete Play with Annotations, Audio and Knowledge Organisers

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In Act I, Scene V, Tybalt foreshadows further conflict by showing his bitterness towards Romeo, his enemy Act 5, scene 1 Romeo’s man, Balthasar, arrives in Mantua with news of Juliet’s death. Romeo sends him to hire horses for their immediate return to Verona. Romeo then buys poison so that he can join Juliet in death in the Capulets’ burial vault. Shakespeare probably began his education at the age of six or seven at the Stratford grammar school, which is still standing only a short distance from his house on Henley Street. Although we have no record of Shakespeare attending the school, due to the official position held by John Shakespeare it seems likely that he would have decided to educate young William at the school which was under the care of Stratford's governing body. Read on... Lord Capulet tells Paris to wait two more summers, until Juliet is “ripe to be a bride”, suggesting her duty to become a mother and bear fruit (have children)

Romeo’s melodramatic grief over his unrequited love for Rosaline would be familiar and entertaining for Elizabethan audiences

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The obvious function of the Prologue as an introduction to the Verona of Romeo and Juliet can obscure its deeper, more important function. The Prologue does not merely set the scene of Romeo and Juliet, it tells the audience exactly what is going to happen in the play. The Prologue refers to an ill-fated couple with its use of the word “star-crossed,” which means, literally, against the stars. Stars were thought to control people’s destinies. But the Prologue itself creates this sense of fate by providing the audience with the knowledge that Romeo and Juliet will die even before the play has begun. The audience therefore watches the play with the expectation that it must fulfill the terms set in the Prologue. The structure of the play itself is the fate from which Romeo and Juliet cannot escape. This line, taken from the Prologue , warns audiences that the young lovers will defy the status quo

Mercutio and Tybalt begin to fight. Romeo, attempting to restore peace, throws himself between the combatants. Tybalt stabs Mercutio under Romeo’s arm, and as Mercutio falls, Tybalt and his men hurry away. Mercutio dies, cursing both the Montagues and the Capulets: “A plague o’ both your houses” (3.1.87), and still pouring forth his wild witticisms: “Ask for me tomorrow, and / you shall find me a grave man” (3.1.93–94). Enraged, Romeo declares that his love for Juliet has made him effeminate, and that he should have fought Tybalt in Mercutio’s place. The next soliloquy is by Juliet (Act III Scene II). In this scene, Juliet is now waiting for Romeo. In this beautiful speech, we begin to understand the fullness of Juliet’s love. Soon after her marriage to Romeo, Juliet comes home and waits anxiously for the arrival of the night so that their love is consummated. She implores night to come soon and along with it bring her Romeo. Once she gets her Romeo she does not fear death. Like all mortals, if she dies, Juliet begs fate to set him in heaven with the stars. His presence will make the face of heaven so beautiful that the world will fall in love with ‘night’, and the sun will no longer be worshipped. It also implies that their love will end in their tragic death because of the enmity that exists between the two families. Consequently, the world will come to know about the tragic death of the two lovers and thus Romeo will be immortalized.This scene, focusing on Romeo’s heartbreak, juxtaposes the preceding fight scene, showing love and hate side by side Juliet’s rhetorical question in this soliloquy asks Elizabethan audiences to challenge values about family honour

Act 1, scene 1 A street fight breaks out between the Montagues and the Capulets, which is broken up by the ruler of Verona, Prince Escalus. He threatens the Montagues and Capulets with death if they fight again. A melancholy Romeo enters and is questioned by his cousin Benvolio, who learns that the cause of Romeo’s sadness is unrequited love.Shakespeare wrote plays and poems. His plays, 37 in number, were comedies, histories, and tragedies. His 17 comedies include ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’. Among his 10 history plays are ‘Henry V’ and ‘Richard III’. The most famous among his 10 tragedies are ‘Hamlet’, ‘Othello’, and ‘King Lear’. Shakespeare’s best-known poems are ‘Venus and Adonis’, ‘The Rape of Lucrece’ and the Sonnets, 154 in all. Romeo and Juliet Summary in English After being cut into little stars, Romeo will make the face of heaven so fine that the world will stop paying attention to the sun. Romeo is so overwhelmed by her beauty that he tells himself that when that dance is over, he will watch her where she stands and will touch her hand and make his coarse hand (compared to Juliet’s) blessed. Then he asks himself a question whether his heart loved anyone before that moment. Then he tells himself that if it was true then he would renounce it because he had never felt so much in love because he had never seen anyone truly beautiful like Juliet until that night. Juliet was eager to be with Romeo. So she invokes both the night and Romeo to come along with it so that he comes to her unseen by others. She believes that Romeo is ‘day in the night to her and hence his presence alone will make her night bright to her. Then, once she is possessed by Romeo, her ‘love’ will have been realized. Later, after her death, she wants the ‘night to set up Romeo amongst the stars so that he will make the face of heaven beautiful and make the people forget the shining sun. This way she wants their love to be immortalized. Once Juliet gets her Romeo, she does not fear death. Like all mortals, if she dies, Juliet begs fate to set him in heaven with the stars. His presence will make the face of heaven so beautiful that the world will fall in love with ‘night7, and the sun will no longer be worshipped. It also implies that their love will end in their tragic death because of the enmity that exists between the two families. Consequently, the world will come to know about the tragic death of the two lovers and thus Romeo will be immortalized.