Context

• Restorative justice is an approach to criminal justice that focuses on repairing harm caused by crime.
• Shakespeare


  England's most famous playwright, lived from 1564 - 1616
• Shakespeare's plays


  • Histories
  • Comedies
  • Tragedies
• Shakespeare was writing for his acting group, the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later, the King's Men)
• Renaissance


  Period between the 14th to 17th centuries where there was an expansion of artistic expression
• Romeo and Juliet is suspected to have been written at the beginning of Shakespeare's career


  1597-1579
• Plays


  Were an incredibly popular and central medium of entertainment during the Elizabethan and Jacobean era
• Cross-class audience


  Shakespeare's plays were for both the lower and middle classes
• Globe theatre


  • Open-air
  • Poorer members stood in front of the raised stage, richer sat higher up
  • Women were not allowed to act, female characters played by pre-pubescent boys
• Preliminary texts Shakespeare was inspired by

  • Arthur Brooke's The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet (1562)
  • William Painter Palace of Pleasure (pre-1580)
• Shakespeare set his play in Italy because of the rich Italian heritage that the story already had
• Different written versions of Romeo and Juliet

  • First Quarto (1597)
  • Second Quarto (1599)
  • Quartos leading up to 1623
  • Included in Shakespeare's First Folio (1623)
• Richard Garrick's 18th Century production


  • Heightened the intensity of the play and reduced its comic elements
• Mid-19th Century productions


  • Allowed female actors to play the role of Romeo, highlighting the effeminacy of Romeo
• Adaptations of Romeo and Juliet

  • West Side Story (1957)
  • Baz Luhrmann's 1996 Romeo + Juliet
• Tragedy


  A form of entertainment with certain common characteristics, including catharsis and hamartia
• Catharsis


  A purging of pity and fear among the audience through the action of the play
• Hamartia


  Tragic error made by the character, a foolish decision which leads to disaster
• Senecan tragedy


  • Bloody and sensationalist, elements of this violence can be seen in Romeo and Juliet
• Verona


  The setting of the play, a geographically and temporally distant place from the audience
• Shakespeare set his plays in foreign lands to critique society and the monarchy without being accused of treason
• Catholicism


  Italy was known to the English for its Catholicism, which was viewed negatively due to anti-Catholicism in Elizabethan England
• Christianity


  Religion was central to Elizabethan life, with concepts like sin and divine justice being important
• Great Chain of Being


  A belief system which underpinned Elizabethan society, teaching that there was a hierarchical ordering of all creation
• Astronomy


  Taught the Elizabethans that the Earth was the centre of the universe, supporting the concept of the Great Chain of Being
• Position of women


  • Women were seen as lesser than men, with increased propensity towards sin and as deformed men
  • Women were seen as property and objectified
  • The importance of marriage and dowries for women
• Property


  Women were seen as the property of their husbands, who could do whatever they wanted to their wives free of judgement or condemnation
• Sexual objects


  Women were seen as there to satisfy the needs of their husbands who were their lords and masters
• Dowry


  Physical objects (property, money etc.) which were added to the woman to make her more attractive to possible suitors, contributing to the objectification of women
• Deviant


  An unmarried woman was thought of as someone who does not follow social norms and values
• Queen Elizabeth I defined and introduced the archetype of the strong female leader, fighting against patriarchal norms
• Gender norms


  • Women were expected to be passive and take on a domestic role, while men were active creatures meant to make money
• Shakespeare's exploration of Romeo and Juliet's love affair challenges these gender norms as both characters are portrayed as active
• Petrarchan lover


  A man who falls in love with a woman but is either resisted or rejected, leading to internal turmoil and self-imposed solitude
• Courtly love


  An ideal which incorporates ideas such as love at first sight and dying for one's true love, though the presence of sex in Romeo and Juliet's relationship undermines this idealisation
• Courtly love rules


  • The man cannot eat or sleep when in love, forgets his old love when a new love comes along, and sends love letters or speaks in poetry
• Eros


  Erotic love, epitomised in Romeo and Juliet's sexual encounters
• Agape


  Selfless, coupling love
• Fate


  A central concept in Elizabethan society, with beliefs in predestination, astrology, and the influence of the stars on one's destiny
• Violence


  Explicit violence was a public affair in Elizabethan times, though it was also treated with a paradoxical revulsion and attraction