Context

• Shakespeare


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


  • Histories
  • Comedies
  • Tragedies
• 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


  1597-1579
• Plays


  Were an incredibly popular and central medium of entertainment during the Elizabethan and Jacobean era
• Audience


  Cross-class, from both the lower and middle classes
• Nurse

  • Represents the lower class, makes sexual jokes
• Sonnet structure


  • May have been appreciated by the richer and more educated audience members
• Theatres


  • Open-air, poorer members stood in front of the raised stage, richer sat higher up, richest could sit on the stage
• Italian books


  Told a similar love story, centred on the characters of Romeo and Giuletta, and their opposed families, Montecchi and Capelletti
• A French version of the play had been written

  1559
• Tragedy


  Romeo and Juliet is known as one of the greatest love stories of all time, but it is also a tragedy
• Senecan tragedy


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


  The setting of the play, modern-day Italy, a temporally and geographically distant place
• Catholicism


  Italy was known to the English for its Catholicism, which was viewed negatively due to the war with Catholic Spain
• Christianity


  Religion was central to Elizabethan life, the audience's religious stance would have affected how they viewed the play
• Sin


  The concept of sin pervades the play, with the young couple epitomising the sin of hubris
• Astronomy


  Taught the Elizabethans that the Earth was the centre of the universe and was surrounded by various spheres
• Women


  • Seen as lesser than men, as property and sexual objects, objectified and their role in marriage was important
• Dowry


  Physical objects (property, money etc.) added to a woman to make her more attractive to possible suitors
• Women's status


  They belonged to their father, then became the property of their husbands, who could do whatever they wanted to their wives free of judgement or condemnation
• Women's status

  They were seen as sexual objects 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, making the woman "part of the package" and contributing to the objectification of women
• Women of noble families were sold off as part of the dowry from a very early age, so Juliet's young age would not have been so shocking to the contemporary audience
• Marriage


  It was looked at as an end goal and purpose for all women, and an unmarried woman was seen as a deviant
• Lady Capulet tells Juliet that "I was your mother much upon these years" meaning that she was already married with a baby at Juliet's age
• Queen Elizabeth I


  • She defined and introduced the archetype of the strong female leader, fighting against patriarchal norms
• Shakespeare was inspired by Elizabeth I as a powerful woman to create a strong female character in Juliet
• 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
• Romeo's feminine tendencies subvert the typically masculine traits men were supposed to have
• Petrarchan love


  A man falls in love with a woman but is either resisted or rejected, leading to internal turmoil and self-imposed solitude
• Romeo is evidently a Petrarchan lover both in his pursuit of Rosaline and Juliet
• Courtly love


  Incorporates ideas such as love at first sight and dying for one's true love, but the presence of sex in Romeo and Juliet's relationship undermines this idealisation
• Characteristics of a courtly lover

  • Cannot eat or sleep when in love and isolates himself
  • Forgets his old love when a new love comes along
  • Sends love letters or speaks in poetry when in love
• Types of love


  Romeo and Juliet's affair incorporates both erotic love (eros) and selfless, coupling love (agape)
• Wooing


  The process of impressing a woman so she wants to be with you
• Fate


  A central concept in Elizabethan society, with the belief that some greater force would or has already controlled their destiny
• Calvinism


  The belief in predestination, that God has a great plan in which we all have our courses and salvation determined
• Astrology


  The study of the positions and aspects of various celestial bodies, leading to the supposition that the movement of the Spheres determined one's fate