For Monday: Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 1

Be sure to at least read Act 1 for Monday's class, though feel free to read more if you like. However, I want to go slowly at first so we can discuss how the language works in the play, and how best to 'listen' to it as you read. I'm giving you six questions this time (even though you only have to answer 2) to help you along and give you more to think about. 

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: Discuss a short passage (a few lines, or up to a page) that you didn't pick up on in the staged version, but seems to jump out at you when reading the play. Why do you think you missed it initially? Why do you feel the passage is significant? 

Q2: Much of the play is in blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter), though some characters exclusively speak prose (normal speech). Additionally, some characters lapse back and forth from verse to prose and back again. In general, who speaks verse and who speaks prose, and why might this be significant in Shakespeare's plays? Do you think we can 'hear' this in a performance? 

Q3: One of the more dated features of Shakespeare's plays is his (and his audience's) love of puns and witty wordplay. A good example of this is at the very beginning of the play between Sampson and Gregory, or more interestingly, between Romeo and Mercutio in Act 1, Scene 4 (around page 43). Why were these passages 'funny' for Shakespeare's audience, and why are they so hard to bring off today? For example, did you chuckle at them when watching Friday's performance?

Q4: One of the most famous speeches in the play is Mercutio's Queen Mab speech in Act 1, Scene 4, which starts out humorously, and then expands into a full-on epic monologue. Romeo thinks that Mercutio might be a little drunk, because he says, "Peace, peace...thou talk'st of nothing." So what do you feel IS the significance of this speech? Is he just filling up space, or is there something more going on here than Romeo or the audience realizes? 

Q5: Though Juliet is supposed to only be 13 and a half years old (!), her language is remarkably confident and mature. How does Shakespeare create her personality through her language? Discuss a brief scene that might hint at her star power even in Act 1. 

Q6: How does Romeo come across in Act 1? Remember that he enters the play sighing for Rosaline, a girl we never meet, and he never mentions again once he sees Juliet. Discuss a line or passage that helps us get a fix on who he is, or how others in the play see him.