Meeting Romeo

DO NOW Who was fighting who in Act 1, Scene 1?

2. Who tried to stop the fight in Act 1, Scene 1?

3. What do we call someone who hates violence?

4. Why do you think Shakespeare opened the play with this scene?

1.

DO NOW Who was fighting who in Act 1, Scene 1?

2. Who tried to stop the fight in Act 1, Scene 1?

3. What do we call someone who hates violence?

4. Why do you think Shakespeare opened the play with this scene?

1.

KQ: How does Shakespeare present Romeo in the opening scene?

KWs: turmoil, conflicted, oxymoron, elevated, cliched

Act 1 Scene 1: Romeo

Starter: Explain what you notice about the language below. Why do you think it has been positioned like this?

Alone together Deafening silence

The living dead

Pretty ugly

KQ: How does Shakespeare present Romeo in the opening scene?

KWs: turmoil, conflicted, oxymoron, elevated, cliched

Technique Study:

Oxymoron = A figure of speech in which the writer combines two ideas that are opposites. This frequently has a startling or unusual effect.

KQ: How does Shakespeare present Romeo in the opening scene?

KWs: turmoil, conflicted, oxymoron, elevated, cliched

Summarise the following contextual information in your books: There were various attitudes to love in the Elizabethan times: 1. That love was of secondary importance to power, status, and honour 2. That men were more capable of having strong emotions than women, but that they should do so privately 3. That men ought to make passionate declarations of love in accordance with European traditions of courtly love 4. That excessive love was a disease (lovesickness) that could drive its victim mad.

Consider this now we come across Romeo.

KQ: How does Shakespeare present Romeo in the opening scene?

KWs: turmoil, conflicted, oxymoron, elevated, cliched

Look at the language Romeo uses in your extract. Use a highlighter to identify:

Here’s much to do with hate but more with love.

Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate, O anything of nothing first created!

1) the examples of oxymorons Romeo uses here.

2) military terms and imagery used by Romeo to describe love

O heavy lightness, serious vanity, Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!

Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!

This love feel I, that feel no love in this.

STRETCH: create mini quote explosions for a selection of these quotes, noting connotations that they have, what they might imply, what they might tell us about Romeo, etc.

KQ: How does Shakespeare present Romeo in the opening scene?

KWs: turmoil, conflicted, oxymoron, elevated, cliched What effect does it have on you?

Do you think his feelings are genuine?

Here’s much to do with hate but more with love.

Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate, O anything of nothing first created!

O heavy lightness, serious vanity, Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!

Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!

This love feel I, that feel no love in this.

KQ: How does Shakespeare present Romeo in the opening scene?

KWs: turmoil, conflicted, oxymoron, elevated, cliched

Choose one of Romeo’s oxymorons e.g. ‘feather of lead’.

Analyse what this oxymoron shows us about Romeo’s feelings towards Rosaline.

Consider the connotations of the individual words in your analysis.

Shakespeare presents Romeo as feeling….

When Romeo uses the oxymoron “…..” this might suggest that…

The word “….” implies….

Shakespeare might have been suggesting that….

Stretch: can you identify the word class of the individual words from your oxymoron? Can you support with a secondary quotation?

Need some help visualising Act 1 Scene 1?

Watch this clip of the film! • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDy7XyeplV8