Transcript assessment-on-love-rj

Romeo and Juliet – How is
love presented in the play?
Preparing for your assessment
Week 3 Tuesday’s lesson
Agree or disagree?
Young love is not a
good reason to kill
yourself. In the play
what we largely see
is just infatuation.
Romantic love is to
be avoided – stick to
marrying for money
and status.
Love should not be
decided by a person’s
parents. And 14 is
too young for
marriage.
Love at first sight is
possible. The use of
the shared sonnet
proves this.
Verona has bigger
problems than two
silly teenagers
eloping.
Love is a more
dignified emotion
than duty and
obligation.
Shakespeare suggests
love is better than
the other options for
human relationships (
brotherhood / family
loyalty). The foil
between Juliet &
Tybalt shows this.
Love leads to bad
decision making and
impetuous behaviour.
Shakespeare is
presenting us with a
criticism of romantic
love. The
foreshadowing of
death helps to show
this. And it is a
tragedy.
When the play is
finished a modern
audience will most
remember love as
expressed in a suicide
pact. This is because
it resonates with the
alarming recent
increase in
teen/couple suicides.
Stauffer concludes
that “this play is a
tragedy [but] may fail
as serious tragedy
because Shakespeare
blurs the focus and
never makes up his
mind entirely as to
who is being
punished, and for
what reason”
In this tragedy, it is
not character flaws
that lead to Romeo
and Juliet’s deaths –
it is the external
pressures of the
family feud and cruel
fate.
Word wall
Romantic love / familial love / maternal love /paternal love/ fraternal love/
comradeship / platonic love / dutiful love / sexual love / spiritual love / Obsessive
love / infatuation / all consuming / unwise / blinded / delusional / devotion /
attraction / self-destructive / compulsive / vulnerable / receptive / unconditional /
blasphemous / unhealthy / selfless/ sensitive / emotional / loyalty / betrayal /
commitment / irresponsible / reckless / unrequited / passionate / delusional /
illusory / immature / noble / forbidden / pragmatic / impetuous / playful /
flirtatious / carefree / tragic / damaging / short lived / transient / magical / other
worldly
Courtly love – a tradition of a secret love for a woman held by a man who is
devoted to her and conducts himself with respectful courtesy. (Romeo’s love for
Rosaline – but with Juliet, he transgresses this role, confesses his love and acts on
his feelings) Shakespeare mocks Romeo’s love for Rosaline and seemingly invests
more dignity in Romeo’s love for Juliet. This would subvert moral ideas at the time
How is love presented in Romeo and Juliet?
Write an introduction / conclusion (they are interchangeable in terms
of this exam) to this question. You won’t have time for both. You can
write no more than 3 sentences. Make it sophisticated. Embed a very
short quote. Make your critical voice opinionated /emotive – don’t
write like a tentative student, but an arrogant scholar!
Only write about Shakespeare’s intention / his attitude / he reveals to
the audience …….
Show a sense of priority, don’t rattle off a list of ideas. Identify one or
two key ideas/messages/lessons and frame them in order of
importance for the examiner ‘whilst he shows us X,Y and Z , his most
compelling message about love is….’
Wider reading
https://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/englishassociation/publications/bookmarks/shakespeare-bookmarks1/romeo-and-juliet
Intro/ conclusion
In this tragedy, Shakespeare bears witness to the
devastating consequences of forbidden love; Romeo
and Juliet are sacrificial victims of their parents’ feud
and used by Shakespeare to show the perils faced by
those seeking romantic not dutiful love. However,
Shakespeare also implies the protagonists also share
some responsibility for their fate by presenting their
love as obsessive, impulsive and reckless. As the Friar
says ‘these violent delights have violent ends’.
Red = AO2 terms A03 context opportunity
• Come, night, come, Romeo,’ ‘Bring me’ Imperative verbs /command verbs / repetition /
atypical female behaviour / independent and autonomous / disobeyed parents /
marriage was conventionally arranged and for status and money not love – modern
audience? LOVE IS ATYPICAL FOR TIME: ROMANTIC NOT DUTIFUL
• Thou wilt lie upon the wings of night, whiter than new snow upon a raven’s back Colour
imagery / antithesis to show his grace & beauty / ornithological imagery / contrast /
symbolism of raven? LOVE IS ADMIRING / PASSIONATE
• When he shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars…he will make the face of
heaven so fine modal verb / morbid, explicit language for death/ religious imagery /
intensifier ‘so’ / dramatic irony – prologue told of their deaths / death is a convention of
a tragedy / blasphemy is a sin again God LOVE IS OBSESSIVE / IDOLATOROUS / /
DOOMED
• So tedious is this day…an impatient child that hath new robes/ And may not wear them
adjective ‘tedious’ / simile / atypical attitude to sexual love / women expected to be
chaste, pure and ionnocent / she desires Romeo / modern audience? LOVE IS IMMATURE
/ RECKLESS/ IMPATIENT
• O, here comes my nurse interjection ‘O’ / signals entrance on stage of the accomplice /
soliloquy / stagecraft / signals arrival of bad news – tension LOVE IS FORBIDDEN /FATED
Quotes from across the play – Friday’s lesson