Romeo and Juliet

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. Brainstorm film and book titles in which an ongoing conflict exists as the story opens (such as war, oppression, or disaster). Which of those titles involve realistic, historical settings and conflicts?

Teaching Suggestion and Helpful Links: As students brainstorm popular titles of books and movies, point out those in which a real-life conflict occurs in a real historical or contemporary setting (Hidden Figures, The Book Thief, Casablanca, Out of the Dust, Number the Stars, etc.) Make the connection to Shakespeare, who also drew from “real history” for inspiration.

• A University of Calgary research group site explains the historical blood feud between families that creates ongoing conflict in the streets of Verona at the start of the play.
• A cultural site article describes the homes commonly attributed to the historical families of Romeo and Juliet.

2. Can you guess at three or four of the biggest differences between daily life in the late Middle Ages/early Renaissance and life today?

Teaching Suggestion and Helpful Links: Though Shakespeare did not specify the year in which it takes place, Romeo and Juliet is frequently presented with a late medieval or early Renaissance setting. To better understand the play, students should recognize that this time period means messengers instead of cell phones, arranged marriages instead of dating, bubonic plague instead of antibiotics, etc.

• Sites like these on fashion and inventions can help to inform about other facets of daily life in the late Middle Ages/early Renaissance for additional insight.

Short Activity

Shakespeare wrote plays, and acted, in Elizabethan England. Considering the absence of technology at that time, what acting skills and theatrical approaches would have been especially important on Shakespeare’s stage? As a playwright and actor, how might Shakespeare have held the audience’s attention? Brainstorm and list your ideas. Then rearrange a presentation space in your classroom so that desks and chairs of the “audience” are on three sides. Present your responses from this three-quarter “stage.”

Teaching Suggestion and Helpful Links: Guide student responses regarding how a lack of electricity, lighting, microphones, elaborate scenery, and modern special effects would prompt Shakespeare to focus on storytelling methods (like announcing locations within lines) and language (word choice and connotation that characterizes the speaker). Point out how Shakespeare used the intimacy of three-quarter staging to hold audience attention.

• The Royal Shakespeare Company sums up performance challenges of a play in Elizabethan times.
• Students can see a three-quarter thrust stage in this image from DK Find Out.
• Staging layouts from Theatres Trust will inform comparisons to Shakespeare’s stage.