Created for a 9th grade English class. This PowerPoint has just enough information without being too overwhelming.

1. Background Information:
William Shakespeare and
The Tragedy of Romeo and
Juliet
Pace – English 9CP
2014

2. Shakespeare’s life is a mystery;
scholars and historians know very
little about him for certain. The
things we do know:
•Born on April 23, 1564
•Died on April 23, 1616
•Home town = Stratford-on-Avon,
located about 50 miles from London
•Father = John Shakespeare,
political figure in their small town.
•Mother = Mary Arden Shakespeare
•Only attended the local grammar
school until he was 15 (Why is this
significant?)

3. He married Anne Hathaway in 1582. She
was eight years older than him (and on top
of that she was pregnant when they married
– SCANDALOUS). They had three children
named: Susanna, Hamnet, and Judith.
Anne Hathaway’s Cottage
Modern day Anne Hathaway

4. It is estimated that Shakespeare arrived in
London around 1588. He was first an
actor and then became a playwright . In
1594, he also became a partner in the
Globe Theater. Shakespeare was a member
oLfo rTdh e
Chamberlain’s
Men later
called The
King’s Men
after James I
took over the
throne in
1603.

5. The Lord Chamberlain’s Men (The King’s Men) became a
favorite London troupe, traveling and performing all over
England; several famous actors were also a part of this
traveling group – Will Kempe, a master comedian and
Richard Burbage, a leading tragic actor of the day. They
were patronized by royalty and made popular by the
theater-going public.
Patronage is the support,
encouragement, privilege, or
financial aid that an organization or
individual bestows to another.

6. Shakespeare is credited with having written 37 plays and 154
sonnets.
Sonnets are 14 line poems with a very specific rhyme scheme.
William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, and Francesco Petrarch are
considered the masters of the sonnet.
The theme of sonnets tends to be unrequited love. Shakespeare’s
sonnets follow the rhyme scheme of ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG. His
sonnets are easily recognizable because they end in a couplet.
A couplet is two lines of poetry
that have end rhyme.
An example of a couplet:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can
see,
So long lives this and this gives life to
thee.

7. Most “starving artists”
are, sadly, only famous
after their deaths.
(People like: Vincent
$
Van Gogh, Claude
Monet, Edgar Allan
Poe, Stieg Larsson, and
Johann Sebastian Bach.
However, Shakespeare
actually experienced
wealth ($$$$). He
$published his plays in
$
octavo editions, or
“penny copies” to his
literate audience.
Never before had a
playwright enjoyed
sufficient acclaim to
see his works
$

8. Black Death Shakespeare lived in the
Elizabethan Era (also
known as The
Renaissance). The
Bubonic Plague, a.k.a
Black Death, was highly
contagious. Shakespeare
is said to have had a
terrible fear of the
deadly disease. This is
hardly surprising as it
touched so many areas of
his life, including his
life as an actor at the
T h e r e w e r e t h r e e
v e r y s e r i o u s
o u t b r e a k s o f t h e
d i s e a s e w h i c h l e d t o
t h e c l o s u r e o f a l l o f
t h e p l a y h o u s e s ,
i n c l u d i n g
S h a k e s p e a r e ’ s
G l o b e . T h e
o u t b r e a k s o c c u r r e d
i n 1 5 9 3 , 1 6 0 3 , a n d
1 6 0 8 .

11. The Globe Theater
Thames
River

12. Before the Globe Theater, all Elizabethan playhouses were indoor
venues. These theaters: The Swan, The Rose, Curtain, etc. allowed
for people to pay $.01-$.26 for admittance. They were an exclusive
type of entertainment.
Inside the new Globe Theater
Enter Shakespeare and his
friend Richard Burbage,
who decided to do things
differently. They designed
The Globe Theater, a
new outdoor, open air
playhouse. The cost of
admittance was $.01-
$.03. This meant anyone
could come; the playhouse
was no longer a place for only
the wealthy, noble, and royal.

13. The Globe Theater (a.k.a. the
Wooden O) • No electricity, plays performed
during the day
• Very little scenery/minimalist
• Plays lasted between 2 and 4 hours
• White flag from rooftop = play
today
black flag = theater closed
• Performances went on rain or shine
• Proscenium Stage
• All actors were males (women
forbidden from acting in the
playhouses) – give this some
thought…
• Burned down on June 29, 1613 (a
theatrical cannon misfired during a
performance of Henry VIII catching

14. All the actors were
men…..

16. More than 2,000+ people would pile into the
Globe Theater to see performances.
The Globe’s Motto:
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many
parts…
-from Shakespeare’s play As You Like

17. During performances, workers
would sell oranges to those in
attendance. The oranges are
an Elizabethan version of our
popcorn/concession stand.
However, during Shakespeare’s
time they served a dual
purpose…they also covered up
the stinch that came with the
working class.
Those who stood on the ground
in the PIT area were called
GROUNDLINGS. They paid a
penny to get in and watched
the play from the floor.
1

18. The Groundlings

19. Performances in The Globe Theater were always an exciting
escape for all classes of people in the Elizabethan period.
There were different sections in the playhouse for those
who could afford better seats, The interesting th ijnusgt like today.
is…the most expensive
seats were those up in
the “nose bleeds.” Those
who could afford paid
up to $.03 and sat in the
balcony to watch the
plays.

20. The Globe had many unique
attributes. In the ceiling over the
stage area was a small trap door
through which ghosts, angels,
gods, etc. would appear. This small
trap door was called THE HEAVENS.
It also had a trap door in the floor
through which demons, monsters,
and witches could appear. This
door was rightfully referred to as
HELL.

21. Actors were highly trained on
many different levels. They
could not count on elaborate
scenery to get their point
across. They had to
understand the plays and be
able to establish a connection
with the audience based on
their elocution of the mere
words in the play. This is not
an easy feat to accomplish.
Elocution = the skill of clear and expressive
speech, especially of distinct pronunciation
and articulation.

22. One of the most
vital reasons for the
continuing
popularity of
Shakespeare’s plays
is the fact that they
all involve timeless
themes: love, greed,
ambition,
prejudices, loyalty,
jealousy, etc.

23. Rulers during Shakespeare’s lifetime
Queen Elizabeth were:
I
Reigned from 1558-
1603. She was a
liberal minded
monarch who enjoyed
the theater.
Shakespeare gave 32
performances at court
during her reign. She
was the daughter of
King Henry VIII and
Anne Boleyn.
King James I
Reigned from
1603-1625. He
also wrote plays
and poems. He
saw many plays
performed by
Shakespeare as
well. The
Chamberlain’s
Men were renamed
to honor him…
They came to be
called THE KING’S
MEN.

24. Shakespeare died on his 52nd
His gravestone bears an epitaph which Shakespeare
himself supposedly wrote. It warns:
birthday.
Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare,
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blessed be the man that spares these
stones,
And cursed be he that moves my bones.
An epitaph is a phrase or
statement written in memory
of a person who has died,
especially as an inscription on
a tombstone

25. Shakespeare was buried in Holy
Trinity Church in Stratford-on-
Avon; in 1740 a memorial statue of
him was erected in Poet’s Corner,
located in Westminster Abbey.

26. Terms to Know before reading Shakespeare:
Shakespeare used soliloquies and asides to help his
audience grasp a deeper, more clear understanding
of his plays.
In a SOLILOQUY the actor is alone on stage,
speaking to himself and revealing to the audience
his inner thoughts and feelings.
In an ASIDE the actor speaks words that the other
characters on stage are not suppose to hear.
**One of the most important things to do while reading is
to imagine yourself sitting inside the Globe theater seeing

27. Shakespeare adhered, for the most part to the
traditional definition of tragedy.
A TRAGEDY is a drama or literary work in
which the main character is brought to ruin
or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a
consequence of a tragic flaw, moral
weakness, or inability to cope with
unfavorable circumstances.

28. What then are the TRAGIC FLAWS in the
characters of Romeo and Juliet that lead to
their downfall? – Something to think about…..
TRAGIC FLAW -
a failing in
the character
of a tragic
hero that
leads to his
downfall

29. Shakespeare uses several other literary devices
to help him tell his famous story. A few
notable literary devices from The Tragedy of
Romeo and Juliet are:
Foreshadowing - providing
advance indications of what is
to come
Pun - A play on
words,
sometimes on
different senses
of the same
word and
sometimes on
the similar
sense or sound
of different
words.
Metaphor -a
figure of speech in
which an
expression is used
to refer to
something that it
does not literally
denote in order to
suggest a
similarity
Simile - A
figure of
speech in
which two
essentially
unlike things
are compared,
often in a
phrase
introduced by
like or as
Oxymoron – two words back to
back that are opposite in meaning;
oxymorons show conflicting
emotions

30. In The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare uses
BLANK VERSE, which consists of five feet to a line -- each
beat consisting of an unaccented syllable followed by an
accented syllable…technically known as IAMBIC
PENTAMETER. (An important thing to remember about
iambic pentameter is that it does not follow a rhyme
scheme)
However, Shakespeare often liked to indicate to his
audience when a scene was ending. He would do this by
creating a COUPLET at the end of the scene. (A couplet is
two lines in verse that rhyme.) This became so regular in

31. Get ready it is...

32. “ P a r t i n g i s s u c h swe e t
s o r r ow……”
- f r om The Tragedy of Romeo and
Juliet
THE END!