The prologue

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  • Created by: Cat91
  • Created on: 17-11-18 10:14
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  • The prologue
    • It's a sonnet
      • The 14 line structure was used in love poems
        • It came from Italy
          • Where the play is set
      • The last part of the play is also a sonnet
      • It has to follow rules
        • The first 8 lines are a problem
          • The fight between the families
        • The 9th line is a plot twist
          • R+J dying
        • The last 6 lines are a solution
          • Greif helps the families overcome the conflict
            • "The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love"
              • It's destined that they will die because of their love
                • Fate
                  • A Shakespe-arean audience would have a firm belief in fate
              • A "passage" usually only has one way out
              • The word "fearful" indicates that they will be in pain
                • Both emotionally and physically
              • The juxtaposition "death-mark'd love" makes it appear that love is tainted and comes at a cost
              • By making it so explicit that they will die, Shakespeare makes the audience more aware of death every time it's on stage
        • But Shakespeare disregards these rules and remakes the sonnet
    • Key themes
      • Fate
        • You know what's going to happen before the play has even started
        • They're described as "star-crossed lovers"
          • It suggests that it was written in the stars that they would end up together
    • It's the form of a love poem but filled with hate
      • This symbolises how much conflict there is in the play
      • He entwines the two, showing that you can't have one without the other
        • The saying 'you can only hate someone as much as you once loved them'

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