Act 1 Scene 5: Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time and realise they are from feuding families.
Act 2 Scene 2: Romeo and Juliet, alone after the feast is over, declare their love for each other and promise marriage.
Act 3 Scene 5: The lovers make their final farewell after their wedding night.
Courtly love:
Romeo sighs at Rosaline's lack of interest in him.
He attends the Capulets' masked ball just to catch a glimpse of Rosaline.
We also see Paris acting out the forms of courtly love in relation to Juliet.
Sexuality:
Such as in the coarse humour of the servants in Act 1 Scene 1.
In our first meeting with the Nurse, she jokes that 'Women grow by men' and moments later is encouraging Paris sympathetically and 'seek happy nights to happy days'.
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Themes - Fate and Free Will
The prologue introduces the idea of by presenting us with 'a pair of star-crossed lovers'.
Both character experience feelings of foreboding and have bad dreams and premonitions of what is to come.
Neither of them change their actions and continue to act out of a sense of free will throughout the play - almost challenging the fates in the same way that Juliet challenges her father's authority.
When Romeo hears of Juliet's death, he does this outright, 'I defy you, stars!'
The prologue introduces the idea of fate being responsible for the tragedy.
Act 1, Scene 4: Romeo senses that attending the Capulet feast will lead to no good.
Act 3, Scene 5: Juliet makes a chilling prediction of Romeo's death.
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Themes - Life and Death
The young men of Verona are swift to draw their swords and bloodshed ensures.
As a result, the play is set against young lives being cut short and we witness the loss of Tybalt, Mercutio, Paris, Romeo and then Juliet.
It is the older characters that are more philosophical about death, 'we were born to die.'
Examples in the play:
Act 3, Scene 1: The violent and bloody deaths of Mercutio and Tybalt take place in the street.
Act 4, Scene 5: The Capulets react to Juliet's feigned death.
Act 5, Scene 3: Verona sees the deadly consequences of the Capulet-Montague feud.
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Context - Historical
The playwright:
Shakespeare born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564.
25 years working in London as a writer, actor and theatre manager.
Romeo and Juliet published in the earlier phase of Shakespeare's dramatic career.
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Context - Social
Patriarchal Society
A society ruled by men, and where fathers are of prime importance.
Common is Renaissance times and Capulet exemplifies this in the play.
Capulet has ultimate power over his wife and daughter.
The male head of the household would hold all family wealth and land.
Girls expected to grow up to become wives and mothers.
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Context - Social
The Family Feud
Learn that Romeo and Juliet come from warring households.
Never told what the quarrel was about, only that it's bitter enough for a man like Tybalt to be always prepared to fight a Montague.
The instant attraction between lovers immediately plunges them into the bitterness of the family feuding.
The love of a man and a woman is made to seem wrong simply because they are trapped between two violently quarrelling families.
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Context - Cultural
Young Love
Juliet is 14 and Romeo a couple years older.
Even with the different life expectancy of sixteenth-century Europeans, this was still rather young for marriage.
Paris' interest in marrying Juliet has a dramatic purpose, giving urgency to the story and even possibly forcing Juliet into considering marriage to Romeo on their second meeting.
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Settings
Shakespeare chose Italy as the setting for a number of his plays.
Italy was regarded as a wealthy and romantic country.
Italy was also a place where they believed murderous feuds and passionate love affairs were commonplace.
Romeo and Juliet set in northern Italy, in the city of Verona and in Mantua.
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