Directions: Please listen to Mr. Pellerin recite the Prologue to Romeo & Juliet. In this blog space, please post your initial thoughts. Given what you learned in the documentary about how Shakespeare "broke the mold," what do you anticipate will be different about this tragedy compared with other plays? What information does Shakespeare give us about the plot of the play in the prologue? What do you notice about the form and structure? He seems to give away the ending. What will happen in the end? In your opinion, why would Shakespeare give away the ending? This is a "live blog." Engage with each other.
Prologue
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
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When did we watch this documentary, was it in class?
ReplyDeleteYes, we watched it in class.
Deleteoof
ReplyDelete;)
ReplyDelete🤣
ReplyDelete:O
ReplyDeleteLucas Kaufman
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting discussion. Yep, that's... pretty much all I have to say about whatever this is.
oh no
ReplyDeletewhat is goin on in here? BEKFAST
ReplyDeleteJayden Cho
ReplyDelete1/2/19
What I noticed while reading this prologue was how Shakespeare says that the “continuance of their parents’ strife…” was to be the “two hours traffic of our stage.” I read this as a way that this play was more of a “war” between the two families rather than a love story between Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare reveals a lot of information in the prologue, such as that there are two families alike yet their history with each other from the very beginning has been rough. Shakespeare also says that the lovers will eventually take their lives, which would be assumed as the main story. In the end, I think that even with the death of Romeo and Juliet, the real action/play will start after to continue along the plot between both families. I think Shakespeare gave away the ending so we could understand throughout the story how the characters and families develop and become to be the way they are at the end.
Rene Roustand
DeleteI believe that it will turn into a war between the two families as well!
Lucas Kaufman
DeleteFinally, a serious comment! I like how you connected the prologue to the story of the warring families rather than that of the love between Romeo and Juliet, because the latter is so often portrayed as the main focus of the play.
Jayden Cho
Delete1/2/18
Thank you Lucas for noticing that. Yes I tried to connect more to the warring families since that bit is often missed as one of the core elements of this tragedy, as well as Shakespeare talking about the families much more than the couple in the prologue.
Sophia Lakos
ReplyDelete1/2/19
Compared to the other plays in the documentary, this one seems to be more about comparing and maybe having some conflict. Also given how deep the story of Romeo and Juliet is there will most likely be more emotion involved. In the prologue, we were told how it is two households being combined meaning two people coming together. They seem to want to be together, but their parents want the opposite. Also, it shares that even though their parents didn’t want them together, they continued to see each other. I think he gives away the ending to make people want to know how it got to that point.
Rene Roustand
ReplyDeleteI anticipate that this tragedy will involve violence, bloodshed, death, etc. I know there will be bloodshed because the 4th sentence states, "Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean". The structure of this prologue is in the form of a sonnet. Shakesphere gives away the ending because he wants the reader to get an insight on what is going to happen.
Mitch Keamy
ReplyDeleteI think that this play is different because it has two themes, it is both tragic and funny. I think it is going to have a really good story line and plot but not so good jokes because its so old. This play is about two children who are in love but their love is forbidden by their parents. This causes them both great strife and sadness. Shakespeare kind of gives away the ending when he says they kill themselves.
Peyton Levental
ReplyDeleteWhat I think will be different compared to his other plays will be that there's more of a plot going on. Also you could argue that there is more emotions into this play as well. What information we get in the prologue is that there will be two lovers who go through an adventure and go against their parents and do what they please. I think that the form is very poetic. He uses big words and sometimes they rhyme. In the ending I believe that he gave it away because he wants people to know what they are going to read and what the plot is all about.
Drew Wachtel
ReplyDeleteI think this tragedy will be different from the other ones because there is less violence and death. Romeo and Juliet is a combination of all of the categories of plays back in the day like Comedy, tragedy and romance but this is the first play to combine all of the categories into one play. Shakespeare gives us that there are two families that don’t like each other but there are two lovers in the family’s. He also gives us that it takes place in Verona Italy. I think Shakespeare gives us the ending because no one knows what the ending is if they haven’t seen the play yet.
Ben Worthley
ReplyDeleteThis play is a tragedy. It has more death and sad thoughts than any other play. This play turned the tide for Shakespeare as a writer. Be for he wrote this play he was a normal writer trying to make a name for his self. The play os about Romeo and Juliet. Their families are rivals in Verona, a city in Italy. Romeo is in love with Juliet and vice-versa. Their families hate each other so they won't let Romeo be with Juliet. This play has more loss than other play of its time. Plays had loss but no real loss. In a comedy, the main character might go on a killing spree or something. In a tragedy, the main character might kill themselves or be killed by a rival. In a tragedy, you deal with loss in other plays you might not.
I also think that this play changed Shakespeare's future because this play really made people appreciate his work and the thought that goes into constructing these divine plays.
Delete^^
DeleteJulia Campbell
Julia Campbell
ReplyDeleteI believe that Shakespeare broke the mold by being more creative than his competitors and instead of copying the basic format for plays during his time.
I think that this tragedy will be different than others because Shakespeare had a unique way of describing what was happening in his plays with the lines that were different than any other playwright.
I think he gave away from the ending because he wanted people to anticipate the ending of the play.
Davis Blanch
ReplyDeleteShakespeare hints that there will be death in the play. Shakespeare likely gave away a part of the ending but not the full end. Shakespeare might have wanted to build up suspense with the story.
1/2/19
ReplyDeleteWilliam Shakspere broke the mold with his plays. Many people went to see plays as an escape and excitement. He made up words then used them to fulfill his rhyme scheme. He gives away the ending probably to make you think if there is someone you would die for. The play is a tragedy because the two that are in love both die. The imbalance of wealth does not matter to the two and they would rather die together then live apart.
Sean- He broke the mold by using a very unique language and the choice of words that makes it so famou. He also used a lot of commas I don't know if that means anything but it tells you how to read it.This poem also talks about two families fighting and that they don't get along
ReplyDeleteAbhi Sharma
ReplyDeleteThis play is different between other plays because I believe that it is a war between Romeo and Juliet parents and they love each other even if their parents disagree. The information that Shakespeare gave in the prologue is when Romeo and Juliet die and their families start fighting each other like their in a war for blaming each other about their child death. What I notice is that Romeo and Juliet love each other till the end. What will happen in the end is that Romeo and Juliet will die. The reason why Shakespeare gave away the ending because is to give us an idea what will happen between their parents.
Lucas Kaufman
ReplyDeleteFrankly, I am quite excited to begin reading “Romeo and Juliet”. I don’t have much experience with Shakespeare, only having read “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in 8th grade, and I know “Romeo and Juliet” is regarded as one of Shakespeare’s finest works. Regardless of the fame of the play (and it’s ending), however, the reveal of this ending as the suicide of the protagonists did take me by surprise. It removes any hope the reader/viewer may have of Romeo and Juliet escaping their families to live happily ever after, which could have been viewed as taking away from the emotion of the audience when they get to this part because they already know what is going to happen. I have seen my classmates saying that the prologue points the story in the direction of the war between Romeo and Juliet’s families rather than the love story of the protagonists themselves, a prediction that I think, if correct, could explain Shakespeare’s choice to let the audience know ahead of time that Romeo and Juliet will end the play with their suicides.
Evan Brenner
ReplyDeleteI anticipate that this tragedy will be different than with other plays because it will have blood and love. Some information that Shakespeare gives us about the plot is that there are 2 families who don’t like each other. I notice that there is one stanza with 14 lines. In the end some characters will die. I think Shakespeare gave away the ending so because he the families and people were after a tragedy and how they handled it.