Romeo and Juliet

I. About the Novel : Romeo and Juliet

Creation of the play

Romeo and Juliet can be plausibly dated to 1595. Shakespeare must have written the play between 1591 and 1596. The earliest date is considered to be too early, because of Shakespeare’s writing style in the play. The later date allows the necessary time for the compilation of the manuscript used to print the first ‘bad’ quarto in early 1597.Romeo and Juliet relates most closely to a group of plays usually dated to the period 1594-1595, Love’s Labour’s Lost,A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Richard II.

Early performances

Romeo and Juliet had certainly been performed by 1597, when the first quarto was published. There are no surviving records for any performances before the Restoration in 1660, but it is likely that Romeo and Juliet was first acted by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men at the Theatre and then at the Curtain. It has been suggested that Richard Burbage may have played Romeo, with the boy actor Robert Goffe as Juliet.

Works Cited （参考文献）

"Romeo and Juliet." - Shakespeare in Quarto. British Library Website, n.d. Web. 1 June 2016.

Shmoop Editorial Team. "Romeo and Juliet Summary." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 02 June 2016.

II. Versions of the Novel in the Mass Media

A. Movie Versions

Romeo and Juliet (1968)
  
Cast : Romeo   - Leonard Whiting
          Juliet       - Olivia Hussey
Scene : Young Romeo Montague goes out with his friends to make trouble at a party the Capulets are hosting, but while there he spies the Capulet's daughter Juliet, and falls hopelessly in love with her.

Romeo + Juliet (1996)

Cast : Romeo   - Leonardo DiCaprio

          Juliet       - Claire Danes



B. Ballet Versions

Romeo and Juliet (2010)

Cast : Romeo  - Steven McRae
          Juliet      - Miyako Yoshida



C. Musical Versions

Romeo and Juliet of the musical has been performed in many countries.
This video is a concatenation of many of the country in which the musical has been performed scene.

III. About the Author : William Shakespeare

Born to John Shakespeare, a glovemaker and tradesman, and Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent farmer, William Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon. At that time, infants were baptized three days after their birth, thus scholars believe that Shakespeare was born on April 23, the same day on which he died at age 52. As the third of eight children, young William grew up in this small town 100 miles northwest of London, far from the cultural and courtly center of England.

Shakespeare attended the local grammar school, King's New School, where the curriculum would have stressed a classical education of Greek mythology, Roman comedy, ancient history, rhetoric, grammar, Latin, and possibly Greek. Throughout his childhood, Shakespeare's father struggled with serious financial debt. Therefore, unlike his fellow playwright Christopher Marlowe, he did not attend university. Rather, in 1582 at age 18, he married Anne Hathaway, a woman eight years his senior and three months pregnant. Their first child, Susanna, was born in 1583, and twins, Hamnet and Judith, came in 1585. In the seven years following their birth, the historical record concerning Shakespeare is incomplete, contradictory, and unreliable; scholars refer to this period as his “lost years.”

In a 1592 pamphlet by Robert Greene, Shakespeare reappears as an “upstart crow” flapping his poetic wings in London. Evidently, it did not take him long to land on the stage. Between 1590 and 1592, Shakespeare's Henry VI series, Richard III, andThe Comedy of Errors were performed. When the theaters were closed in 1593 because of the plague, the playwright wrote two narrative poems, Venus and Adonisand The Rape of Lucrece, and probably began writing his richly textured sonnets. One hundred and fiftyfour of his sonnets have survived, ensuring his reputation as a gifted poet. By 1594, he had also written, The Taming of the Shrew, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Love's Labor's Lost.

In 1616, with his health declining, Shakespeare revised his will. Since his only son Hamnet had died in 1596, Shakespeare left the bulk of his estate to his two daughters, with monetary gifts set aside for his sister, theater partners, friends, and the poor of Stratford. A fascinating detail of his will is that he bequeathed the family's “second best bed” to his wife Anne. He died one month later, on April 23, 1616. To the world, he left a lasting legacy in the form of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and two narrative poems.

Works Cited （参考文献）

"The Life of William Shakespeare (1564–1616)." Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 June 2016.

IV. My Reaction

A. Reaction Point - form (形式)

• the structure of a work of art, how it is laid out
• This play is divided into five acts. Within each act there are a number of scenes. 
• Act1 The Capulets and the Montagues , Act2 Marriage Plans , Act3 Murder and Banishment ...

          Scene1 The town square in Verona , Scene2 A street near the Capulet's house...

• Shakespeare is a playwright so Romeo and Juliet has been written as drama, so it uses the three act form that is common in dramas. For example this is written "Act"(one of the main part of a play) , "Scene"(a short part of a play) , "character names" and [action].

        

B. Reaction Point -  protagonist (主人公)

• The protagonist is the main character. In this play (novel), there are two protagonists, two main characters.
• Romeo - The son and heir of Montague and Lady Montague. A young man of about sixteen, Romeo is handsome, intelligent, and sensitive.He lives in the middle of a violent feud between his family and the Capulets, but he is not at all interested in violence.
• Juliet - The daughter of Capulet and Lady Capulet. A beautiful thirteen-year-old girl, Juliet begins the play as a naïve child who has thought little about love and marriage, but she grows up quickly upon falling in love with Romeo, the son of her family’s great enemy.
• The entire story focuses on the love relationship of these two main characters. 

C. Reaction Point - denouement (ストーリーやプロットの結末) 

• The ending of a story or a plot.
• LORD CAPULET [holding out his hand to Lord Montague]: Give me your hand, brother   Montague. Let's be friends. I cannot do any more for my daughter now.

        LORD MONTAGUE [taking Lord Capulet's hand]: But I can. I will ask a painter to
                             pain a picture of Juliet.   

• Story of the last, Romeo and Juliet will die. But Capulet were reconciled with Montague opportunity to be dead Romeo and Juliet.

D. My General Opinion
I like this story because there are a lot of charm. Romeo and Juliet is very famous tragedy.
The story has become the movie, ballet and musical in many countries. And it has been loved by many people!