Romeo and Juliet

What can we say? It's a classic.

  • Course Length: 3 weeks
  • Course Type: Short Course
  • Category:
    • English
    • Literature
    • Middle School

Schools and Districts: We offer customized programs that won't break the bank. Get a quote.

Get a Quote

Romeo and Juliet: Maybe you've heard of it?

Oh, wait…you haven't? Well, let us fill you in. Back in the very late 1500s, an actor, director, and over-involved stage manager named William Shakespeare was cranking out plays left and right. His specialty was tragedies—plays where the audience could watch the main characters fall prey to fate.

The most impressive part? Not only do his tragedies feature comedic moments, but they're all written in poetic iambic pentameter.

Perhaps the most referenced, most adapted, and most taught of Shakespeare's tragedies is Romeo and Juliet. Two teens from rival families meet at a party, fall in love, marry in secret, and cause many a death in the process.

We get it—you already know the story. But what you don't already know is Shmoop's take on the matter. 

This course includes hilarious close analysis and scene breakdowns, activities for a variety of learning styles, and more literary terms than Shakespeare had ruffled-collar shirts. And it's all aligned to the Common Core. By the end of these fifteen lessons, you'll be more of an R+J expert than all your past English teachers and Leonardo DiCaprio combined.


Unit Breakdown

1 Romeo and Juliet - Romeo and Juliet

Did Romeo and Juliet ever even have a chance? This fifteen-lesson course explores the role of fate and dramatic irony in Shakespeare's most famous play. Use Shmoop's summary, analysis, and profoundly original lessons to see how truly melodramatic these teen lovers really are. Or were. They died. (Come on, everyone knows that!)


Sample Lesson - Introduction

Lesson 1.02: Fair Verona? (Prologue and First Scene)

"What didst thou proclaimest about my mother?"
(Source)

Romeo and Juliet is a love story, so you might expect it to take place in a peaceful setting—maybe with characters in nice houses, calmly and politely discussing marriage over tea. You're probably picturing Jane Austen, or a Hugh Grant movie.

Yeah, not exactly.

Romeo and Juliet occurs in a time and place in which duels and deaths were daily occurrences. If someone showed you disrespect, you preserved your social standing only by showing that person your sword. (Interpret that last sentence on a literal level, btw.)

Basically—you're about to enter a crazy place with some crazy, violent, emotional people. And this is all in the first act.

In Biology, they say that life finds a way to grow in any environment. Well, we're about to see that Romeo and Juliet's love will have to spring up in the most inhospitable of places.


Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 1.1.02a: Prologue

Today you're going to read the Prologue of the play, which is seen through the eyes of a Chorus.

Think of the Chorus as a narrator, or the voiceover on How I Met Your Mother. The Chorus has been a standard of drama since ancient Greek plays, so Shakespeare isn't doing anything new here. What's different about this Prologue is its form.

Notice something familiar? If ABABCDCDEFEFGG is singing in your head, you have an odd inner voice, but you're right. It's a sonnet! What does this tell us about the play?

  • We're in Verona, an Italian city. Sonnets started in Italy, and the play takes place around that same time (14th-16th century).
  • If this is the land of sonnets, we're going to see lots of love and high passion.

The famous "star-crossed lovers" line comes in here, in this very prologue. Think of astrological and zodiac signs for this. You've probably read a horoscope, saying something like, "When Mars and Saturn align, people with Taurus as their sign will have a good day." "Star-crossed" means Romeo and Juliet's stars aren't aligned. The cosmos is working against them. Star-crossed means ill-fated, that their love won't have a good ending.

Read away, and then check out our guide for more.


Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 1.1.02b: Act 1.1

Read through Act 1, Scene 1. Afterwards, make sure to check out Shmoop's summary and analysis.

What serious points can we take from the fight and why is it the first event in the play?

  • It shows how hot the Montague-Capulet feud is, like a Biggie-Tupac thing.
  • People in Verona are really passionate. Even old man Montague and Capulet try to get into it, and a band of citizens actually rushes in to break it up.
  • Tybalt hates Montagues more than anyone else. Probably worth remembering.
  • Romeo's unique. He doesn't care about the feud and barely notices the fight.

But also, let's be haters for a minute. To put it bluntly, Romeo sounds like a bad sonnet. His "woe is me" lines dripping with self-pity are right from a Petrarchan piece, as is his unrequited love. We just saw people trying to kill each other with swords, and a minute later, we're listening to an emo teen.

The two connect. We see the mixing of violence and love through passion, which will become a major theme. Romeo points this out, saying, "Here's much to do with hate, but more with love…O brawling love, O loving hate" (1.1 174-175). The play seems to hint the extreme hate between the families will create a love as passionate.

Sigh. Only in Verona.


Sample Lesson - Activity

Activity 1.02a: Verona View

What a strange and overly emotional place Verona is. It makes Real Housewives look calm. Yet, the Prologue actually calls it "fair Verona." Really? Do you think this city seems fair, a nice place, or crazy and dangerous?

Show us.

Part One

Make a picture of Verona, featuring Romeo. It can be a poster, collage of web images, flyer, or other graphic, as long as it

  • depicts how you think the city looks.
  • includes details of the setting featured in today's reading.
  • features Romeo.

Also, Shmoopsters—let's not be lazy. Use color in your work. If you make a collage from other images, use at least five different pictures. Look at the picture at the start of the lesson as an example. We suggest making it look more colorful (and more emotional).

Part Two

Write 100-150 words explaining why you depicted Verona and Romeo the way you did. ("I drew Romeo as having a greasy thin moustache because he seems like a teenage boy trying to be adult, but just not achieving it.") Upload your picture and explanation below.


Sample Lesson - Activity

  1. Who are the "star-crossed lovers"?

  2. What is the Prologue structured as?

  3. What are the names of the two families that are feuding with each other?

  4. What starts the fight?

  5. Who tries to stop the fight?

  6. Who tries to keep the fight going (hint: he says he hates peace)?

  7. What does the Prince say will be the punishment for the next person to fight in the street?

  8. Why is Romeo depressed?

  9. Who tries to talk Romeo out of his depression?

  10. Who says, "I have lost myself; I am not here; / This is not ___, he's some other where."?