BOOK POSTER

CHARACTERS:
*Escales: Prince of Verona
and highest authority. He tries
to remain balanced in the dispute
between the Montague and
Capulet families.

-Montague and Lady Montague:

Romeo’s parents, who have been
in conflict with the Capulet family
for a long time.

-Romeo: Protagonist and only son of

the Montagues. He´s a romantic, impulsive,
courageous and young man who ends up
falling in love with Juliet, the daughter
of his family's enemies, the Capulets.

-Benvolio: Montague’s nephew and

Romeo's cousin. He is a sensitive
young man who dislikes fighting.

-Mercutio: A young familiar of

the prince and a loyal friend
of Romeo. He is quite aggressive,
but also ingenious and sarcastic.

-Capulet and Lady Capulet:

They are Juliet's parents;
they are strict and protective
and care more about traditions
and pride than what Juliet really
wants in her life, forcing her to
marry someone important, Paris.

-Juliet: Their only daughter.

She's only 14 years old, but she's
independent, innocent and mature.
 She´s willing to obey her parents
on the matter of marriage, until
she meets Romeo.

-Tybalt: Nephew of Lady Capulet

and cousin of Juliet and I would
say he has an aggressive, arrogant
and extremely revengeful personality.

-Juliet’s Nurse: Warm, fun and

gossipy lady who raised Juliet since
she was born and who has been by
her side ever since.

-Paris: He is a young noble,

a member of the prince´s family,
who is in love with Juliet and asks
her parents for her hand, but I would
really say he obeys mostly what
his family´s wants for him than
real love feelings.

-Friar Lawrence: He is a monk

of the Franciscan order, who has
good intentions.

OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE CHARACTERS:

-The protagonists, Romeo and Juliet, are shown to be radically different when
it comes to love. Romeo seems unstable, a hothead, as he first sees Rosaline
as the most beautiful woman in the world and claims to be completely in love
with her but changes his mind as soon as he sees Juliet. Juliet, on the other
hand, although also passionate, appears to be a strong, determined, and
courageous woman. She brings a great deal of realism to the play as she asks
Romeo very clear questions, such as asking him directly if he loves her, and
then also telling him that if his words of love are true and his intention is
marriage, he should send her a note the next day.

-One of the most interesting aspects of this play are the supporting
characters, as we see the protagonists through their eyes.

-As for Paris, to which Romeo could describe as an old and wicked suitor, on
the contrary, he presents him as charming and sweet, who does not look at any
time to make Juliet unhappy.

- Similarly, he presents Juliet's nurse as an understanding and attentive

woman, although she doesn't fully understand Juliet's passionate behavior.

- Romeo's parents barely appear in the play, which may be because, as a

man, Romeo has more freedom of movement and action. This is not the case
with Juliet's parents, who do appear frequently in the play. Although at first
her father seems like an understanding and sweet man, who will not give his
daughter in marriage if she doesn't want it, he eventually changes his mind
and threatens to drag her to the Church if she doesn't comply with his wishes.
In the play, Juliet always appears subject to her father's will, her mother's
opinions, and her nurse's vigilance.

-Friar Lawrence is a very interesting character. His intentions are good; he

marries Romeo and Juliet in the hope that the two families will reconcile, but in
the end, his plan leads to disaster and shows us how even our good intentions
can cause harm to others.

SETTING:
-The main setting of the plot,
Verona, Italy: This is where the
homes of the Montague and Capulet
families are located, as well as other
public places where the conflictive
encounters between the secondary
characters take place.

-Capulet House: In this Capulet

family home, several important
scenes take place:

*The masked ball takes place: Romeo

attends the ball uninvited, in order to
see Rosaline, and ends up meeting Juliet
and falling in love with her.

*Juliet's Balcony: This is where the most

famous scene of this play takes place,
it´s where Romeo and Juliet declare their love.

*Several encounters take place between

the Noble Paris and Lord Capulet,
preparations are also made for Juliet
and Paris's wedding, and finally, Juliet
is found in her bedroom, supposedly dead.

-Friar Lawrence's cell in his monastery:

This is where Friar Lawrence lives and works.
It is also where Romeo and Juliet meet.

-Saint Peter's Chapel: Here Romeo and

Juliet celebrate their secret wedding with
Friar Lawrence's help.

-Mantua: This is the northern

Italian city where Romeo goes
after being sentenced to exile
for killing Tybalt. There, Romeo,
desperate after knowing about
Juliet's death, buys poison from
an apothecary and returns to Verona
to take his own life in front of Juliet's tomb.

-Capulet's Tomb: This is the place

where Romeo and Juliet die and where,
after discovering the reasons for their
deaths, their families are later reconciled.
*THEMES:
-Love: The play focusses on the strong passion that develops between
Romeo and Juliet, in an explosive relationship as they meet, fall in love,
marry, and die. It´s a tragic love story in which even the characters' lives
take a backseat. From the moment they meet, Romeo and Juliet know
that their love faces a greater obstacle: The rivalry between their two
families, but they still decide to continue with their love. Shakespeare
tries to show that love is stronger than everything, even more than hate
and death.

-Fate: The tragic ending of the play is essentially due to fate, not to the
actions or decisions of the characters. Shakespeare shows us that
sometimes there are forces that favor us or that act against us, and we
can´t do anything to prevent it. In this play, Romeo and Juliet are often
victims of circumstances. Small details have disastrous effects for them,
such as when Capulet moves up Juliet and Paris's wedding by one day or
when the messenger sent by Friar Lawrence to Mantua fails to deliver
the message to Romeo. The characters themselves make this clear, as
when Romeo says after killing Tybalt, " I am fortune's plaything!"

Family conflicts and violence: The reason for the rivalry between the
Montague and Capulet families is never mentioned in the play, but we
understand that it has been going on for a long time. This rivalry
between the two families leads to lots of fights, preventing Romeo and
Juliet from being together and forcing them to marry in secret. All this
together generates a lot of tension and finally causes tragedy.

Honor: This is a very important part of the play. Both families, the
Capulet and the Montague, often end up using violence and even duels
to defend their honor. Tybalt, for example, ends up killed for challenging
Romeo to defend the Capulet family's honor.

Death: It is present throughout the play. By the end, six characters have
died: Mercutio, Tybalt, Paris, Romeo's mother and Romeo and Juliet
themselves. The death of the protagonists is when this theme of death
reaches its most tragic point, as it shows how rushed decisions can lead
to total disaster, to irreversible loss.
QUOTE ANALYSIS:

One of the most important quotes in this work is when Juliet

says:

Romeo, Romeo,
wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name.
Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.

Juliet speaks these lines in the famous balcony scene, talking

aloud to herself, without realizing that Romeo is below, hiding
in the garden and listening to her.

Here, "wherefore" means why, not where, since she doesn't

know he's down there, nor does she imagine it, since the wall
has very high walls and there are guards who would kill him if
they saw him there. She is wondering why Romeo must be
Romeo, why he must be a Montague, the son of her family's
greatest enemy.

We must consider that Juliet, just moments ago, during the

ball at her house attended by Romeo, went from feeling the
most intense love at first sight to soon discovering from her
nurse that the person she had just fallen in love with was
Romeo, the person which her family would never allow her to
love due to the conflict between the two families.

She doesn't know that Romeo is listening to her; at that

moment, she thinks she is alone, with only the stars and the
moon for company. That's why she says these honest words,
perhaps why she dares to be so sincere and ask Romeo to
reject his family for her love, and that if he doesn't do it, she
would be willing to reject hers if he tells her he loves her.
Julieta says this because she's making a distinction between
each of their inner identities—that is, who they are as people,
no matter of their names or family backgrounds—and their
outer identities, that is, their social and familiar identities.

She thinks that love stems from this inner identity, as opposed
to the familial conflict between her two families, which stems
only from their surnames and what that surname means to
society—that is, their outer identities.

Juliet sees Romeo as a person in his own right, not as part of a

family, overcoming her love for him over her hatred of that
family. Later, she says that if Romeo were not called "Romeo"
or "Motte," he would still be Romeo, he would still be the
person she loves. She also gives the example that if a rose
were not called a rose, it would still smell just as sweet.

When Juliet says, "Deny thy father and refuse thy name. Or if
thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I'll no longer be a
Capulet," she is asking him to reject that external identity,
that familiar and social identity, to keep only his internal
identity. Or, on the contrary, if he doesn't, to swear that he
loves her, and then she will be the one to renounce her
external identity.

A very important aspect to keep in mind when analyzing this

quote is the social context of that time. Nowadays, if the boy
Juliet fell in love with came from a family her parents hated, it
would be a really small inconvenience, but at that time, it was
like the end of the world; it was a matter of LIFE or DEATH.
That's why we must realize the desperation Juliet must have
felt at that moment when she said those words.

HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL CONTEXT:

William Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet in London,
between 1591 and 1596.
At that time, people still believed that the sun spun around
the Earth; they were taught that this was how God had
intended it to be.

THE AGE OF THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH I (Elizabethan

Era).

During this historical period, there was a profound economic,

political, social, and ideological transformation, with a great
rise in the bourgeoisie.

Perhaps what led to these great changes was the break with
the Catholic Church during the reign of Elizabeth's father,
Henry VIII, who converted to Anglicanism as a religion. This
had many consequences at all levels, such as greater financial
independence from the Crown, the concentration of power in
the monarchy, the rise of new social classes, and the
transformation of rural life due to the Dissolution of the
Monasteries. The spread of the Bible in English also led to a
push for education so people could read it, which had a
profound cultural and social impact.

Order here was maintained by the landowners. Only the

richest and most educated men could vote, and women had
no rights.

COLONIZATION:
First attempts at English expansion in America, competing
against Spain and Portugal.

ENGLISH RENAISSANCE:
The Elizabethan Renaissance, a key period in the history of
English literature and theater, developed primarily during the
reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England. This period saw an
enormous flourishing of poetry, music, and literature.

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS:

Quick population growth led to poverty, unemployment, and
important social tensions. Between 1594 and 1597, there
were severe harvest failures, which led to widespread hunger
and many deaths.
EDUCATION:
At the age of seven, children went on to secondary school if
their parents could afford it. After that, very few boys went to
university, only the very intelligent who won scholarships or
the children of wealthy nobles. Girls, on the other hand,
stayed at home and learned to cook, sew, and so on. Those
who were more fortunate could learn to read and write.

LANGUAGE:
At the beginning of the 16th century, English did not have a
very high opinion of their language. Almost all books were
written in Latin. Later, many translations began to be made,
not only from Latin, but also from French, Italian, and Spanish.
This greatly increased the English vocabulary, and by the end
of the century, English was a language to be proud of.

SOCIETY:

Society during this period was organized hierarchically, with

the nobility and the upper bourgeoisie at the top, followed by
the lower bourgeoisie and the poor. Belonging to one social
class or another determined the person´s lifestyle, clothing,
place of residence, and work. This led to social violence and
great family and political conflicts. It was a society in which
women were under the orders of a man, such as a father or
husband, and their education and rights were severely limited.
Even marriages were arranged, especially among the upper
class.

HOW THIS SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL

CONTEXT INFLUENCES THE PLAY OF
ROMEO AND JULIET:
Theater: In the Elizabethan era, theater was extremely
popular and attracted all kinds of people, from nobility to
merchants, artisans and servants. Therefore, plays were used
to criticize society and the problems and conflicts of the time.
The fact that the play focuses on the story of two bourgeois
families is also a characteristic of Elizabethan theater.

The rivalry between the Capulet and Montague families

reveals the reality of family disputes at that time.
The marriage of Paris and Juliet, decided by Juliet's
father, was common at that time, especially among the
upper class.

The obedience and submission that Juliet had to show

to her father, like her mother, who ignores her daughter's
sadness and her desire not to marry, instead accepting her
husband's wishes without protesting, just as Juliet did. This
perfectly represents the role of women in society at that time,
always under the orders of a man, without any rights, and
showing obedience.

The tragedy of the story marked by fate connects very

well with the sentiment of that time, as it was a society that
saw many deaths from war, hunger, and diseases like the
plague. They also believed strongly in fate, something that is
already mentioned in the play from the beginning, where it
speaks of "star-crossed lovers." This connects very well with
the incertitude of the time.