Rough Draft of Scene

FRI. L.

Romeo, come forth, come forth, thou fearful man:

Affliction is enamor’d of thy parts,

And thou art wedded to calamity.

Enter Romeo.

ROM.

Father, what news? What is the Prince’s doom?

What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand,

That I yet know not?

FRI. L.

Too familiar

Is my dear son with such sour company!

I bring thee tidings of the Prince’s doom.

ROM.

What less than dooms-day is the Prince’s doom?

FRI. L.

A gentler judgment vanish’d from his lips—

Not body’s death, but body’s banishment.

ROM.

Ha, banishment? Be merciful, say “death”;

For exile hath more terror in his look,

Much more than death. Do not say “banishment”!

FRI. L.

Here from Verona art thou banished.

Be patient, for the world is broad and wide.

ROM.

There is no world without Verona walls,

But purgatory, torture, hell itself.

Hence “banished” is banish’d from the world,

And world’s exile is death; then “banished”

Is death misterm’d. Calling death “banished,”

Thou cut’st my head off with a golden axe,

And smilest upon the stroke that murders me.

FRI. L.

O deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness!

Thy fault our law calls death, but the kind Prince,

Taking thy part, hath rush’d aside the law,

And turn’d that black word ’death’ to “banishment.”

This is dear mercy, and thou seest it not.

ROM.

’Tis torture, and not mercy. Heaven is here

Where Juliet lives, 

Every cat and dog

Live here in heaven and may look on her,

But Romeo may not; they may seize

On the white wonder of dear Juliet’s hand,

And steal immortal blessing from her lips,

Who, even in pure and vestal modesty,

Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin;

But Romeo may not, he is banished.

They are free men, but I am banished:

FRI. L.

Thou fond mad man, hear me a little speak.

ROM.

O, thou wilt speak again of banishment.

FRI. L.

I’ll give thee armor to keep off that word:

Adversity’s sweet milk, philosophy,

To comfort thee though thou art banished.

ROM.

Unless philosophy can make a Juliet,

Displant a town, reverse a prince’s doom,

It helps not, it prevails not. Talk no more.

FRI. L.

O then I see that madmen have no ears.

.

Act 4 scene 1

JUL.

O, shut the door, and when thou hast done so,

Come weep with me, past hope, past cure, past help!

FRI. L.

O Juliet, I already know thy grief,

It strains me past the compass of my wits.

I hear thou must, and nothing may prorogue it,

On Thursday next be married to this County.

JUL.

Tell me not, friar, that thou hearest of this,

Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it.

If in thy wisdom thou canst give no help,

Do thou but call my resolution wise,

And with this knife I’ll help it presently.

God join’d my heart and Romeo’s, thou our hands,

Give me some present counsel, or, behold,

I long to die.

FRI. L.

Hold, daughter! I do spy a kind of hope,

Which craves as desperate an execution

As that is desperate which we would prevent.

If rather than to marry County Paris,

Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself,

Then is it likely thou wilt undertake

A thing like death to chide away this shame,

That cop’st with Death himself to scape from it;

And if thou darest, I’ll give thee remedy.

JUL.

O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,

chain me with roaring bears,

Or hide me nightly in a charnel-house,

And I will do it without fear or doubt,

To live an unstain’d wife to my sweet love.

FRI. L.

Hold then. Go home, be merry, give consent

To marry Paris. We’n’sday is tomorrow;

Tomorrow night look that thou lie alone,

Take thou this vial, being then in bed,

And this distilling liquor drink thou off,

When presently through all thy veins shall run

A cold and drowsy humor; for no pulse

To wanny ashes, thy eyes’ windows fall,

stiff and stark and cold, appear like death,

Thou shalt continue two and forty hours,

And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.

In the mean time, against thou shalt awake,

Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift,

And hither shall he come, an’ he and I

Will watch thy waking, and that very night

Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.

And this shall free thee from this present shame,

If no inconstant toy, nor womanish fear,

Abate thy valor in the acting it.

JUL.

Love give me strength! And strength shall help afford.

Farewell, dear father!

Exeunt.

Foreshadowing Friar Lawrence

In this assignment we are going to be discussing foreshadowing, we are going to focus on how Love, Death and fate all relate to eachother but more importantly how Friar Lawrence tries to take control of all of these elements. This will help the reader examine closer Friar Lawrence's identity and what kind of character he really is in the play and how his actions affect the lives of Romeo, Juliet and their families. 

We are going to use the potion scene and/or the marriage scene to analyze our points. We believe that these scenes will zone in on Friar Lawrence's true personality and how he tries to take control of the situation and tries to reverse fate. We are going to perform this scene with Friar Lawrence mainly in the front of the stage because he is the one who is in the primary focus because he is the one being analyzed and investigated. We will have the light mainly on him and the character he is addressing because the majority of his lines offer evidence into his personality. We will give Romeo and Juliet the ability to look weak and desperate to give the feeling that Friar Lawrence will attempt to take control of the situation and show his true colors. 

We are going to have three actors who will be playing Romeo, Juliet and Friar Lawrence. I am going to be the Friar because I have mainly played Romeo in all of the productions so far and I want to try a new role and play a character that I'm not as comfortable playing as I was with Romeo. I also feel like I can impose the impulsive, controlling personality that Friar Lawrence has and that is what the scene needs to describe him. Jack will play Romeo and Chris will play Juliet, these two I believe will be able to depict the desperate, weak, needy characterisitcs as need to be shown by Romeo and Juliet. We will make sure to add and take away lines as needed, we will make sure that the stage is equally proportioned so that all actors can be seen by the audience and we will ensure that no character speaks longer than another which may entail adding or taking away lines. 

Ideas for Scenes

For scenes, we can do the Balcony Scene because this scene can be re-enacted a lot of different ways and it gives the actors a lot of leg-room to be creative. Another possible scene is the death scene, the death scene can also be played around with in terms the last words, the music and the staging and the atmosphere in which they die. Lastly the marriage scene, you can also play with the staging and the mood of the scene which I feel is a vital part in doing well in this project. 

Essay Question

The most significant part of the play Romeo and Juliet was when the pair of star cossed lovers both committed suicide because they couldn't live without eachother because they loved eachother so much. This moment in the play is significant because this showed that Romeo and Juliet really and truly did love eachother and that they weren't going to let anything seperate them which is what makes this scene stand out from all of the others.

This scene is the final scene of the play so nothing can really change per say, but in this play, the emotion in this scene goes from being dramatic to just outright hearbreaking in the span of about a minute, not even. The fact that two kids would go the distance for love is truly a heartwrenching thought and that is what makes the scene so hearbreaking. There were evidence that this scene was coming, both Romeo and Juliet threatened to or suggested it as an idea, most notably Romeo, when he said "Thou cutt'st off my head with a golden axe and smils't upon the stroke that murders me", he was referring to the Prince when he said Romeo was exiled, he basically said that if he is exiled he is as good as dead which is what he will make himself to which the Friar replied "O unheavenly sin, O rude unthankfulness". This moment as a whole is so significant in this play because it encapsulates all of the things that have led up to this moment. It makes you think about what caused it while will make you realize the situations with their families were stressful, they couldn't be with eachother which must have been stressful as well. Also this scene makes you think back to the scenes where they threatened suicide, why wasn't this threat taken more seriously? Why didn't the Friar further investigate the situation? Well the answer to this question is because that killing yourself in this period was against religion and those who commited suicide were not entitled to a Christian burial because they took away "God's greatest gift" which is life. 

A lot of this scene was significant because it changed the whole feeling of the play. The play was dramatic and over the top and sometimes a little bit sad because of the struggle that they were in to be together but when the deaths happened it changed the perspective of the play at last minute from a weird, sarcastic, dramatic performance to a heartbreaking tragedy in a matter of minutes which I think was true genious by the playwrite. This scene made a personal connection with me because, not that I would actually kill myself for someone, I have had the feeling that I would, that I loved someone so much that I would actually die for them and take a bullet for them which I believe was the initial feeling of Romeo and Juliet but seemed to change in this scene.

In conclusion, this scene summed up the play perfectly because in many ways this scene was preditcable. This scene definitely proved that love and death do connect and this scene did show that Romeo and Juliet loved eachother. The moment is signigicant because this showed that they were not going to let anything seperate them, not even death.

Questions

Where did Romeo go after he left Juliet to be banished? How long did he stay there?

Does the Friar care more about religion or nature? Use text-based analysis to backup your answer

When Balthasar tells Romeo of Juliet’s death, what is his reaction? What will he do?

Does Romeo seem like more of a lover or a luster? Use text-based analysis to back up your answer

How does Romeo commit suicide? Who witnesses the suicide?

Does it seem like Juliet is too young and naive to be in love? Use textual evidence to prove your answer?

How does Romeo react in his conversation with the Friar about his banishment? What is the Friar’s advice to Romeo

How does the nurse view Romeo? Does she like him or dislike him? Use textual evidence to back your answer

What does Juliet’s father threaten to do if she doesn’t marry Paris?

Is getting married in this time period about love or wealth? Use textual evidence to back your answer

What ultimately caused the deaths of Romeo and Juliet? Their love for eachother? Or their famliy’s feud? Use textual evidence to back your answer

What was Shakespeare’s ultimate message towards the audience? Why do you think this?

What I Have Learned from Performing A Scene

During reproducing this scene, It has taught me a lot about editing and how to cut down seemingly unnecessary elements in order to make the scene move faster or in order to fit it into a certain timespan. Watching other people perform has given me ideas on how to portray my part or how not to portray it, it has also given me ideas for staging and stage directions. Watching other people perform their scenes can give you inspiration on how to act out your scene so sometimes its good to watch other people and not focus so much on what your scene is like because after the scene you might have an idea of how to stage or direct or act out your scene. It gets difficult for me when I try to have the right tone of voice or the right volume because trying to reenact a play in older english is sometimes difficult because you don't exactly always understand what the person is trying to say so sometimes I speak louder than I'm supposed to and that ruins the scene. It's normally really easy for me to adapt to my character and to own the part because if I understand the plot of the play and who the characters are and what they do in the play I can normally act them out and own the part really well . A good scene consists of good stage directions, accurate acting, good projection, gestures and owning the part, if you don't own the part, it will seem fake to the audience and in a lot of ways it will ruin the scene and it will make the actors around you look bad too. For improvement I can definitely work on projecting more and maybe speaking slower and more clearly and maybe at times owning the part a little bit better.

Scene Rewrite

If I were to rewrite a scene for Romeo and Juliet I would choose the part where Tybalt dies and instead I would place it outside VdP maybe or somewhere in that area and I would have someone come and challenge Romeo to a fight. Romeo would accept but then his friend instead would jump in and his friend would get hit in the face and knocked out. Romeo would then follow in pursuit of Tybalt and find him at Simosa Field where the two would fight. Romeo would start off on the defensive with Tybalt throwing most of the punches, but as the fight progresses, Romeo becomes a bit more anxious and starts throwing more punches and then eventually he connects a punch with Tybalt's jaw and proceeds to knock him out. Romeo backs away in shock as this is his first ever fight and he has never ever hurt anyone, Benvolio comes running in to report to Romeo but then sees that Tybalt has been knocked out and that Romeo must run away because it won't be long before news reaches Tybalt's friends and they will come for him. They eventually come for him and there is a massive school yard brawl between the two sides, the news gets to the dean and Romeo is called to meet with him. The dean says that he will be called for a C.C. Once in the C.C, they tell Romeo that instigating fights is breaking a major school rule in which Romeo attempts to object but it is sustained. The C.C tells him that they will give him the chance to withdraw from the school but if he fails to within 24 hours, they will expel him and put a huge smudge on his record. Romeo nods and he goes to a teacher and tells the teacher about the situation and that he wants to hurt himself if he has to be without Juliet, the teacher tells him to wise up and be grateful for them giving you this chance to withdraw from here because it is not a common thing that they let slide. Romeo tries to tell Juliet's friend that he needs to see her one more time, Juliet's friend then notifies Juliet and comes back to Romeo and tells him to go to her room window at lights out. He does so and they spend the night together and Romeo wakes up in the morning and Juliet asks if he has to leave and he says that either way he will have to leave and that he just wants to make it easier on his family to get him into another school. Romeo then proceeds to withdraw from the school and leave.

Death

Death in this scene is depicted to Romeo as basically saying "if I can't be with Juliet I might as well be dead". To him Juliet is the only think keeping him alive and without her he believes there is nothing worth living for. Romeo has been sentenced to be exiled, which means banished from Verona, meaning he won't see Juliet ever again, and to him, she is his everything and without her he would rather die. In this scene, Romeo is basically saying that being exiled is just as bad as killing him because they are taking away the one thing that he is living for and his one true love, Juliet.

When night time falls the dreams all come to life 

Angry

Anger is a powerful emotion because sometimes it doesn't stay with one person it could spread. I was once in a situation where my friend was being bullied and he got angry and retaliated and I felt his anger and retaliated with him, it ended very badly for the other person and before we knew it everyone was angry and our two groups merged and there was a huge scuffle and it was ugly. This situation could have been avoided in two ways. A. my friend could have walked away from the situation or B. The kid could have walked away from my friend and stopped picking on him 

Film Adaptation of Romeo and Juliet

The version I watched was made in 2013 and directed by Carlo Carlei. They changed the original language around a little bit but mainly kept it the same. It was set in the same setting as the original play, Verona, Italy. I thought it was very true to the original play, I thought Juliet acted very much how a teenager would act and Romeo more like an experienced bachelor which I thought was good. The adaptation stayed true to the rivalry of the Montagues and the Capulets and a lot of the characters acted the same as they would in the play. I did think that Benvolio would be older but he looked like a little kid in this adaptation of the play. The movie was released in the UK so the accents were British although there is a little bit of Italian spoken. The language also stayed the same mostly but they did change around a few words into modern English which I thought was cheeky yet smart and it mixed modernality with originality and I thought that this version did a great job of that. 

Compared to the play I thought it was quite similar to how Shakespeare would have filmed it and directed it which how you would want a work by Shakespeare to be like. Overall I did like the adaptation a lot. I liked it because the characters stayed true to how Shakespeare made them, Also unlike what a play would offer, the movie offered a musical score that took the emotions of these two lovers and they handed them to you through music which I thought was just so well done and so beautiful. The music conveyed more emotion in my opinion than the characters themselves did, or might I say, the music assisted the emotions being portrayed by the characters but sometimes so peaceful and sorrowful and beautiful that it made you feel something more than what the characters themselves with no music would have made you feel which I think was just so well done. Overall the film impressed me and to me is more Than the panned ratings it got, I thought the characters were original which I liked and no one tried to mess around with them and I thought the score was just absolutely beautiful and I think that was my favorite part of the film. If you want a truly beautiful, emotional film adaptation of the play that makes you feel something more than I reccomend this highly. 

Balcony Scene

https://youtu.be/p2FdsYxgVIk