Romeo and Juliet - Context Flashcards
What era was RJ written in?
Renaissance, 1597, Elizabethan
What type of love was Normal in RJ?
Courtly love ( The Kings royal courts fashionable way of flirting)
What were two aspects of courtly love?
- men did wooing and chasing
- men see women as being on a higher plane and using idealistic words to describe ‘bright angel’ ‘juliet is the sun’
What is unrequited love?
When the man suffers terribly after women doesn’t return their love.
What love does RJ explore?
Physical love
What was the reason of marriage in RJ?
- Power and statue for noble families
- powerful families would produce powerful offspring
How were daughters treated by their fathers?
Owned by the father.
- Chose who to marry
As young as 13y/o (Juliet’s age)
Why was Italy used to set RJ?
An exotic distant country with romantic and classical associations well suited to a tale of love and violence
How was catholicism viewed?
With suspicion and a catholic friar meddling with herbs would be considered untrustworthy and sinister.
What effect did the plague have on shakespeare?
Closed theatres and large gatherings to reduce epidemics.
Shakespeare spent time writing poetry
- Venus and adonis
What are three rules to a classic tragedy?
- Main characters are destined to die from the beginning
- They will fight a larger forces and doomed to lose
- At the end order is restored
