Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Teaching Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet"

"Sometimes parents just don't understand.' What teenage student does not understand the importance of this truth in his or her daily life? And what phrase more succulently sums up the basic theme of "Romeo and Juliet?" This is why so many modern composers and filmmakers with an eye upon drawing in an adolescent audience have found inspiration with the Elizabethan tragedy. Over the course of this century alone, audiences have been treated to modernized retellings of the classic, like Baz Lurman's recent film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes to "West Side Story's" contemporary musical setting of the Montagues and the Capulets in New York City. Yet teachers are often almost as intimidated about teaching Shakespeare as their students are about learning about him.

Why are we as teachers do intimidated by Shakespeare? Of course, teachers wish to make the play historically comprehensible, rather than to merely encourage students to see themselves in the lives of the main characters. I as a teacher wish to give more to my students than they can glean from attending a screening of a modern film or listening to a motion picture soundtrack. But the play's issues of individual choice and free agency in marriage, versus parental control are the same issues gripped the Elizabethan era as well as our own era. If students can appreciate this thematic connection, then they can become 'hooked' on Shakespeare, through "Romeo and Juliet."

Also, the prevalence of violence and sword fighting, both in Shakespeare's England, his imagined Italy, and the violence in the media of today, helps students draw connections between the history and themes of the text, the characters, and their own lives. The attractiveness of some of the most verbally dense and difficult characters of the play, like Mercutio and his 'Queen Mab' speech, and the Nurse, can be overcome, at least in part, by stressing the nature and construction of these character's personalities and emotional lives, to give students an incentive to unpack some of these character's most dense phrases and speeches.

Language -- there's the rub! The issue of language is perhaps the most difficult thing for a teacher to overcome, as it is one of the reasons students claim to dislike Shakespeare. Again, having a personal connection to the characters helps give students an incentive to want to understand what the characters are saying, especially if it is slightly 'naughty' as with Juliet's 'Gallop apace, ye fiery footed steeds' soliloquy before she receives Romeo, some of the Nurses' ribald jests about virginity to Juliet, and Mercutio's frequent taunting of his friends. However, the romantic nature of the language, as well as its difficulty might be one reason to discourage students immediately acting out the play as a way to engage them with the text. Acting out is important, but must come at the end of a series of stages. It cannot be jumped into with the same heady impetuousness as the young lovers of the text jump into marriage!

Instead, if acting out a few scenes is to be used as the final 'end product,' one way to encourage students to understand the play might be to ask them to act out the entire story (not the play), quickly -- without words. This ensures students understand the plot, but can be done with enough humor to avoid embarrassment. To encourage appreciation of the language of some of the character's different speeches or exchanges, students can be then be assigned a single speech or passage of text to illustrate its metaphors and illusions literally. A rising sun, killing the "jealous moon," could illustrate for instance, the line, "It is the east and Juliet is the sun." (Students, of course, are likely to surprise with even more creative visualizations and depictions than the one I have just recounted here, especially visually talented students.)

Encouraging creativity is also helpful when encouraging students to understand the play's poetic structure. For instance, to ask students to write a sonnet, such as the sonnet that begins the play or is exchanged between Romeo and Juliet when they first meet is less difficult than it might seem, if one first asks students to brainstorm rhyming words and to insert those words in the Shakespearean sonnet form. If the notion of iambic pentameter threatens them, remind them of how ordinary speech often takes the form of iambs, or stressed and unstressed syllables like 'a note, a pen, a piece of paper. Remind them too that even Shakespeare deviated from his own rhythms and meter as 'O Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo.' This line, because it is a cry of distress upon Juliet's part, that Romeo has a Montague name, is much longer than the usual pentameter of ten syllables. Students can also write dramatic monologues in iambic pentameter, perhaps of different, minor characters that do not speak much in the play -- or even for characters not in the play, so long as the format is adhered to.