Directions: Please listen to Mr. Pellerin recite the Prologue to Romeo & Juliet. In this blog space, please post your initial thoughts. Given what you learned in the documentary about how Shakespeare "broke the mold," what do you anticipate will be different about this tragedy compared with other plays? What information does Shakespeare give us about the plot of the play in the prologue? What do you notice about the form and structure? He seems to give away the ending. What will happen in the end? In your opinion, why would Shakespeare give away the ending? This is a "live blog." Engage with each other.
Prologue
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
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Robbie Mahlebjian
ReplyDeleteShakespeare prologue is there to kind of get a summary of the whole play, to give an audience a little information. Also he does not give away how the two die so when the audience find out it will be twice as stunning, this is because in the prologue Shakespeare says it like they die a normal sort of way.
I do a agree with your reasoning, but the rolouge says that they kill themselves, "A pair of star crossed lovers take their life,"
Deletejillian Boyer
Sean Curtis-
ReplyDeleteI think that this is different than most other tragedies because he writes it differently than other people. His writing has a very fluent tone to it. The way the rhyming is used sounds beautiful and creates a clear image in my mind.
I think that this will be different than all the other tragedies because he writes in a way so different than everyone else. He writes with passion unlike some of the other people we have talked about. He is a very different than the rest. The form structure is very different than the other writers. He gives away the ending in the prologue because he wants us to know what will happen throughout the play.
ReplyDeletenick entner
DeleteJillian Boyer
ReplyDeleteShakespeare gives us quite a plot summary in the prologue, including the background information and even the ending. The ending that was revealed is that Romeo and Juliet, star crossed lovers, will commit suicide. Why do they do this? I think they do it so that the audience will not approach this as just a romance or comedy, and to get them thinking about how all this could have led them to death. This would be especially good at being a hook.
The usual tragedy seems to want you to be thinking about the tragic end the whole time, but in this show it begin on a positive note.
I think the difference in this tragedy compared to a lot of other Shakespeare tragedies is that is a much more emotional tragedy and you think that the play is a comedy bit it turns out to be dramatic. Basically Shakespeare tells us that there are two secret lovers from different houses that commit suicide together. I think that Romeo and Juliet will commit suicide at the end of the play. I think the reason that Shakespeare gives away the end of the play is because the important part of the play is the reasoning for why they kill themselves and know that they kill themselves before you see the play will allow you to pay more attention to the reasoning behind it.
ReplyDeletejacob moore wrote this
DeleteYasmiin Ali
ReplyDeleteOther plays the villain dies and the protagonist/victim wins. In this play, Romeo and Juliet fight for their love but die in the end because of misunderstanding, and their parents who didn’t want them to marry each other win. Shakespeare mixed both Comedy and Tragedy plots together. He tells us in the prologue that Romeo and Juliet, two star-crossed lovers, take their life. I think the reason why Shakespeare gave away the ending was to give a dramatic effect and leave the reader knowing that not every couple gets their happy ending.
Shruthi Saravanan
ReplyDeleteDue to Shakespeare “breaking the mold” on how his plays are usually written. I think the difference that I’m going to see in this play is the mix of different genres that are put together. Though I think that overall, in the end, the play will end with a tragedy due to what was mentioned in the prologue. The information that Shakespeare gives the audience in the prologue is the ending of the play itself, he gives away what the big tragedy of the play will be. In the end, both Romeo and Juliet will die, with their parent's sins still in motion. The form and structure of the prologue is like how the whole play in this book is set up, there are numbers in the margin which indicates what line it is and on the left page there are the definitions or meaning to understand some of the words that are mentioned on the right.
He believed that comedies were different than comedies and that they could be dark in Romeo and Juliet the two lovers committed suicide. This was mind boggling and had never been done before. I think this tragedy won't be like a normal tragedy it will have some of a comedic tone to it. He reveals that the two lovers commit suicide and their parents are dead. “Do with their death bury their parents' strife. The fearful passage of their death-marked love”. He seems to give away the ending of how the two lovers commit suicide at the end of the play. The prologue seems to be a summary of the play.
ReplyDeleteI think shake spear would give away the ending because it leads up to suspense in the play
Michael DiCenzo
DeleteDylan Brenner
ReplyDeleteShakespeare “breaks the mold” in theatres by making his tragedies and comedies much different than how they are usually written. He writes in his own way that is much different than anyone else. Even though he gives away the ending, it still keeps the reader thinking why do they do it. He makes readers think hard and differently in his writing.
I agree with you I think that the reader is writing different than everybody else and it made me think when I was reading about what was happening.
Delete-Sean Curts
DeleteSuhani Karki
ReplyDeleteIn the prologue what I anticipate will be different about this tragedy compared with other plays is that in this play the villain passes away and the victim wins which is not like this story at all since both the victims die and the villains (parents) survive. Information that Shakespeare gives us about the plot of the play in the prologue is that there are two households that are the same in respect/honor that takes place in Verona and a pair of two star-crossed lovers (lovers whose relationship is often prevented by outside forces). “Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife” means that the two star-crossed lovers die and bury their parent's conflicts with them. What I notice about the form and the structure is that Shakespear uses tragedy and comedy in this play. Shakespear uses comedy by using a dramatic form that is amusing and satirical, and he uses tragedy by his serious style the and sorrowful and terrible events. In my opinion, Shakespeare would give away the ending because I think he wants to tell you the ending up front because he wants you to not just wait for the surprise, but to watch how it happens to them.
Shakespeare probably gave the ending away so he could pull the audience into the story by having them wonder what caused their death and what the events leading up to the death were. This also probably created tension in the audience and made them on edge during the play.
ReplyDeleteLuke Newton
Myalee R.
ReplyDeleteI think the difference in this tragedy, compared to his other ones, is the writing. The writing’s harder to read in this poem and he has a different way of writing compared to all the other people who have written poems. Another thing that makes it different is that it starts off as a comedy and you think it’s all fun and games until it takes a plot twist and the couple commits suicide.
Griffin Littlewood
ReplyDeleteI feel like it won't be an absolutely awful thing happening until the end of the play because it mentions a new fight causing civil blood. He gives away that there is a civil battle between the people causing civil bloodshed. It seems as if the speaker has some nerve to him and is nervous about what is about to come to light and what could become of it. I believe the predicament will come to an end but there will be something beyond tragedy at the very end as well. I think he would do this to increase tension whilst reading the poem.
Olivia Dionisio
ReplyDeleteShakespeare wrote his plays differently from other writers. He combined genres to make one play that shows many emotions. He gives away the whole plot in the prologue to just give a summary of what you are about to read. He changed a lot peoples styles of writing for the better.
Anthony Dimuzio
ReplyDeleteThe information that Shakespeare gives about the play is that there are two houses and they have grudges that go way back in their timeline and 1 member from each side of the family love each other and end up dying and they are both kids. I notice that he writes the prologue like a poem. I think that he gives away the ending of the play because he doesn't want people to worry about what happens at the end of the play and he doesn't say the whole ending so there can still be suspense throughout the play.
Dowol Lee
ReplyDeleteMy initial thoughts are that it is kind of weird to give away the ending at the start. I feel like not a lot of poets do that. It shows more of how Shakespeare “broke the mold”. This would be different than other tragedies because it is very quick and short unlike other tragedies. In the prologue he tells that there is a love story but the families of the two lovers have bad blood. In the end both of the lovers will end up dying. I think Shakespeare would give away the ending so the audience could be prepared and understand the story more
Celia Hoffman
ReplyDeleteI think compared to the other plays, Shakespeare mixed the genres together, so the play was comedic and tragic. Shakespeare tells us that there will be families fighting. and despite that, young kids will find love. In the end, both lovers take their own lives. I think Shakespeare revealed the ending to keep people interested because his play is so different from the other plays.
In this tragedy it is harder to understand and he wrote it in a different way comparing it to the rest of his plays. he gives the ending away since he wants the audience to know that romeo and Juliet will commit suicide. the poem would look like a comedy a romance and a tragedy. but when you read this you know they gonna die.
ReplyDeletehanna
DeleteXingyun Pan
ReplyDeleteI think Shakespeare gives us quite a plot summary in the prologue because he wants people to be interested in this show and want to find out the reason for the tragedy. Also, the audience will know that the couple will break up and died at the end when they see they are first to meet and fall in love.