Romeo and Juliet's note

I saw Romeo and Juliet when I was pretty young, so I already knew that It was a heartbreaking story about two young people. In the prologue, It give us a brief introduction about the two family which include Romeo, Juliet and their family. The book explain the feud between the two family.

In act I, there are two Capulet men who are standing and talking about Capulet, and they said they would do everything for their master, and how to kill or torture the Montague. Suddenly, a Montague comes out of the scene. The Capulets start to provoke the Montague by biting his thumb. While they pull out their swords to each other. At the same time, Benvolio comes and joins the fight( cousin of Romeo), and then, Tybalt comes as well, he pulled out his sword. When the citizens and all of the families and the Prince come, they stop fighting, and the prince is blaming the two families that they always being enemies, but it was Capulet who are provoking, so the prince takes the Capulet away. He also says if it happened again, on pain of death. The Montagues stay on stage, and the Benvolio is talking that how he was fighting with the Capulet. The parents ask him if he saw Romeo or not. He says he saw him before, but he ran away from him. He thinks that Romeo feels sad and upset the whole day. His parents also felt that when he was at home. After that, they saw Romeo came to the stage, so his father asks Benvolio to stay and see what's going on with Romeo. Romeo tells him about he fell in love with a girl, but the problem is the girl doesn’t like him at all. Well, so Benvolio persuades him that there is someone else who is going to love him, and Romeo will love. Just let the girl go, so Romeo asks him if there is a way to forget the girl. Benvolio says no, he cannot provide ways to help him go over it.

I have several quotes that couldn't really understand it in the book such as page 17, the quotes that Benvolio says to the Lady Montague. He says" Towards him I made,but he was ware of me, And stole into the convert of the wood. Pursued my humor not pursuing his, And gladly shunn'd who gladly fled from me. These sentences are a little hard to understand.

my feeling toward act I is, this gives enough introduction to explain how the relationship between  the two family like how they fight between each other, so we can see it through from it. However, the words in the book is kind of difficult for me to understand because of the ancient word choice, but I could get the overall meaning behind it. Maybe, when we start to read more of Romeo and Juliet, we can get a sense of and acknowledge the meanings or phrase that Shakespeare wanted to convey. Also, when I saw this, I was shocked because it was so much related to the technology that people would act it out from the right side. It was awesome and I could better understand the overall situation that why they are fighting. It also related to the lit & performance class which has acting in it. When we act, we can have a basis to refer. It was a great starting point I think.

Scene 2

Summary: Paris asks Capulet to let his daughter marry him. He was a suitor of Juliet, while Capulet thinks that it’s kind of young for her daughter to get married at such a young age. She is only 14 and didn’t have much experiences with the life around her, but Capulet says that you can always get her heart. Capulet is throwing a party to his house, so he wants them to meet each other and know each other well enough to create love. He requires one of the servant to find the person that will be attended to this party. However, the servant couldn’t read, so he asks a ‘random’ people to recognize the people. The person he chooses is Romeo, and he sees the list have his lover, so he was eager to go there by asking where, when. After the servant exit, benvolio says he should go because there is someone else that will be waiting for him, yet Romeo claims that he will only love her, his eye will only have her.

Sentences: While Paris said to the Capulet Of honorable reckoning are you both, And pity’ tis you liv’d at odds so long. But now, my lord, what say you to my suit?

Feelings and thoughts: In scene 2, I start to understand the deeper meaning under the sentences and phrases, but some are still hard to comprehend. And why a girl can be married at the age of 14, I feel like that was too young for a girl to be married, and she doesn’t know about that man, so there is some differences between now and the ancient time.

Scene 3

Summary: Lady Capulet wants Juliet to know Paris. She asks nurse to let her come over, she is eager to know about how Juliet think about marriage. she comes over, and the nurse and her mom starts to talk about Susan that imagine she was 14. Susan was the daughter of the nurse, and she records all the memory that she has with Susan; she becomes sad and laugh at the same time. Then, Lady Capulet asks her to stop telling the story, so they continues to talk about marriage, and they want Juliet to think about marry  with some people because some of the younger nobles children  had already married with other princes, so they want to persuade Juliet that marry is a great thing like flower, and just looks at him in the eyes and tries to find his beauty. Juliet says she will try to love him.

Sentences: Tis since the earthquake now eleven years,And she was weaned—I never shall forget it—Of all the days of the year, upon that day.For I had then laid wormwood to my dug,

Sitting in the sun under the dovehouse wall.

Feeling: The Lady Capulet and the nurse care about her in some way, they provide some ways that she can fall in love with the man. The Lady Capulet isn’t like pushing her to get married with some random guy. The family tries to throw a party for Juliet so she can get used to the man.

Scene 4

Summary: Romeo is frightened to go to the party, so he decides not to go the party, and let them to have fun in the party. He tries to find other excuses by saying his shoes are not fit to dance and such. After that, Romeo says that he had a bad dream about the party. He couldn't go there because of that bad dreams. Mercutio replies that he dream about Romeo went with the Queen Mab, so he is explaining the story about she is a monster, and how she goes to people’s dream. Then, Romeo could not stand it anymore, he asks him to stop telling those story to him, but Mercutio keeps saying that the dreams are what he imagines, and dreams are not real. And then, they go to the house of Juliet.

Sentences: And being thus frighted swears a prayer or two, And sleeps again. This is that very Mab. That plaits the manes of horses in the night. And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs.

Thinking: I feel like they have been talking a lot about the Queen Mab, it seems a little boring because sometimes I couldn’t understand the meanings of some words, so when I read it, it is kind of confused. I have a question about why he is talking the Queen Mab? Just because want Romeo to go to the house, and stop thinking all of the bad dreams? It’s a little confused.

Scene 5

Summary: They finally gather in the house of Capulet. All the servants are putting the dishes on the table. All of the guests are with their masks on. When Capulet is remembering the past about the last ball they had, Romeo spots at Juliet, and he is attracted by the beauty of Juliet. He cannot take his eyes from of her, so he goes toward her. On the other hand, Tybalt watches and recognizes him was from the Montague. He asks the Capulet that can he go and catch him, but Capulet refuses him, and persuades him to calm down, just don't do anything here because they had already scolded by the prince. Tybalt goes away. At the same time, Romeo and Juliet meet in the party, and he tries to talk to her. He finds that she is so cute, so he kisses her lips. They talk, and they kiss again. By that time, nurse comes, and nurse asks her to go find her mom. Romeo asks nurse about who is she? Then, he realizes that the girl is Juliet. After all, they left the stage. Juliet wants nurse to question the boy about who is he. She discovers that the boy is Romeo which is a Montague. She starts to think that the funny but helpless thing because she loves a family hater.

Sentences:

Thinking:  I want to know like why people have masks on when they are dancing? Is it a formal way of being aristocrats? I think Romeo is kind of spoiled like how can a people love on the first sight. Well, I think people can, but it is kind of ridiculous, and maybe people need some communication or attachment. And how can a Montague goes to the party of a Capulet. If I were the Capulet, I will probably get rid of Romeo because they are rivals between each other, so that will make it more realistic. Also!!!! How can a person kisses another at the first sight. I feel that’s kind of crazy for both of them. They don't have any relationship base before, so it's kind of impossible to kiss so naturally.

From the Romeo and Juliet sheet, I basically know Verona is in the northern side of Italy. From Conventions of Shakespeare's staging, I acknowledged that the differences between from the modern days, and in the Shakespeare's time.
In modern day, people always find a seat and wait, when they go to see a show or a movie. When the show begins, the light will become darker, and people will be quiet to show respect to the actor on stage. Also, nowadays people can change light and props to make the show in the mood.
In Shakespeare's time, people would join the show during the day, because there is no lighting support on stage. It is unable for people to see the scenes if they went at night. And all of the platform, the stage would raise in a open yard for people to sit or see it clearly. The stage also provide an attic, so they can put a lot of things in the attic. In that time, people usually used simply props on stage such as chairs, tables etc. Because they didn't have much technology to make scenery become realistic, so they usually have minimal set pieces to represent some scenery.
The costume they used was basically from the same time period. People wouldn't wear some historical costume, but they wore thing based on their social ranks or the level they were in the play. For example: Lady Capulet was from a high rank because she was in the rich family; she will probably wear something show her identity or status.
In that time period, it only had three or four high level company that would corporate with the Shakespeare. The actors in the company were usually male. Almost every characters in the Shakespeare were performed by males. Even the character of Juliet and her mom were performed by males.
In the introduction to Shakespeare's language, I learned that most of his work was in poetry form which they generally have a set rhythm(meter). Shakespeare used them by arranging the syllables. It has a regular pattern which they followed: dah DUM dah DUM dah DUM dah DUM dah Dum. He managed the rhythm by using 10 syllables in a sentence. The unstressed and stressed one are called an iamb. This also can refer to a foot because it used one stress and one unstressed to memorize the lines. In order for Shakespeare to remain the 10 syllables, dah DUM, he usually change the words' order, so it has some rhythm. Also, Shakespeare always abbreviated words just to have one syllable, so he can follow the iamb order such as he would make over into o'er and 'tis into it is.