Saturday, August 18, 2007

Introduction, Film Versions and Prologue

  • Skills: Listening and Writing, Paraphrasing, Writing a summary, Writing paragraphs, Shakespeare in English, Participating in an academic seminar, Giving a professional presentation,Thinking laterally and creatively
  • Language: similie, analogy, metaphor, as if, like, of, is analogous to,
  • Scientific themes drawn from this exercise: The preservation of form beyond constituents, the importance of metaphor and analogy in science.


Let's begin!

Part 1


Read the prologue and answer the questions that follow
ACT I

THE PROLOGUE














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Questions

1. How many lines are there?
2. How many syllables per line are there?

3. What is the rhyming pattern? (Look at the last word of each line).

4. What kind of poem is the prologue?

5. What does the prologue tell us?

6. Why does it tell us so much?

7. Work in pairs and paraphrase just one line of the prologue. Your teacher will assign a line to you

The Films

Watch two film versions of the prologue: Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 production and Baz Luhrman's 1997 version on Youtube.

Youtube links: Romeo and Juliet 1968 - To minute 1:13; Romeo+Juliet 1996 - To minute 2:34
After having watched them do the following tasks for homework:

A) Compare the treatment of the prologue in the two film versions. What is the same and what is different about them? Explain what you think were the intentions of the directors. Which one do you prefer and why?

Part 2. The Civil Brawl - Act 1 Scene 1

Part 3


B) In your own time watch the a film version of Romeo and Juliet. Most public libraries carry copies for lending. Do not be surprised if you find it difficult to understand. This is perfectly normal as even most English speakers have difficulty understanding the antiquated language of Shakespeare. The objective of this exercise is to try to get a general understanding of the 'gist' or what is essential in the play. Once you have done this :


Write a 2-3 paragraph summary of the main events of the play.

For details about paragraph structure see Sophie's World: Writing Paragraphs



Romeo and Juliet homepage

Nature, Art & Language



© All Copyright, 2007, Ray Genet






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