December 3, 2012 - December 7, 2012 Weekly Agenda for 9th Grade Honors English
Monday, December 3rd:
Read "The Cyclops"; reading log
Tuesday, December 4th:
Finish reading "The Cyclops"
Reading logs
Wednesday, December 5th:
Read "The Enchantress Circe"
Reading logs
Thursday, December 6th:
Read "The Land of the Dead"
Back to "The Enchantress Circe"
Reading logs
Friday, December 7th:
Read "The Sirens", "Scylla and Charybdis"
Read "The Land of Helios"
Reading logs
Monday, December 03, 2012
Sunday, November 25, 2012
November 26, 2012 - November 30, 2012
9th Grade Honors English
Monday, November 26th:
Go over answers to THE TROJAN WAR Test
Combining Adverbial Clauses will be due today
Begin reading THE ODYSSEY: "A Son Seeks a Father"
"The Princess Nausicaa" and "I am Odysseus, the Son of Laertes"
Reading Log
Tuesday, November 27th:
Vocabulary Unit 3 will be due today
Vocabulary Handout
"The Wind God", "The Battle of the Cicones" and "Polyphemus, the Cylcops"
Reading Log
Wednesday, November 28th:
Vocabulary Handout
"Circes the Enchantress", "The Land of the Dead", "Back to Circes the Enchantress"
Thursday. November 29th:
Vocabulary Handout
"The Sirens", "Scylla and Charybdis", "The Land of Helios"
Friday, November 30th:
Vocabulary Handout
"The Isle of Calypso"
"The Return of the Hero"
Monday, November 26th:
Go over answers to THE TROJAN WAR Test
Combining Adverbial Clauses will be due today
Begin reading THE ODYSSEY: "A Son Seeks a Father"
"The Princess Nausicaa" and "I am Odysseus, the Son of Laertes"
Reading Log
Tuesday, November 27th:
Vocabulary Unit 3 will be due today
Vocabulary Handout
"The Wind God", "The Battle of the Cicones" and "Polyphemus, the Cylcops"
Reading Log
Wednesday, November 28th:
Vocabulary Handout
"Circes the Enchantress", "The Land of the Dead", "Back to Circes the Enchantress"
Thursday. November 29th:
Vocabulary Handout
"The Sirens", "Scylla and Charybdis", "The Land of Helios"
Friday, November 30th:
Vocabulary Handout
"The Isle of Calypso"
"The Return of the Hero"
Monday, November 12, 2012
November 13, 2012 - November 16, 2012 Agenda for 9th Grade Honors
November 13, 2012 - November 16, 2012
Weekly Schedule for 9th Grade English Honors
Tuesday, November 13th:
Read THE TROJAN WAR, Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4
Wednesday, November 14th:
Begin reading THE ODYSSEY
"A Son Searches for His Father"
"The Princess Nausicaa"
Reading Logs
Thursday, November 15th:
Warm-ups:
Write five sentences with adverbial clauses using five words from your Vocabulary Unit 2 list.
Read THE ODYSSEY
"The Wind God", "The Battle of the Cicones", "The Enchantress Circes"
Reading Logs
Friday, November 16th:
Homework:
Sentence Combining with Adverbial Clauses: this will be due on Monday, November 27th.
Vocabulary Unit 3 will be assigned; this will be due on Tuesday, November 28th.
Read THE ODYSSEY
"The Enchantress Circes"; draw a picture of Circes' Cave
Reading Logs
Weekly Schedule for 9th Grade English Honors
Tuesday, November 13th:
Read THE TROJAN WAR, Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4
Wednesday, November 14th:
Begin reading THE ODYSSEY
"A Son Searches for His Father"
"The Princess Nausicaa"
Reading Logs
Thursday, November 15th:
Warm-ups:
Write five sentences with adverbial clauses using five words from your Vocabulary Unit 2 list.
Read THE ODYSSEY
"The Wind God", "The Battle of the Cicones", "The Enchantress Circes"
Reading Logs
Friday, November 16th:
Homework:
Sentence Combining with Adverbial Clauses: this will be due on Monday, November 27th.
Vocabulary Unit 3 will be assigned; this will be due on Tuesday, November 28th.
Read THE ODYSSEY
"The Enchantress Circes"; draw a picture of Circes' Cave
Reading Logs
November 5, 2012 - November 9, 2012 Weekly Agenda for 9th Grade Honors English
November 5, 2012 - November 9, 2012
Weekly Agenda for 9th Grade Honors English
Monday, November 5th:
Break into groups to work on "Propaganda Assignment"
Tuesday, November 6th:
Begin presentations of "Propaganda Assignments"
"Name Calling" and "Glittering Generalities"
Josine, Justin, Pamela, Isabel
"Band Wagon" and "Plain Folk"
David, Vickie, Renatta, Janella, Amanda
"Transfer" and "Glittering Generalities"
Karina, Robert, Chris Ackey, Daniel, Elizabeth
"Name Calling" and "Snob Appeal"
Mayra, Melissa, Jerry, Karla, Chris
Wednesday, November 7th:
In-class rewrite of Persuasive Essay on "Teen Driving"
Thursday, November 8th:
Finish rewrite of the Persuasive Essay on "Teen Driving"
Due at the end of the period
Friday, November 9th:
Go over answers to questions on Unit 2 Vocabulary homework
Watch "The Odyssey"!
Weekly Agenda for 9th Grade Honors English
Monday, November 5th:
Break into groups to work on "Propaganda Assignment"
Tuesday, November 6th:
Begin presentations of "Propaganda Assignments"
"Name Calling" and "Glittering Generalities"
Josine, Justin, Pamela, Isabel
"Band Wagon" and "Plain Folk"
David, Vickie, Renatta, Janella, Amanda
"Transfer" and "Glittering Generalities"
Karina, Robert, Chris Ackey, Daniel, Elizabeth
"Name Calling" and "Snob Appeal"
Mayra, Melissa, Jerry, Karla, Chris
Wednesday, November 7th:
In-class rewrite of Persuasive Essay on "Teen Driving"
Thursday, November 8th:
Finish rewrite of the Persuasive Essay on "Teen Driving"
Due at the end of the period
Friday, November 9th:
Go over answers to questions on Unit 2 Vocabulary homework
Watch "The Odyssey"!
Monday, October 29, 2012
October 29, 2012 9th Grade Honors English
October 29, 2012 - November 2, 2012
Weekly Agenda for 9th Grade Honors English
Monday, October 29th:
Review district assessment essay
For homework: please watch, or listen, or read political campaign ads. Try to identify some of the techniques used to get people to vote a certain way.
Tuesday, October 30th:
Pass out Seven Techniques of Propaganda
Each group will prepare one presentation based on one of the seven techniques of propaganda
The group will explain what it is; give examples and then prepare a brief skit giving an example of the type of propaganda used.
Wednesday, October 31st:
Please bring your HOLT HANDBOOK; "Adverbial Clauses"; page 104; exercise 4; this assignment will be due on Friday, November 2nd.
Read Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven"
Continue working on the propaganda skits.
Thursday, November 1st:
Warm-up: Write three sentences with adverbial clauses using three vocabulary words from Unit 2.
Begin presenting your Propaganda skits
Friday, November 2nd:
Warm-up: Write three sentences with adverbial clauses using three vocabulary words from Unit 2.
Finish presenting your Propaganda skits
Your HOLT HANDBOOK assignment is due today.
Weekly Agenda for 9th Grade Honors English
Monday, October 29th:
Review district assessment essay
For homework: please watch, or listen, or read political campaign ads. Try to identify some of the techniques used to get people to vote a certain way.
Tuesday, October 30th:
Pass out Seven Techniques of Propaganda
Each group will prepare one presentation based on one of the seven techniques of propaganda
The group will explain what it is; give examples and then prepare a brief skit giving an example of the type of propaganda used.
Wednesday, October 31st:
Please bring your HOLT HANDBOOK; "Adverbial Clauses"; page 104; exercise 4; this assignment will be due on Friday, November 2nd.
Read Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven"
Continue working on the propaganda skits.
Thursday, November 1st:
Warm-up: Write three sentences with adverbial clauses using three vocabulary words from Unit 2.
Begin presenting your Propaganda skits
Friday, November 2nd:
Warm-up: Write three sentences with adverbial clauses using three vocabulary words from Unit 2.
Finish presenting your Propaganda skits
Your HOLT HANDBOOK assignment is due today.
Monday, October 15, 2012
October 15, 2012 - October 19, 2012 Weekly Agenda for 9th Grade English
October 15, 2012 - October 19, 2012
Weekly Agenda for 9th Grade English
Monday, October 15th:
Please bring your vocabulary book to class tomorrow.
In your book, PERSPECTIVES in MULTICULTURAL LITERATURE:
"An Arctic Floe of Climate Questions"; pages 11 and 12
After You Read; pages 13 and 14
For Homework:
PERSPECTIVES in MULTICULTURAL LITERATURE: pages 13 - 14; "Test Practice"; 1 - 7; page 14; "Constructed Response": two paragraph essay; chart
For Homework:
PERSPECTIVES in MULTICULTURAL LITERATURE: pages 13 - 14; "Test Practice"; 1 - 7; page 14; "Constructed Response": two paragraph essay; chart
Tuesday, October 16th:
For homework: Vocabulary Unit 2 will be assigned today. This will be due on Friday, October 19th.
Please bring your grammar book to class tomorrow.
In your book, PERSPECTIVES in MULTICULTURAL LITERATURE:
Before You Read; page 15
"Where I Find My Heroes"; pages 16 and 17
"Heroes with Solid Feet"; pages 18, 19 and 20
After You Read; page 21
Wednesday, October 17th:
For homework:
HOLT HANDBOOK; Independent and Subordinate Clauses; pages 98 - 100; exercise 1; this will be due on Thursday, October 18th.
In your book, PERSPECTIVES in MULTICULTURAL LITERATURE:
Informational Text; pages 22 and 23
Using the Sources; pages 24
Thursday, October 18th:
The HOLT HANDBOOK homework is due today; Independent and Subordinate Clauses, pages 98 - 100; exercise 1
In your book, PERSPECTIVES in MULTICULTURAL LITERATURE:
“Before You Read”; pages 25 and 26
“Free Minds and Hearts at Work”; pages 27 and 29
Friday, October 19th:
Unit 2 Vocabulary will be due today.
“Jackie Changed the Face of Sports”; pages 30 - 32
“After You Read”; pages 33 - 36
Sunday, October 07, 2012
9th Grade Honors English; October 8, 2012 - October 12, 2012
October 8, 2012 - October 12, 2012
Weekly Agenda for 9th Grade English
Monday, October 8th:
Break into your groups; finish writing; rehearse and then perform your word studies.
Please bring your vocabulary book to class tomorrow.
Tuesday, October 9th:
For homework: Vocabulary Unit 2 will be assigned today. This will be due on Monday, October 15th.
Begin work on the Persuasion Unit
Perspectives in Multicultural Literature
Academic Vocabulary; page 3
Informational Text; pages 4 and 5
Before You Read; pages 6 and 7
"Rising Tides"; pages 8, 9, and 10
Please bring your grammar book to class tomorrow.
Wednesday, October 10th:
For homework:
HOLT HANDBOOK; Independent and Subordinate Clauses; pages 98 - 100; exercise 1; this will be due on Friday, October 12th.
"An Arctic Floe of Climate Questions"; pages 11 and 12
After You Read; pages 13 and 14
Thursday, October 11th:
Before You Read; page 15
"Where I Find My Heroes"; pages 16 and 17
"Heroes with Solid Feet"; pages 18, 19 and 20
After You Read; page 21
Friday, October 12th:
The HOLT HANDBOOK homework is due today; Independent and Subordinate Clauses, pages 98 - 100; exercise 1
Informational Text; pages 22 and 23
Using the Sources; pages 24
Before You Read; pages 24 and 25
Sunday, September 30, 2012
October 1, 2012 9th Grade English
October 1, 2012 - October 5, 2012
Monday, October 1st:
Finish the word study today.
Pair up, choose four words and write grammatically correct sentences using the four vocabulary words. Do a gallery walk around.
Pass out the HOLT HANDBOOK; assign "Run-On Sentences"; page 441; exercise 4. This will be due on Thursday, October 4th.
For homework: Choose four more words, write grammatically correct sentences using the four vocabulary words. We will do a brief walk around tomorrow with your sentences.
Begin reading THE CASK of AMONTILLADO.
Tuesday, October 2nd:
Not a shortened day!
Continue reading THE CASK of AMONTILLADO!
Pass out THE CASK of AMONTILLADO Vocabulary and Syntax handouts.
Go over in class.
Wednesday, October 3rd:
Break into groups of five and create three skits: one for verbal irony, one for situational irony and one for dramatic irony. Present to class.
Thursday, October 4th:
Finish presenting the skits.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
September 24, 2012 - September 28, 2012 9A Honors
SEPTEMBER 24, 2012 - SEPTEMBER 28, 2012
NINTH GRADE HONORS ENGLISH AGENDA
Monday, September 24th:
Continue working on essay preparation
We will go over genre, theme, essay and paragraph structure
Break into groups of four; choose five words from Unit 1; create skit, song and dance, or a rap using all five words. Must include the words in sentences which correctly show how the words are used.
Present on Tuesday.
Tuesday, September 25th:
Shortened day.
Present your Unit One Vocabulary Word Study
Wednesday, September 26th:
No school today.
Yom Kippur
Thursday, September 27th:
Your compare and contrast essay is due today: "Marigolds" and "Forgive My Guilt"
Your Vocabulary Unit 1 corrections will be due today.
Check out HOLT HANDBOOK; pages 441 - 443; exercise 4; "Run-Ons" will be assigned today. This will be due on Tuesday, October 2nd.
Friday, September 28th:
Begin reading "The Cask of Amontillado"
NINTH GRADE HONORS ENGLISH AGENDA
Monday, September 24th:
Continue working on essay preparation
We will go over genre, theme, essay and paragraph structure
Break into groups of four; choose five words from Unit 1; create skit, song and dance, or a rap using all five words. Must include the words in sentences which correctly show how the words are used.
Present on Tuesday.
Tuesday, September 25th:
Shortened day.
Present your Unit One Vocabulary Word Study
Wednesday, September 26th:
No school today.
Yom Kippur
Thursday, September 27th:
Your compare and contrast essay is due today: "Marigolds" and "Forgive My Guilt"
Your Vocabulary Unit 1 corrections will be due today.
Check out HOLT HANDBOOK; pages 441 - 443; exercise 4; "Run-Ons" will be assigned today. This will be due on Tuesday, October 2nd.
Friday, September 28th:
Begin reading "The Cask of Amontillado"
Friday, September 21, 2012
"Marigolds" and "Forgive My Guilt" Essays
Preparation for “Marigolds” and “Forgive My Guilt” Essay
Genre: a category, or a type of music, of literature, of movies
David’s favorite genre of film is horror.
Literature can be subdivided:
fiction and non fiction; plays; poems; short stories
Why does a poet choose a poem to write about something? It expresses what the poet is feeling.
A short story writer wants the reader to experience events with certain characters in order to make a discovery.
A nonfiction writer wants the reader to think about and understand the issues.
How do you figure out what the theme is of a poem?
Justin: You break it down by every phrase to see what each phrase shares or what each phrase is about and see if there is a common thread.
Chris: You look at the title!
Comparing and Contrasting a Theme Across Genres
Reading Skills
Author’s purpose in I REMEMBER MAMA
To appreciate what you have.
People’s selfishness can affect others.
Genre: a category, or a type of music, of literature, of movies
David’s favorite genre of film is horror.
Literature can be subdivided:
fiction and non fiction; plays; poems; short stories
Why does a poet choose a poem to write about something? It expresses what the poet is feeling.
A short story writer wants the reader to experience events with certain characters in order to make a discovery.
A nonfiction writer wants the reader to think about and understand the issues.
How do you figure out what the theme is of a poem?
Justin: You break it down by every phrase to see what each phrase shares or what each phrase is about and see if there is a common thread.
Chris: You look at the title!
Comparing and Contrasting a Theme Across Genres
Reading Skills
Author’s purpose in I REMEMBER MAMA
To appreciate what you have.
People’s selfishness can affect others.
Vocabulary Unit One Corrections
Vocabulary Unit 1 Corrections:
To raise your grade on your vocabulary homework please write the correct answers on a separate sheet of paper, staple the corrected answers to the original work and turn in no later than September 27th.
If you did not do pages 21, 22 and 23 from Unit One, you must write the word, the part of speech, the definition and the short phrase in order to raise your grade. Pages 21 - 23 are worth 20 points.
Definitions:
Example:
adage (n.) a proverb; a wise saying
One way to begin an informal speech or an oral report is to quote an
old adage.
COMPLETING THE SENTENCE:
laggards
preclude
hovered
wrangled
evolved
vigil
excerpt
jostled
decree
reverted
citadel
groped
collaborated
servile
discordant
adage
bonanza
plaudits
rubble
churlish
SYNONYMS:
Write the short phrase, underline the boldfaced word and the correct vocabulary word:
Example:
as the ad campaign unfolded: evolved
preclude
adage
jostled
grope
bonanza
rubble
collaborate
servile
citadel
excerpt
revert
hovered
decree
vigil
ANTONYMS:
Write the short phrase, underline the boldfaced word and the correct vocabulary word:
discordant
wrangled
churlish
laggards
plaudits
Choosing the Right Word:
collaborated
churlish
citadels
preclude
plaudits
revert
vigil
hovered
adage
groping
servile
jostled
laggard
evolved
bonanza
discordant
decreed
rubble
excerpted
wrangled
Vocabulary Unit 1 Corrections:
To raise your grade on your vocabulary homework please write the correct answers on a separate sheet of paper, staple the corrected answers to the original work and turn in no later than September 27th.
If you did not do pages 21, 22 and 23 from Unit One, you must write the word, the part of speech, the definition and the short phrase in order to raise your grade. Pages 21 - 23 are worth 20 points.
Definitions:
Example:
adage (n.) a proverb; a wise saying
One way to begin an informal speech or an oral report is to quote an
old adage.
COMPLETING THE SENTENCE:
laggards
preclude
hovered
wrangled
evolved
vigil
excerpt
jostled
decree
reverted
citadel
groped
collaborated
servile
discordant
adage
bonanza
plaudits
rubble
churlish
SYNONYMS:
Write the short phrase, underline the boldfaced word and the correct vocabulary word:
Example:
as the ad campaign unfolded: evolved
preclude
adage
jostled
grope
bonanza
rubble
collaborate
servile
citadel
excerpt
revert
hovered
decree
vigil
ANTONYMS:
Write the short phrase, underline the boldfaced word and the correct vocabulary word:
discordant
wrangled
churlish
laggards
plaudits
Choosing the Right Word:
collaborated
churlish
citadels
preclude
plaudits
revert
vigil
hovered
adage
groping
servile
jostled
laggard
evolved
bonanza
discordant
decreed
rubble
excerpted
wrangled
To raise your grade on your vocabulary homework please write the correct answers on a separate sheet of paper, staple the corrected answers to the original work and turn in no later than September 27th.
If you did not do pages 21, 22 and 23 from Unit One, you must write the word, the part of speech, the definition and the short phrase in order to raise your grade. Pages 21 - 23 are worth 20 points.
Definitions:
Example:
adage (n.) a proverb; a wise saying
One way to begin an informal speech or an oral report is to quote an
old adage.
COMPLETING THE SENTENCE:
laggards
preclude
hovered
wrangled
evolved
vigil
excerpt
jostled
decree
reverted
citadel
groped
collaborated
servile
discordant
adage
bonanza
plaudits
rubble
churlish
SYNONYMS:
Write the short phrase, underline the boldfaced word and the correct vocabulary word:
Example:
as the ad campaign unfolded: evolved
preclude
adage
jostled
grope
bonanza
rubble
collaborate
servile
citadel
excerpt
revert
hovered
decree
vigil
ANTONYMS:
Write the short phrase, underline the boldfaced word and the correct vocabulary word:
discordant
wrangled
churlish
laggards
plaudits
Choosing the Right Word:
collaborated
churlish
citadels
preclude
plaudits
revert
vigil
hovered
adage
groping
servile
jostled
laggard
evolved
bonanza
discordant
decreed
rubble
excerpted
wrangled
Monday, September 17, 2012
September 18, 2012 - September 21, 2012 Agenda for 9 A Honors English
SEPTEMBER 18, 2012 - SEPTEMBER 21, 2012
9TH GRADE HONORS ENGLISH
Tuesday, September 18th:
Spend time cleaning and repairing damaged books; put book covers on the books.
Short written response to the theme of "Marigolds": One cannot be innocent and compassionate" or "One cannot have compassion for another until one's eyes are opened to the world."
Read the play excerpt I REMEMBER MAMA
Answer the multiple choice questions
Wednesday, September 19th:
Read the poem "Forgive My Guilt"
Construct a compare and contrast chart for "Marigolds", I REMEMBER MAMA, "Forgive My Guilt"
Do prewrite for Compare and Contrast essay on the short story "Marigolds" and "Forgive My Guilt"
This essay will be due on Friday, September 21st.
Thursday, September 20th:
Work on Vocabulary Unit 1; break into groups of four; choose five words and construct either skits or song and movement projects which use the words, demonstrate correctly how the words are used in sentences and the meaning of the words. Perform for class.
Friday, September 21st:
The essay is due today. You may e-mail your essay to me at jkatbridge@aol.com or put your essay on a flash drive and print it out on the printer in #503.
Please bring your HOLT HANDBOOK today to class; today Run-On Sentences, pages 441 - 443, exercise 4 will be assigned. Students will take sections and present to the class. This will be due on Tuesday, September 25th.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
The Gift of the Magi Vocabulary and Syntax
1. Parsimony:
Unusual frugality; excessive stinginess.
Sentence:
(noun) The charity was surprised by the parsimony of the corporations.
Sentence:
(adj.) She was so parsimonious that she would walk rather than drive to
save a few cents on gas.
Your
sentence:__________________________________________________________________.
2. Imputation: (noun) the state of attributing a fault or a
characteristic to another.
Sentence: I resent the imputation I’m nice to Grandmother
because she has money.
Your
sentence:__________________________________________________________________.
3. Mendicancy: (noun) being in a state of destitution or
beggary.
Sentence: The homeless on Hollywood Boulevard are in a state
of mendicancy.
Your
sentence:_____________________________________________________________________.
4. Instigates: (verb) Gives rise to; to provoke or to urge someone on to some action.
Sentence: John was accused by the police of instigating a riot at the Occupy Wall Street march.
Your sentence: ___________________________________________________________________.
5. Depreciate: (verb) To belittle, to lower the value of another or of an item.
Sentence: As soon as you drive your new car off the lot its value begins to depreciate.
Your sentence:___________________________________________________________________.
6. Meretricious: (adj.) Attractive in a cheap, flashy way.
Sentence: The dancers in the show were dressed in meretricious costumes, which under the bright
stage lights, looked pretty.
Your sentence:__________________________________________________________________.
7. Scrutiny: (noun) Close inspection
Sentence: The space alien placed the human under a strange lens for better scrutiny.
Scrutinized: (verb) After the space alien scrutinized the human and subjected him to some experiments, it injected him with an amnesia inducing drug and released him back to his native habitat.
Your sentence:______________________________________________________________.
8. Coveted: (verb) Longed for; to want something badly, particularly something that does not belong to you.
Sentence: Lisa long coveted to win the gold medal in gymnastics at the Olympics.
Your sentence:______________________________________________________________.
9. Vestibule: (noun) Lobby, entrance hall or foyer in a large public building like a church.
Sentence: We came late so we waited quietly in the vestibule until there was a break in the meeting.
Your sentence:_______________________________________________________________.
B. Syntax: Syntax is how words are put together to create sentences. "The Gift of the Magi" was written in the early part of the 20th Century when writers wrote very complex and flowery sentences. Rewrite the following sentences from "The Gift of the Magi" in modern simpler syntax:
1. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputations of parsimony that such close dealing implied. (page 203)
Rewrite:______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________.
2. A very thin and agile person may, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. (page 204)
Rewrite:_______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________.
3. It was a platinum fob chain, simple and chaste in its design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation - as all good things should do. (page 205)
Rewrite:_______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________.
4. When Della reached home, her intoxication gave way a little to prudence and reason. (page 205)
Rewrite:______________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________.
5. And now they were hers, but the tresses that should have adorned the coveted adornments were gone. (page 206)
Rewrite:________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________.
4. Instigates: (verb) Gives rise to; to provoke or to urge someone on to some action.
Sentence: John was accused by the police of instigating a riot at the Occupy Wall Street march.
Your sentence: ___________________________________________________________________.
5. Depreciate: (verb) To belittle, to lower the value of another or of an item.
Sentence: As soon as you drive your new car off the lot its value begins to depreciate.
Your sentence:___________________________________________________________________.
6. Meretricious: (adj.) Attractive in a cheap, flashy way.
Sentence: The dancers in the show were dressed in meretricious costumes, which under the bright
stage lights, looked pretty.
Your sentence:__________________________________________________________________.
7. Scrutiny: (noun) Close inspection
Sentence: The space alien placed the human under a strange lens for better scrutiny.
Scrutinized: (verb) After the space alien scrutinized the human and subjected him to some experiments, it injected him with an amnesia inducing drug and released him back to his native habitat.
Your sentence:______________________________________________________________.
8. Coveted: (verb) Longed for; to want something badly, particularly something that does not belong to you.
Sentence: Lisa long coveted to win the gold medal in gymnastics at the Olympics.
Your sentence:______________________________________________________________.
9. Vestibule: (noun) Lobby, entrance hall or foyer in a large public building like a church.
Sentence: We came late so we waited quietly in the vestibule until there was a break in the meeting.
Your sentence:_______________________________________________________________.
B. Syntax: Syntax is how words are put together to create sentences. "The Gift of the Magi" was written in the early part of the 20th Century when writers wrote very complex and flowery sentences. Rewrite the following sentences from "The Gift of the Magi" in modern simpler syntax:
1. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputations of parsimony that such close dealing implied. (page 203)
Rewrite:______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________.
2. A very thin and agile person may, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. (page 204)
Rewrite:_______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________.
3. It was a platinum fob chain, simple and chaste in its design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation - as all good things should do. (page 205)
Rewrite:_______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________.
4. When Della reached home, her intoxication gave way a little to prudence and reason. (page 205)
Rewrite:______________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________.
5. And now they were hers, but the tresses that should have adorned the coveted adornments were gone. (page 206)
Rewrite:________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________.
Sunday, September 09, 2012
September 10, 2012 - September 14, 2012
Weekly Agenda for 9th Grade Honors English
Monday, September 10th:
Go over the outline for the compare and contrast essay for "The Necklace" and "The Gift of the Magi".
Go over the essay format for the compare and contrast essay.
Tuesday, September 11th:
The compare and contrast essay for "The Necklace" and "The Gift of the Magi" is due today.
Vocabulary and Syntax Handout for "The Gift of the Magi"will be passed out today and gone over in class. This will be due on Thursday, September 13th.
Begin reading "Marigolds"
Reading notes
Wednesday, September 12th:
Continue reading "Marigolds"
Reading notes
Thursday, September 13th:
The Vocabulary and Syntax Handouts for "The Gift of the Magi" are due today.
Finish reading "Marigolds". Class notes.
The Vocabulary and Syntax Handout for "Marigolds" will be passed out day. This will be due on Tuesday, September 18th.
Friday, September 14th:
Read the poem "Pardon My Guilt"
Prepare for compare and contrast essay on "Marigolds" and Pardon My Guilt".
Break into groups of four, choose five words from Vocabulary Unit 1 and prepare a short sketch and/or
song/rap/dance illustrating how to use the words and the meaning of the words.
Pass out the HOLT HANDBOOK. Assignment will be announced. This will be due on Thursday, September 20th.
Friday, September 07, 2012
Format for the Compare and Contrast Essay of "The Necklace" and "The Gift of the Magi"
l. Introductory Paragraph
A. Should include a hook or a grabber
1. A question or
2. An anecdote or
3. A social observation
B. The titles of the two stories, the characters and the authors
C. A brief summary highlighting the ironic endings of the story
D. One or two sentences on how the two characters circumstances are the same.
D. One or two sentences on how the character of the women contributed to the irony.
E. Must include your thesis statement
ll. First Two Body Paragraphs (One for Della and one for Mathilde)
A. You should have a mini-thesis statement (Describe her)
1. Develop your mini-thesis statement (Elaborate)
B. Evidence to support your mini-thesis statement
1. Either a direct quotation
2. A paraphrase
C. Show how the evidence supports your mini-thesis statement.
III. Compare how the two characters are similar.
A. You should have a mini-thesis statement
1. Develop your mini-thesis statement
B. How are the characters similar?
What does each character do, driven by circumstance, which is
similar to the other?
1. Evidence to support your mini-thesis
a. Either a direct quotation
b. A paraphrase
Show how the evidence supports your mini-thesis
IV. Contrast the two characters
A. You should have a mini-thesis sentence
1. You should develop your mini-thesis
a. How are the characters different?
What does each character do, driven by their character,
that is different from the other?
2. Evidence to support your mini-thesis
a. Either a direct quotation
b. Paraphrase
B. Show how the evidence supports your mini-thesis
V. Concluding Paragraph
A. Go over your main points in the opening paragraph
1. The personality traits of Della that result in the ironic ending of the story?
2. The personality traits of Madame Loisel that result in the ironic ending of her story?
3. Briefly how they are the same
4. Briefly how they are different
B. Concluding sentence
Possible themes you may consider when analyzing these two stories are:
Life frequently turns out differently than expected.
Character is Destiny.
One's character will determine one fate.
Food for thought (and something that must be brought up in the essay): Both stories are similar in that there is an ironic twist at the end of each; however, the ironic ending in one, "The Necklace" is tragic - ten years of one's life wasted and one's future destroyed because of lies, arrogance and selfishness. The ironic ending in "The Gift of the Magi" is not tragic but poignant and sweet; rather than destroying life and love, the sweet sacrifice Della and Jim do for each other cements their love and draws them closer together.
The women's circumstances are similar: they are both young, poor, beautiful, and married to men who clearly love. But their differences reside in their character - that complex interplay of need, of strength, of ego, of intelligence, of sensitivity, of awareness of others, of self discipline - all those things that go into character - and it is their character that determines how they respond to their circumstances, which determines their fate.
Tuesday, September 04, 2012
Essay Topics:
For "The Sniper"
Analyze the use of point of view to maximize the ironic impact at the end of the story.
Do you believe the sniper will continue fighting after he discovers the identify of the man he has murdered? Why or why not?
"The Necklace:
Has Madame Loisel's character changed at the end of the story? Why or why not? Support with evidence from the story.
Did Madame Loisel's character contribute to her own downfall?
Analyze the theme of deception - of oneself as well as of others - and the role deception played in Madame Loisel's downfall.
Explore the use of point of view to create the ironic impact of the story.
"The Cask of Amontillado"
Analyze the use of irony in the short story of "The Cask of Amontillado".
Does Fortunato contribute to his own death? Why or why not. Support with evidence from the text.
Explore the theme of the unreliable narrator in "The Cask of Amontillado".
"The Most Dangerous Game":
Explore the theme of "The Most Dangerous Game". Is it justifiable to hunt animals for sport? Why or why not? Can animals think, reason, feel emotion?
For "The Sniper"
Analyze the use of point of view to maximize the ironic impact at the end of the story.
Do you believe the sniper will continue fighting after he discovers the identify of the man he has murdered? Why or why not?
"The Necklace:
Has Madame Loisel's character changed at the end of the story? Why or why not? Support with evidence from the story.
Did Madame Loisel's character contribute to her own downfall?
Analyze the theme of deception - of oneself as well as of others - and the role deception played in Madame Loisel's downfall.
Explore the use of point of view to create the ironic impact of the story.
"The Cask of Amontillado"
Analyze the use of irony in the short story of "The Cask of Amontillado".
Does Fortunato contribute to his own death? Why or why not. Support with evidence from the text.
Explore the theme of the unreliable narrator in "The Cask of Amontillado".
"The Most Dangerous Game":
Explore the theme of "The Most Dangerous Game". Is it justifiable to hunt animals for sport? Why or why not? Can animals think, reason, feel emotion?
Friday, August 31, 2012
September 4, 2014 - September 7, 2012 Weekly Agenda for 9A Honors English
WEEKLY AGENDA FOR 9TH GRADE HONORS ENGLISH
Tuesday, September 4th:
Present “What Happens Next: A Continuation of “The Necklace”
Story”.
Begin reading “The Gift of the Magi”. Take notes and build vocabulary bank.
Wednesday, September 5th:
Unit 1 in VOCABULARY WORKSHOP: Level C is due
Begin working on a compare and contrast essay comparing
Mathilde from “The Necklace” with Della in “The Gift of the Magi”.
Thursday, September 6th:
Vocabulary Word Study: Break into groups of four; choose
five words to create either a song and dance/movement or a scene using all five
words. You must include the
definition of the word and a sentence (or song lyric) which correctly uses the
word.
Continue working on the essay.
Friday, September 7th:
Your essay will be due today.
Present your Vocabulary Word Study.
Your grammar books will be assigned and an assignment will be given to you which will be due on Tuesday, September 11th.
Present your Vocabulary Word Study.
Your grammar books will be assigned and an assignment will be given to you which will be due on Tuesday, September 11th.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Weekly Agenda for 9th Grade Honors English
Week of August 27, 2012 - August 30, 2012
Monday, August 27th:
Read "The Necklace"
Take Notes
Pass out "The Necklace" Vocabulary and Irony Packet
The packet will be due on Thursday, August 30th.
Tuesday, August 28th:
Do improvisations on three types of irony
Break into groups to work on "What Happens Next?"
Starting the scene with the last line of the short story, "The Necklace" continue the story; write a scene which shows what happens after Mathilde runs into Madame Forestier.
Wednesday, August 29th:
Present the scripts.
Thursday, August 30th:
Read "The Gift of the Magi"
Prepare to do a compare and contrast essay on "The Necklace" and "The Gift of the Magi".
"The Necklace" Vocabulary and Irony packet is due today.
Friday, August 31st:
No school!!!!!!
Monday, August 20, 2012
August 20, 2012 - August 24, 2012 Agenda for 9 A Honors English
August 20, 2012 - August 24, 2012 Week of 9th Grade Honors English
Monday, August 20th:
Break into groups of four to rewrite "The Sniper" from your character's point of view.
Tuesday, August 21st:
"The Sniper" vocabulary/irony handouts are due today.
Finish writing the script. Rehearse. Begin to present the rewrite of "The Sniper"
Wednesday, August 22nd:
Begin presentations of your rewrite of "The Sniper".
Thursday, August 23rd:
Break into groups to read articles about the British and Irish conflict; present to the class.
Friday, August 24th:
Assign Vocabulary Workshop; Level D. Assign Vocabulary Unit 1. This will be due on Tuesday, August 28th.
Begin reading "The Necklace"
Friday, August 17, 2012
Romeo and Juliet; Act 5
Setting:
Street in Mantua
Romeo is walking down the street talking to himself about
his dreams. There is a dream motif
(motif is a recurring theme or object or concept in a piece of literature) throughout the play. Earlier, in Act 1, Scene 4, when Romeo says that he has been having dreams, Mercutio replies that dreams lie and are the product of an idle mind. These dreams have given Romeo a sense of unease of what is coming in the near future, a sense of foreboding, of what might lie ahead.
Romeo is a superstitious, emotional fellow who believes in fate, and destiny, and dreams, and omens, and portents of evil. At the end of Act 1, Scene 4, before he enters the Capulet house and meets Juliet and the moment which will forever change his life, he says,"....for my mind misgives / Some consequence yet hanging in the stars / Shall bitterly begin his fearful date / With this night's revels and expire the term / Of a despised life, closed in my breast, / By some vile forfeit of untimely death."
However, last night Romeo dreamt something joyful, that he would receive some wonderful news. He dreamt that he was dead and when Juliet kissed him he came to life. This is an example of foreshadowing and displays situational and dramatic irony.
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A thought:
Do you believe that FATE rules one's life?
Do you agree with Romeo? That one's life is fated; that is, your life is ruled by destiny? That your life is preordained, controlled by supernatural forces, by God, by spirits, or by the stars? Your life is not your own and that despite what ever it is you chose to do, your steps are being controlled by external forces.
If you believe that Fate rules one's life, then go through the play and list all the many references Romeo and Juliet make to the stars, to fortune, to fate, and then analyze if it were the stars, fortune or fate that caused the event to happen or was it merely circumstance.
Do you believe in FREE WILL?
Free will is the belief that we control our lives and that our lives are determined by our choices, our decisions, our character, our strength, our intellect. There is no destiny or fate - we make our own destiny; we make our own fate.
What were some of the decisions the two lovers made that led to disastrous results? What better choices could they have made? Or were there any other options available to them that would have been better?
Create a chart detailing the significant decisions Romeo and Juliet made, and the consequences that occurred as a result of those decisions.
Create another chart detailing other possible decisions Romeo and Juliet could have made, and the possible consequences which could have occurred. Are the possible consequences better or worse?
Romeo is a superstitious, emotional fellow who believes in fate, and destiny, and dreams, and omens, and portents of evil. At the end of Act 1, Scene 4, before he enters the Capulet house and meets Juliet and the moment which will forever change his life, he says,"....for my mind misgives / Some consequence yet hanging in the stars / Shall bitterly begin his fearful date / With this night's revels and expire the term / Of a despised life, closed in my breast, / By some vile forfeit of untimely death."
However, last night Romeo dreamt something joyful, that he would receive some wonderful news. He dreamt that he was dead and when Juliet kissed him he came to life. This is an example of foreshadowing and displays situational and dramatic irony.
Do the ensuing events support Romeo's beliefs about dreams, ("Some consequence yet hanging in the stars / Shall bitterly begin his fearful date / With this night's revels and expire the tern / Of a despised life, closed in my breast, / By some vile forfeit of untimely death", or Mercutio's view of dreams ("Dreams lie...")
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A thought:
Do you believe that FATE rules one's life?
Do you agree with Romeo? That one's life is fated; that is, your life is ruled by destiny? That your life is preordained, controlled by supernatural forces, by God, by spirits, or by the stars? Your life is not your own and that despite what ever it is you chose to do, your steps are being controlled by external forces.
If you believe that Fate rules one's life, then go through the play and list all the many references Romeo and Juliet make to the stars, to fortune, to fate, and then analyze if it were the stars, fortune or fate that caused the event to happen or was it merely circumstance.
If You Believe in Free Will, Then You are the Captain of Your Life |
Do you believe in FREE WILL?
Free will is the belief that we control our lives and that our lives are determined by our choices, our decisions, our character, our strength, our intellect. There is no destiny or fate - we make our own destiny; we make our own fate.
What were some of the decisions the two lovers made that led to disastrous results? What better choices could they have made? Or were there any other options available to them that would have been better?
Create a chart detailing the significant decisions Romeo and Juliet made, and the consequences that occurred as a result of those decisions.
Create another chart detailing other possible decisions Romeo and Juliet could have made, and the possible consequences which could have occurred. Are the possible consequences better or worse?
Do you believe in DETERMINISM?
Determinism is the belief that our lives are determined by the social, political, economic, historical forces in effect in our lives. These forces have been evolving before your birth and affect your family, your social class, your town, your country. The social, political, economic environment in which you were born not only profoundly impacts the person you are, and the choices you make but also whether you even have a choice in many of the things that happen to you.
Consider this: Romeo and Juliet were born into families engaged in a bitter gang feud. Juliet, as a young woman, was born at a time in which women and girls had no liberty to chart their own destinies or to make choices regarding their own lives. The choices and decisions the two lovers made were constrained by who they were and the time and place they were born. How much freedom did the two lovers have to make their own choices?
Go through the play and analyze all the elements that were in place in Romeo and Juliet's lives: the types of families in which they were born; their ages: Romeo's personality; Juliet's lack of freedom; her parents' personalities; the Nurse as Juliet's surrogate mother. How did all these elements affect, bend and restrict the decisions they made? Think about this: The fact that, as a girl, Juliet could not go outside the family home without being closely monitored strongly affected some of the decisions she could and could not make.
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Assignment:
Write an essay defending your position and give evidence from the play which supports your thesis.
The Three Fates which Control People's Lives |
If you believe that Romeo and Juliet had no voice in what happened to them, but were puppets of forces of destiny or fate far greater than they, then you might want to use the following thesis:
Thesis: Romeo and Juliet's were not active players in their own lives, their fates were not of their own choosing, but rather they were passive figures that fate, or destiny, or supernatural forces beyond their control, acted upon them.
If you believe in FREE WILL, that Romeo and Juliet alone were the agents of change in their own lives, then you might want to use the following thesis:
Thesis: Romeo and Juliet's lives were not the result of fate or destiny, but rather the result of a series of decisions they made in reaction to their circumstances.
Thesis: Romeo and Juliet had very little real choice in the decisions they made, bound as they were by the overpowering forces of history, politics, economics and sociology of their time. Due to societal forces beyond their control, their lives and the decisions they could make were circumscribed, and a tragic or at the very least, an unsatisfying conclusion was inevitable.
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Continuing the story:
Balthasar, Romeo's man or servant, tells Romeo that he saw
Juliet’s body lying in the Capel monument - the Capulet family's mausoleum or burial chapel.
Romeo is devastated by this news and screams defiance at the stars, which he sees as controlling his fate. (Those who believe in astrology - and many people did in the 1500 - 1600's, including well regarded astronomers - believe that the stars' positions relative to the sun, the moon and the earth determine one's fate.) “Then I defy you stars!” He rallies himself to action and commands Balthasar to fetch pen and paper and hire horses for the journey back to Verona.
Balthasar is frightened by the wild behavior of his master and begs him to control himself.
Romeo tries to convince Balthasar that he is wrong to think he is suicidal, and then
asks if he has received any letters or news from the Friar as he had promised, but the servant replies no.
Balthasar is frightened by the wild behavior of his master and begs him to control himself.
Romeo tries to convince Balthasar that he is wrong to think he is suicidal, and then
asks if he has received any letters or news from the Friar as he had promised, but the servant replies no.
Romeo, in a suicidal state, goes to an apothecary, or a modern day pharmacist to see about purchasing some poison. (Romeo can go from happy to suicidal in about 0.06 seconds!)
A Little Side Note About the Setting, Lights and Language in the Elizabethan Theatre:
A Little Side Note About the Setting, Lights and Language in the Elizabethan Theatre:
In Elizabethan theatre, there were no artificial lights - the theaters had partial openings at the ceiling to allow sunlight to illuminate the stage. The plays were matinees, or daytime performances, and began at two in the afternoon. Sets were at a minimum, so to create in the minds of the audience the time of day or night, the weather, the setting, Shakespeare used his magnificent words to create the magical environment of the scene.
Here is how Romeo describes the apothecary and his small store:
I do remember an apothecary,
And hereabouts he dwell, which late I noted
In tattered weeds, with overwhelming brows, (tattered: torn, in shreds from overuse)
Culling of simples; meagre were his looks, (culling: gathering together) (simples: herbs)
Sharp misery had worn him to the bones;
And in his needy shop a tortoise hung,
An alligator stuffed, and other skins
Of ill-shaped fishes, and about his shelves
A beggarly account of empty boxes,
Green earthen pots, bladders and musty seeds,
Remnants of packthread and old cakes of roses,
Were thinly scattered, to make up a show.
Noting this penury, to myself I said
'An if a man did need a poison now,
Whose sale is present death in Mantua,
Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it me.
O, this same thought did forerun my need;
And this same needy man must sell it me.
As I remember, this should be the house."
Penury: poverty
Caitiff: cowardly base villain or more charitably, an unfortunate slave.
Note the strangeness of the shop, where there are strange, unsettling objects: a hanging tortoise, a stuffed alligator, ill-shaped (strange) fish, and bladders (animal skins used as bellows, which are devices to blow wind to light fires).
An alligator stuffed, and other skins
Of ill-shaped fishes, and about his shelves
A beggarly account of empty boxes,
Green earthen pots, bladders and musty seeds,
Remnants of packthread and old cakes of roses,
Were thinly scattered, to make up a show.
Noting this penury, to myself I said
'An if a man did need a poison now,
Whose sale is present death in Mantua,
Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it me.
O, this same thought did forerun my need;
And this same needy man must sell it me.
As I remember, this should be the house."
Penury: poverty
Caitiff: cowardly base villain or more charitably, an unfortunate slave.
Note the strangeness of the shop, where there are strange, unsettling objects: a hanging tortoise, a stuffed alligator, ill-shaped (strange) fish, and bladders (animal skins used as bellows, which are devices to blow wind to light fires).
Note the sense of abandonment, of being forgotten: musty seeds (dusty from disuse), remnants (pieces) of thread, old cakes of rose (rose scented soaps) scattered about to make the shelves seem less barren.
Grammar:
Adverbial Clause; If a man did need a poison now,
Relative Pronoun: Whose
Adjective Clause: sale is present death in Mantua, ("whose" links poison with sale. The poison's sale means immediate death to the seller in Mantua if caught.)
If a man needed poison, this wretched impoverished apothecary would sell it. But if he sold the poison and got caught, then he would be executed.
Romeo greets the apothecary and tells him immediately what he needs:
Come hither, man. I see that thou are poor:
Hold, there is forty ducats: let me have (Hold: wait) (ducats: pieces of gold)
A dram of poison, such soon-speeding gear (dram: a unit of liquid)
As will disperse itself through all the veins (disperse: to spread)
That the life-weary taker may fall dead
And that the trunk may be discharged of breath (trunk: body)
As violently as hasty powder fired
Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb.
Imagery:
Romeo wants a dram of poison that will cause his breath to be expelled from his body as violently, powerfully and quickly as fast ignited powder explodes from a lethal cannon's mouth.
The above line vividly and violently creates for the reader and the audience the physical force Romeo is seeking in the poison he is buying.
Figurative Language:
Simile: Comparing two unlike things (the breath from the body and the powder from the cannon).
Paradox:
Fatal cannon's womb. The womb is associated with giving life, not death.
The apothecary doesn’t want to sell it to him for fear of
being caught and executed.
Apothecary:
Such mortal drugs I have; but Mantua's law (mortal: causing death)
Is death to any he that utters them. (utters: says or speaks)
Romeo tells him that the world is not his friend; the world treats him with contempt. He is living in need and oppression by the world. So why live in poverty? Flout the world’s laws, which oppress you and keep you in poverty! Sell me the drug and live in wealth!
Romeo:
"Art thou so bare and full of wretchedness,
And fear'st to die? famine is in thy cheeks, (famine: starvation)
Need and oppression starveth in thine eyes,
Contempt and beggary hangs upon thy back;
The world is not thy friend nor the world's law;
The world affords no law to make thee rich;
Then be not poor, but break it, and take this." (Here, Romeo is offering him money.)
The apothecary reluctantly agrees when he says "my poverty, not my will accepts."
Figurative Language:
Personification: "my poverty, not my will accepts." Poverty is a state of being, not a person, but in this line poverty is being described as accepting money.
Romeo responds with, "I pay thy poverty, and not thy will."
The apothecary gives him instructions on how to administer the dosage:
Put this in any liquid thing you will,
And drink it off;"
The apothecary also informs him about the strength of the poison:
" and, if you had the strength
Of twenty men, it would dispatch you straight." (dispatch: kill)
Romeo says that he is the one giving the poison, not the apothecary. What is the poison? Money.
"There is thy gold, worse poison to men's souls,
Doing more murders in this loathsome world,
That these poor compound that thou mayst not sell. (compounds: chemical make-up of poison)
I sell thee poison; thou hast sold me none.
Farewell: buy food, and get thyself in flesh. (Get thyself in flesh: Eat and gain weight.)
Romeo, taking the poison, calls it a cordial (pronounced like cordj el), which is a sweet, after-dinner wine used as a dessert. Irony: the unexpected use of the word "cordial" to describe a deadly poison gives that line a bitter and ironic twist and reveals just how much Romeo despises his life and wants to be rid of it.
To Juliet's grave; for there must I use thee."
Notice that poison is a recurring motif in many of Shakespeare's plays. Poisoning was the most "popular" and effective way of murdering someone in Elizabethan England, far more reliable, less dangerous to the killer and more effective than guns. Yes, there were guns in the 1600's but they were rudimentary, liable to misfire - exploding in the hand of the killer - and therefore more dangerous to the killer than to the intended victim. (Another drawback to the gun in the late 1500's to the early 1600's was that the aim was poor and might take out an innocent bystander rather than the intended victim.)
A handgun from the 1600's |
Scene 2
Setting: Thursday in Friar Laurence's cell in Verona.
Although this is a very short scene, like Act 3, Scene 4 (in which Capulet offers Juliet's hand to Paris) and Act 4, Scene 2 (in which Capulet moves the wedding from Thursday to Wednesday) this scene also has a VERY important plot complication. There is a horrible plague going on in Verona which results in Brother Joseph being quarantined (isolated). He cannot leave Verona to give Romeo the message that Juliet is not dead. The friar is upset for the message is not “nice” or unimportant but very, very urgent!
This may seem like a "Deus ex Machina" - or a "machine of the gods", an improbable plot contrivance to extricate the characters from a badly constructed plot complication, but this plot twist would sound VERY plausible to Elizabethan audiences. Europe was roiled by a series of devastating plagues which decimated or wiped out millions of people from the 1300's to the 1600's. No one knew about microbes or that the fleas found on rats were the carriers of the black plague. However, they did have an inkling that it was infectious and so when the plague, the bubonic or the black death, was discovered in a home, the house and its occupants, were quarantined or sealed off for a few days until the people had died or had not developed the disease.
If the people had died, a heavy draft wagon, filled with corpses, would come around, with a coachman ringing a bell, chanting, "Bring out your dead!" And the survivors, if there were any, would carry out the bodies, which were then transported by the coachman to an open grave, where they were sprinkled with lime, and buried. The terrified survivors covered their mouths with cloth, and carried religious icons as protection against this pestilence. There was no cure.
The final plague, in 1665, ironically, was wiped out by the Great Fire of London in 1666, when a great conflagration roared through the wooden and straw buildings of the heavy populated city, killing all the rats and their plague-bearing fleas. The fire effectively dried up a tributary of the River Thames called the Fleet, which was nothing more than an open sewer associated with rats, disease and poverty. People still suffered miserably from other health concerns - sanitation, disease, accidents, complications from childbirth, atrocious medical care (which, in many cases, not being treated by a doctor was better than being treated) - but dying a horrible gruesome death from the plague was no longer a major heath concern.
Setting: Thursday in Friar Laurence's cell in Verona.
Although this is a very short scene, like Act 3, Scene 4 (in which Capulet offers Juliet's hand to Paris) and Act 4, Scene 2 (in which Capulet moves the wedding from Thursday to Wednesday) this scene also has a VERY important plot complication. There is a horrible plague going on in Verona which results in Brother Joseph being quarantined (isolated). He cannot leave Verona to give Romeo the message that Juliet is not dead. The friar is upset for the message is not “nice” or unimportant but very, very urgent!
This may seem like a "Deus ex Machina" - or a "machine of the gods", an improbable plot contrivance to extricate the characters from a badly constructed plot complication, but this plot twist would sound VERY plausible to Elizabethan audiences. Europe was roiled by a series of devastating plagues which decimated or wiped out millions of people from the 1300's to the 1600's. No one knew about microbes or that the fleas found on rats were the carriers of the black plague. However, they did have an inkling that it was infectious and so when the plague, the bubonic or the black death, was discovered in a home, the house and its occupants, were quarantined or sealed off for a few days until the people had died or had not developed the disease.
If the people had died, a heavy draft wagon, filled with corpses, would come around, with a coachman ringing a bell, chanting, "Bring out your dead!" And the survivors, if there were any, would carry out the bodies, which were then transported by the coachman to an open grave, where they were sprinkled with lime, and buried. The terrified survivors covered their mouths with cloth, and carried religious icons as protection against this pestilence. There was no cure.
The final plague, in 1665, ironically, was wiped out by the Great Fire of London in 1666, when a great conflagration roared through the wooden and straw buildings of the heavy populated city, killing all the rats and their plague-bearing fleas. The fire effectively dried up a tributary of the River Thames called the Fleet, which was nothing more than an open sewer associated with rats, disease and poverty. People still suffered miserably from other health concerns - sanitation, disease, accidents, complications from childbirth, atrocious medical care (which, in many cases, not being treated by a doctor was better than being treated) - but dying a horrible gruesome death from the plague was no longer a major heath concern.
The Friar greets Friar John warmly and wants to know what Romeo said to him when he visited him in Mantua to tell him the plans regarding Juliet.
But Friar John, or in some editions, Brother John, has some devastating news for the Friar - he was unable to leave Verono!
Friar John says:
Going to find a bare-foot brother out
One of our order, to associate me, (associate: to accompany)
Here in this city visiting the sick,
And finding him, the searchers of the town, (searchers: health inspectors)
Suspecting that we both were in a house
Where the infectious pestilence did reign,
Sealed up the doors, and would not let us forth; (sealed up: quarantined)
So that my speed to Mantua there was stayed.
Bare-foot brother: the priests took a vow of poverty, which meant that many of them were bare-footed.
Friar John sought out a fellow friar who was visiting the sick, but the health inspectors, suspecting that they had been in a house with plague-infected people, forced them to be quarantined indoors.
The letter was never delivered. And Romeo does not know of the plan! He thinks Balthazar is right - that Juliet is dead!
The Friar is quite upset and tells Brother John that the letter was not "nice" or unimportant but held grave importance. He tells the brother to get an "iron crow" or crowbar so that he can force open the doors of Juliet's burial chambers.
The Friar frets:
"Now must I to the monument alone;
Within three hours will fair Juliet wake:
She will beshrew me much that Romeo (Beshrew: curse)
Hath had no notice of these accidents;
But I will write again to Mantua,
And keep her at my cell till Romeo come;
Poor living corse, closed in a dead man's tomb!"
Juliet will awaken in three hours (the potion's effect will last for forty-two hours). She drank the potion at about ten on Tuesday night and it is now about five p.m. Thursday afternoon. But as it now stands, Romeo will not be there when she wakes.
The Friar will write Romeo another letter detailing the plan, and until Romeo arrives, the Friar will keep Juliet in his cell. Or at least, that's the plan!
Paradox and Oxymoron:
Living corse: corse means corpse.
This is also (spoiler alert!) foreshadowing!
Act Five, Scene 3
The setting: Thursday night in the churchyard in front of Juliet's tomb.
Unlike Zeffirelli's and Baz Luhrman's versions of ROMEO and JULIET, the character of Paris shows up at Juliet's tomb, bearing flowers, a torch, and accompanied by his servant. Paris instructs his page, or servant, to stand apart, stretch-out with his ear to the ground to listen for footsteps, and to whistle if he hears anyone coming. After the page departs, Paris begins his obsequies, or funeral rituals to grieve Juliet's death, which are to strew flowers on her "bridal bed" each night and to water them, or wanting that (lacking that) to water them with his tears. But his obsequies are interrupted by the sharp whistle of the page, which indicates that someone is coming. Paris withdraws into the darkness to see who has interrupted his mourning.
Enter Romeo! Bear in mind that the Friar's letter never reached him in Mantua and he does not know about the plot. He only knows what Balthasar has told him - that he saw Juliet lying dead in the burial chambers.
Romeo issues a few short orders to Balthasar: To give him a mattock, similar to a pickaxe, and a crowbar-like tool to wrench open the door to Juliet's tomb. He hands him a letter to deliver to his father early the next morning. He warns Balthasar to "stand aloof", to stand at a distance, and regardless of what he sees or hears, he is not to interrupt Romeo! He explains part of the reason he is breaking into Juliet's tomb is to behold her face one last time, but the main reason is to take from her finger a ring for some important business. Romeo warns him to go away, but if he is "jealous" or curious and tries to pry into his business, Romeo threatens that:
"By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint
And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs:
The time and my intents are savage-wild,
More fierce and more inexorable far
Than empty tigers or the roaring sea."
Personification:
"And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs:"
A churchyard cannot be hungry, but the image is violent - that the churchyard will be fed with his body.
Romeo compares the time and his intentions to be "savage-wild", fiercer and more implacable than hungry tigers or a raging sea.
When he has convinced the young boy that he's serious, Romeo softens, gives the boy money, wishes him life and prosperity and calls him a "good fellow".
Balthasar says in an aside that he will hide himself and watch for he fears Romeo's manner and his intentions.
Romeo, now alone in front of the burial chamber's door, addresses it in an apostrophe as he forces the door open:
"Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death, (Maw: throat)
Gorged with the dearest morsel of the earth, (Gorged: fully sated, over filled)
Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open,
And, in despite, I'll cram thee with more food!"
Apostrophe: Addressing an object as if it were human, or addressing an absent person.
Irony: Womb of death. The womb is associated with life and birth, not death. In this case, Romeo is addressing the door to Juliet's tomb as if it were a hungry mouth of death, crammed with the body of Juliet ("the dearest morsel of the earth"). He is threatening to cram the mouth of death with one more body - his own.
This is also an extended metaphor, comparing the tomb with a hungry mouth of death.
But as we know, Romeo is not alone for Paris is hiding in the shadows watching. When he sees Romeo opening the door, Paris recognizes him as the "banished haughty (arrogant) Montague, / That murdered my love's cousin..." and he blames him for being the cause of Juliet's death from grief. He makes the assumption that Romeo is there to vandalize and desecrate the family burial chambers.
Paris comes forward and tries to do a citizen's arrest on Romeo, saying, "Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee; / Obey, and go with me; for thou must die.
Strangely, Romeo is conciliatory, and with gentle compassionate words, urges Paris to save himself by leaving; otherwise, Romeo, the madman, will be forced to kill him and he does not want to take that sin upon his head. He takes the same tone with Paris as he did with Tybalt before the fight in which Mercutio was killed.
Romeo:
"I must indeed; and therefore came I hither. (He is answering Paris's "For thou must die!")
Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man;
Fly hence, and leave me; think upon these gone;
Let them affright thee. I beseech thee, youth, (Affright: to frighten; allow the dead to frighten you.)
Put not another sin upon my head,
By urging me to fury: O, be gone!
By heaven, I love thee better than myself:
For I come hither armed against myself;
Stay not; be gone; live, and hereafter say,
A madman's mercy bade thee run away!"
But Paris refuses to leave and insists on arresting Romeo. Romeo is forced to draw his sword, and quickly dispatches him in a duel.
As they fight, Paris' page watches in the shadows, and becoming frightened, runs to call the "watch" - the town's security guards.
With Paris' last breath, he asks that his dying wish be honored - that Romeo places his body next to Juliet's.
Romeo, magnanimous and compassionate in his grief, agrees to honor the dying youth's last wish.
O, give me thy hand,
One writ with me in sour misfortune's book!
I'll bury thee in a triumphant grave;
A grave? O no! a lantern, slaughter'd youth,
For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes
This vault a feasting presence full of light.
Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interred.
Again, Romeo makes a reference to fortune: "One writ (written) with me in sour misfortune's book!"
Both he and Romeo's names were written in the book of bitter misfortune.
He then spies Juliet and again makes a reference to light - that even in death her beauty makes the death chamber a feasting presence full of light.
Using irony, personification, and another apostrophe, Romeo addresses Death: "Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interred."
The dead man is Romeo who soon will be dead.
Interred: to be buried
Laying PARIS in the tomb
How oft when men are at the point of death
Have they been merry! which their keepers call
A lightning before death: O, how may I
Call this a lightning? O my love! my wife!
Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath,
Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty:
Thou art not conquer'd; beauty's ensign yet (Ensign: sign, flag)
Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,
And death's pale flag is not advanced there.
Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet?
O, what more favour can I do to thee,
Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain
To sunder his that was thine enemy? (Sunder: to cut in half; to cleave in half)
Forgive me, cousin! Ah, dear Juliet,
Why art thou yet so fair? shall I believe
That unsubstantial death is amorous, (Unsubstantial: bodiless) (Amorous: lustful)
And that the lean abhorred monster keeps
Thee here in dark to be his paramour? (Paramour: lover)
For fear of that, I still will stay with thee;
And never from this palace of dim night
Depart again: here, here will I remain
With worms that are thy chamber-maids; O, here
Will I set up my everlasting rest,
And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars (Inauspicious: Unlucky, unfortunate)
From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last!
Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you
The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
A dateless bargain to engrossing death!
Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide!
Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on
The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark! (Bark: ship)
Here's to my love!
Drinks
O true apothecary!Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.
Dies
Romeo enters the chambers, spies his beautiful bride, and unaware that she is not dead, marvels that her face has not been ravaged by death. He reflects that jailers have noted that condemned men, on the brink of their execution, have a flash of happiness ("a lightning before death"). He is, like the condemned man, happy. He has been flirting with death from the very beginning and perhaps death is his true love, and now that he is but moments away from death's embrace, he is finally in a place of peace and fulfillment.
Romeo speaks to Juliet directly, in an apostrophe: "O, my love! My wife!" And he personifies death as a lover who has sucked the honey of her breath yet he has had no power over her beauty. "Thou are not conquered; beauty's ensign (sign) is still crimson (red) upon thy lips and cheeks, and death's pale flag is not advanced there." Her lips and cheeks are blushed with beauty for death has not conquered her and plunged his sign, his ensign of white pallor upon her face.
Then Romeo spies Tybalt lying in his bloodied burial sheets. (In the 1500's - 1600's, bodies were buried in a shroud or a sheet.) He offers an apology to Tybalt, by asking what greater gift can be given to him than by cutting in half the life of one who cut his (Tybalt's) youth, his life in twain? He begs Tybalt's forgiveness; then turns his attention back to Juliet, where he asks "Why art thou so fair?" The audience is filled with tremendous pathos, watching Romeo in the throes of grief, listening to his confused questioning, not comprehending how her beauty can wield such tremendous power across the great divide of death, for the audience knows the answer - she is not dead and if he can stave off the desire to commit suicide for just a little, she will awaken, and his grief and confusion will be replaced with joy and understanding. He asks "Is bodiless Death amorous (lustful) and that the skeletal, hated monster that is death keeping her here in the dark to be his lover?"
Romeo proclaims that he will stay with her for eternity in this dim place and remain with the worms which are (in a bit of morbid humor and whimsy) Juliet's chamber-maids. He will set up his everlasting rest here, and shake off the yoke, the chains, which has joined his body, exhausted from the earth's travails, to his fate which has been ordained by his unlucky stars.
He addresses his eyes - "Eyes, look your last!" - at Juliet, his beloved. He addresses his arms - "Arms, take your last embrace!" - as he holds her for the last time in his arms. He addresses his lips -
"Lips, O you / The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss / A dateless (eternal) bargain (contract) to engrossing (all destroying) death!" He kisses her, and now begins to seal the eternal contract with all destroying death by turning his attention to drink or kiss the deadly vial.
Romeo then takes out the vial of poison, and echoing the storm-tossed ship metaphor Capulet used to describe Juliet, calls the poison a "conduct, an unsavory guide, a pilot" which will drive his life-weary body (his ship of life) onto the rocky shoals of death. He toasts Juliet with his lethal cordial, opens his "doors of breath", his lips to "kiss" the poison, and drinks (kisses it). Shocked by how accurate the apothecary's information was on its power and speed, he says, "O true apothecary, thy drugs are quick! Thus with a kiss, I die!"
Romeo has died.
Brief Analysis: At key moments, Romeo becomes reckless, and relinquishes (gives up) control of his life to the Fates; for example, when he decides to enter the Capulet's party, he says, "But He, that hath the steerage of my course, / Direct my sail!" And at the moment of suicide, he says, "Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavory guide! Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on / The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark!" He is a strange combination of the active, the passive and the reckless - but then again, he is probably all of fifteen. He is aggressive and reckless in his pursuit of Juliet, in his vengeance of Mercutio's death, and in his pursuit of the poison, but in other moments, he seems to - strangely - throw his life away: to crash the Capulets' masked party despite his deep misgivings, to seek refuge in the Friar's cell, to follow the Friar's scheme, to too easily succumb to the idea of suicide - an idea he seems to be too much in love with from the very beginning of the play.
Which leads us to the next analysis of Romeo's personality: he seems to be in love with Death! Notice all of Romeo's references to Death as a lover:
"...That unsubstantial death is amorous, / And that the lean abhorred monster keeps / Thee here in dark to be his paramour?" And that when he holds the vial of poison, he is addressing it with words of love as if it is his lover, "...and lips, O you / The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss / A dateless bargain to engrossing death!" The words he uses to express his love for Juliet become merged with his love for the poison and the death it promises.
Back to story:
Enter the Friar - just a few seconds too late. Had he been just a few moments earlier, ROMEO and Juliet would have had a happier ending. But he, like the Nurse, is old, and the graves in the churchyard have made the ground uneven and his "old feet" stumbled at graves". Balthasar approaches him and identifies himself. The Friar sees Romeo's torch and inquires of Balthasar whose torch is that which lends its light to grubs (worms) and eyeless skulls.
The Friar:
"Tell me, good my friend,
What torch is yond, that vainly lends his light (Yond: over there; at a distance)
To grubs and eyeless skulls? As I discern, (Grubs: worms) (Discern: to perceive)
It burneth in the Capel's monument." (Capel: Capulets)
Figurative Language:
The Friar's question juxtaposes the image of the uselessness (vanity, futility) of light against the image of blind death - eyeless skulls - creating tension with the paradoxical and grisly imagery.
Balthasar tells him that it is Romeo who is in the vault. When the Friar asks him to accompany him, Balthasar swiftly declines, telling him that his master threatened him if he interfered. This information makes the Friar fearful that something terrible has happened. Balthasar cagily tells him that "As I did sleep under this yew-tree here, / I dreamt my master and another fought, / And that my master slew him." The page does not wish to implicate his young master - nor himself - by stating factually what he saw - that he saw Romeo killing Paris - but rather hedges the information by saying he "dreamed" his master got in a fight and killed someone, alerting the Friar that Romeo is homicidal.
As the Friar enters the vault alone, he sees blood staining the entrance to the tomb (sepulcher) and wonders as to the meaning of the two "masterless and gory" (gory means bloody) swords to lie discolored by this place of peace? Swords are weapons of violence and have no place in a place of peace. He looks closer and recognizes the bodies of Romeo and Paris, pale and covered (steeped) in blood.
Figurative Language:
Personification: "Ah, what an unkind hour / Is guilty of this lamentable chance!"
The hour is guilty of this sorrowful coincidence that both Romeo and Paris are dead.
Vocabulary:
Lamentable: sorrowful
And then Juliet, unaware of the tragedy surrounding her, awakens. As in Act 3, Scene 2, when Juliet is in her chambers, waiting impatiently for the night and her new husband to come to her, unaware that her life's course has been reversed by Romeo's killing of Tybalt, so it is in Act 5, Scene 3, when she awakens from her forty-two hour sleep, unaware another reversal has just taken place - her husband is dead.
The Friar, frightened by noise he hears outside, tells her to leave "... that nest / Of death, contagion and unnatural sleep: A greater power than we can contradict / Hath thwarted our intents." The Friar states that some force - God or fate - has thwarted or stopped their plans. He tells her that Romeo (her husband in her bosom or heart) is dead, as is Paris. He urges her to come away with him and he will place her in a convent with nuns. He bids her not to question him for the watch or security is coming. But Juliet, strong-willed, refuses to leave. And as the noise grows louder, the Friar becomes more frightened and abandons Juliet, alone with Romeo's dead body, the empty cup of poison and a dagger.
Juliet spies the cup, emptied of its poison, and affectionately calling Romeo "churl" or annoying, playfully chides him for not leaving any drops of poison for her to drink. She then kisses his lips, hoping ironically that there remains some poison that will act as a restorative - or restore her to him.
Restorative usually refers to a potion which brings one back to health or vigor; here, she means the poison will restore her to her Romeo. But there is no poison on his lips.
She notices that his lips are yet warm. And then she hears the First Watchman outside the monument's doors. "Lead, boy. Which way?" Juliet realizes that there is very little time left - "Yea, noise? Then I'll be brief." She spies Romeo's dagger, and ironically calling it "O happy dagger!" - for it will transport her to Romeo's side - she snatches it. Referring to her body, she says, "This is thy sheath!" She stabs herself with Romeo's blade. Juliet's last dying words are, "There rust, and let me die."
Juliet is now dead.
The Page and the Watchman enter the mausoleum and see the dead bodies of Juliet, Romeo and Paris.
The Watchman makes a curious observation, that "Juliet bleeding, warm, and newly dead, / Who here hath lain these two days buried." Dead bodies don't bleed, and they are not warm two days after death and burial. The Watchman makes the pun that they see the physical ground, bloodied where these "woes" or dead are lying, but the true grounds or reason for these "woes" or death they cannot without evidence know.
The Second Watchman finds Balthasar and the Third Watchman finds the old Friar "...that trembles, sighs and weeps". The First Watchman tells his men to hold them both. The Prince arrives and ask what early misadventure has raised us so early from our beds? Hard on his heels, Lord and Lady Capulet arrive, along with many of Verona's citizenry, in confused states. Lord Capulet, "What should it be, that they so shriek abroad?" and Lady Capulet, "The people in the street cry Romeo, / Some Juliet, and some Paris; and all run, / With open outcry toward our monument."
Juliet's parents know nothing of their daughter's marriage to Romeo; they are not even aware that she knew him! And they think she has been dead for two days.
The First Watchman speaks to the Prince and shows him the dead bodies of Count Paris, Romeo, and Juliet, whom he mentions is "...dead before, / Warm and new killed." This, of course, raises a troubling question - she was "dead before" two days ago, yet still "warm and new killed" which implies she wasn't dead when she was buried two days ago, but was recently killed.
The Prince demands that the First Watchman, a sort of Elizabethan detective, seek out how the deaths occur. The First Watchman produces the Friar and Balthasar, with instruments on them to open the tombs.
Capulet examines his daughter's corpse and notices that she is bleeding from a dagger wound and angrily comments that it should have been sheathed, not in Juliet's bosom but in the back of Romeo.
Capulet says,
O heavens! O wife, look how our daughter bleeds!
This dagger hath mistaken - for, lo, his house
Is empty on the back of Montague, -
And it mis-sheathed in my daughter's bosom!
When Lady Capulet, sees her daughter's body, she says that the sight is an omen, like a death knell, warning her of old age and the grave.
"O me! This sight of death is as a bell,
That warns my old age to a sepulcher."
When Lord Montague arrives, the Prince greets him with a ironic pun:
"Come, Montague; for thou art early up,
To see thy son and heir more early down."
You are up early to see your son and heir too young (too early) to be dead.
Montague is haggard from his own night's grief, for during the night, his wife has died from a broken heart. "Grief of my son's exile hath stopped her breath..." In some productions her death is interpreted as a suicide - one area of the stage is lighted with Lady Montague, in a state of despair, taking pills or drinking poison or some other form of suicide. Perhaps Shakespeare intended her death to be interpreted as a heart attack. ROMEO and JULIET is meant to be interpreted and performed on stage and so each production will be unique, and reflecting the vision of each director and her/his actors.
Lord Montague asks,
"What further woe conspires against mine age?"
The Prince responds, apparently referring to the dead body of his son, Romeo,
"Look and thou shalt see."
Montague cries out in anguish,
"O thou untaught! What manners is in this?
To press before thy father to a grave?
He is calling Romeo rude, untaught, unschooled in manners, for dying and going to his grave before his father. It is the worst grief any parent can experience, the death of a child, for the common course of nature is that the parent dies before the child and it is a violence against nature for the child to die first. Many parents who have experienced this terrible tragedy say that this is not how it's supposed to be - "I was supposed to die first, not my child!"
The Prince counsels him to calm down for now, be patient while we try to clear up this mystery and know how this all came about - the perpetrators, and the cause - and then he will lead them all in their grief and pain, even to the point of death. In the meantime, let bad luck be the slave to patience. He then commands the officers to bring forth the men under suspicion: the Friar, Balthasar and Paris' page.
"Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while,
Till we can clear these ambiguities, (Ambiguities: mysterious, confusing things)
And know their spring, their head, their
true descent;
And then will I be general of your woes,
And lead you even to death; meantime forbear
And let mischance be slave to patience.
Bring forth the parties of suspicion."
The Friar stands before the Prince and says:
"I am the greatest, able to do least,
Yet most suspected, as the time and place
Doth make against me of this direful murder;
And here I stand, both to impeach and purge
Myself condemned and myself excused."
The Friar says that he is the one most guilty and yet the one least able to do anything; he is the one most suspicious for being here at this time and place of murder, and here he stands, ready to accuse himself and to excuse himself, condemned and exonerated.
Here the Friar reveals the great secret of their children, Romeo and Juliet, to their parents, who neither knew that their children knew each other or that they were in love and married.
What reactions and feelings do you think the parents must have in hearing:
"Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet;
And she, there dead, that Romeo's faithful wife...."
In some productions of this play, the Friar's long monologue, the exposition which explains to the parents what we, the audience, already knows, is cut. Shakespeare probably wanted to wrap this up fairly quickly - the audience has already witnessed these events during the past two hours - so the language is straight forward, to the point, concrete with little or no figurative language.
The Friar concludes with:
"And, if aught in this (Aught: anything)
Miscarried by my fault, let my old life
Be sacrificed, some hour before his time,
Unto the rigor of severest law."
If anything in this is my fault, then let my old life be sacrificed, before my natural death, according to the severest law.
The Prince replies that he has always been known as a good and holy man, and then he turns his attention to Romeo's man, Balthazar to offer additional, corroborating evidence.
Balthasar recounts what happened in Act 5, Scene 1 and the beginning of Scene 3: Balthasar told him of Juliet's death, and that Romeo immediately left Mantua for Verona by horse to arrive at this monument. Earlier, Romeo had given Balthasar a letter to give to his father, Lord Montague, and threatened him with death if he stayed and tried to intervene in anything he might see at the monument.
Balthasar hands the Prince the letter, which he says he will look at, and then he asks for Count Paris' page to tell him what made his master come to Juliet's grave.
The Page tells the Prince that the Count arrived with flowers to strew upon her grave, and made him stand apart while he grieved. Then, someone else arrived with a torch to open the tomb, and the Count drew his sword on him. At that point, the Page ran away to call the Watch.
The Prince is reading over Romeo's letter to his father and concludes that the letter corroborates what the Friar said. There is additional information that no one knew - not the Friar nor Balthasar - that Romeo bought poison from a poor apothecary to come to Juliet's grave to die. (It's ironic that they will probably arrest and execute the apothecary for selling Romeo the poison. The very thing the apothecary did not want to do, but was prevailed upon by Romeo who told him, "The world is not your friend!" Flaunt the world's laws, take my money - the true poison, not the poison you sell me - and be rich! For taking the money and daring to flaunt the world's unfair laws that victimized him, the apothecary will probably be hunted down and executed.)
The Prince then explodes in anger and calls forth Montague and Capulet:
"Where be these enemies? Capulet! Montague!
See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate, (Scourge: Curse)
That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.
And I for winking at your discords too
Have lost a brace of kinsmen: all are punished."
He admonishes them to see the curse that their hatred has brought upon them and that Heaven has found a way to kill their joys (their children) through the love their children had for each other, or it could also be interpreted that Heaven punished them by ordaining that their love for fighting would destroy their joys - their children. The Prince also says that he too has been punished by losing a great number of his kinsmen, by not punishing, but condoning their fighting. Because of this, everyone has been punished.
Capulet, overcome with grief, and perhaps, finally understanding the stupidity and immaturity of his actions, asks for Montague's hand, pledging his hand as Juliet's dowry (jointure), for he can ask for no more.
"O brother Montague, give me thy hand:
This is my daughter's jointure, for no more
Can I demand."
Montague responds with,
"But I can give thee more:
For I will raise her statue in pure gold;
That while Verona by that name is known,
There shall no figure at such rate be set
As that of true and faithful Juliet."
Montague replies that he can offer more - that he will commission a statue of Juliet made up of pure gold, and while Verona is known by the name of Verona, there shall be no better statue erected as that of honest and faithful Juliet.
Capulet counters with another offer:
"As rich shall Romeo's by his lady's lie;
Poor sacrifices of our enmity!"
He pledges that a golden statue of Romeo as rich as Juliet's shall be by her side, and then he laments that their children were the sacrifices the parents each paid for their feuds.
The Prince concludes with:
A glooming peace this morning with it brings; (Glooming: gloomy)
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head:
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things; (Hence: forward; away from here)
Some shall be pardoned, and some punished:
The Prince says that the morning has brought a peaceful gloom and the sun does not show its head out of sorrow. He commands everyone to leave, that there will be more discussion of these sad events, and that some shall be pardoned (probably the Friar) and some shall be punished. Although the Prince (and Juliet earlier in the play) says that the Friar has always been known as a holy man, we really don't know if he will be punished or not; the other likely person who might suffer some sort of punishment is the Nurse, but there is no way of knowing that either. The one who is the most likely to be punished - and severely - is the luckless Apothecary, but all of this is conjecture.
Personification:
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head.
The sun is given human characteristics; it does not have a head and it cannot show sorrow.
The Prince concludes with a couplet, two rhyming lines in iambic pentameter which end a sonnet, a scene, an act or a play.
"For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."
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