Introduction
William Shakespeare is one of the most famous playrights in history. His plays are sitll read and performed to this day all around the world and studied by high school students everywhere in the country.
However, the world of his plays can be hard to comprehend because the world he lived in was so different from the world we see today. Understanding more of that world will help us to gain a better understanding of the play that we will read as well as the characters in it.
Task
To begin our study of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet you will be researching online the life and times of the author. You will be provided with the websites and questions that you need to answer form each site. Working with a partner, you will have two class periods to complete this assignment.
Process
Shakespeare's Life
Click http://www.bardweb.net/man.html
1. How much do we know about Shakespeare's life? Why?
2. Where was Shakespeare born?
3. What date was he born on?
4. Did Shakespeare ever get married? If so, to whom?
5. Shakespeare established himself as an ____________ and _________________
6. What day did he die? What is unusual about this date?
7. What did he leave his wife in his will?
Religion
Click here http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/religion-elizabethan-england.htm to answer these questions
8. What were the two major religions in Elizabethan England?
9. Who dictated the favored religion?
10. Which Monarchs reigned during this time? When?
11. Which religion did each Monarch believe in?
12. How did each Monarch treat those who did not follow their favored religion?
http://www.musesrealm.net/writings/shakespeareengland.html
13. Why did Queen Elizabeth I ban all performances of religious plays and stories?
Elizabethan Period
Click here http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-period.htm to answer these questions
14. What was the Elizabethan Period?
15. When was this period?
16. What was the most significant invention of this time and why?
17. What did this lead to a renewed interest in?
18. During this period, what were unexplained events blamed on?
19. Why were people of this period superstitious?
http://classweb.gmu.edu/rnanian/humours.html
20. What were the four humors and what were they associated with?
Click here http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-clothing.htm to answer this question
21. How was Elizabethan class structure maintained?
http://schoolworkhelper.net/2010/08/the-chain-of-being-shakespeare/
22. What was the Chain of Being and what did it uphold?
Elizabethan Education
Click here http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/ideas/boys.html
24. What did education depend on?
25. What was the main purpose of schooling?
26. Why were students taught Latin?
Click here http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/ideas/girls.html
27. What were girls from wealthy families educated in?
Click here http://elizabethan.org/compendium/54.html
29. Why were courses in university conducted in Latin?
Elizabethan Theatre
Click http://www.britainexpress.com/History/elizabethan-theatre.htm to answer these questions.
30. What was the general feeling towards plays during this period in time?
31. What was the name of the first theatre?
32. What was the name of them most famous theatre?
33. What happened to this theatre?
34. Where did people sit or not sit?
35. When did they have performances? Why?
36. How many women performed in these plays?
37. What did the audience do if they didn't like the performance?
Shakespeare's Influence
Click here http://www.musesrealm.net/writings/shakespeareengland.html to answer these questions
38. What does Shakespeare's work provide reference for?
39. What were Shakespeare's histories a tribute to?
40. What was Shakespeare attempting to do with these tributes?
Click http://www.shakespeare-online.com/faq/influencefaq.html to answer these questions.
41. How many words did Shakespeare invent?
42. Give an example of a word or phrase we have gotten from Shakespeare.
43. Name one poet who was influenced by Shakespeare.
Elizabethan Love and Marriage
Click on these links to find the answers to the following questions http://www.elizabethan.org/compendium/9.html
http://www.elizabethan.org/compendium/10.html
http://www.elizabethan.org/compendium/62.html
44. At what age may a boy and girl marry, and at what age is marriage for non-noble families common?
45. When marriage is arranged for a younger couple, what is the usual reason?
46. When is it considered luckiest to have a marriage?
47. How is a wedding engagement announced, and what is thought of an unannounced wedding?
48. Marrying for love is generally considered what?
49. Why are the noble marriages arranged, and even some common people marriages?
Shakespearean Insults
Click on the link and create 4 of your own Shakespearean insults and write them below using the following formula:
“Thou” + Column 1 +Column 2+ Column 3 “!”
http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/shake_rule.html
1.
2.
3.
4.
Now, through your own Internet search of the definitions of the Shakespearean terms, write what each insult means.
Evaluation
Your evaluation will be the completion of the question packet.
Conclusion
Now that you have a better understanding of the life and times of William Shakespeare, you will have a better understanding of his writings and will be able to follow and enjoy Romeo and Juliet in a while new way.