Month: November 2014

The play begins with a large fight between the Capulets and the Montagues, two prestigious families in Verona, Italy. These families have been fighting for quite some time, and the Prince declares that their next public brawl will be punished by death. When the fight is over, Romeo’s cousin Benvolio tries to cheer him of his melancholy. Romeo reveals that he is in love with a woman named Rosaline, but she has chosen to live a life of chastity. Romeo and Benvolio are accidentally invited to their enemy’s party; Benvolio convinces Romeo to go.
At the party, Romeo locks eyes with a young woman named Juliet. They instantly fall in love, but they do not realize that their families are mortal enemies. When they realize each other’s identities, they are devastated, but they cannot help the way that they feel. Romeo sneaks into Juliet’s yard after the party and proclaims his love for her. She returns his sentiments and the two decide to marry. The next day, Romeo and Juliet are married by Friar Lawrence; an event witnessed by Juliet’s Nurse and Romeo’s loyal servant, Balthasar. They plan to meet in Juliet’s chambers that nightRomeo visits his best friend Mercutio and his cousin Benvolio but his good mood is curtailed. Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt, starts a verbal quarrel with Romeo, which soon turns into a duel with Mercutio. Romeo tries to stop the fight but it is too late: Tybalt kills Mercutio. Romeo, enraged, retaliates by killing Tybalt. Once Romeo realizes the consequences of his actions, he hides at Friar Lawrence’s cell.
Friar Lawrence informs Romeo that he has been banished from Verona and will be killed if he stays. The Friar suggests Romeo spend the night with Juliet, then leave for Mantua in the morning. He tells Romeo that he will attempt to settle the Capulet and Montague dispute so Romeo can later return to a united family. Romeo takes his advice, spending one night with Juliet before fleeing Verona.
Juliet’s mother, completely unaware of her daughter’s secret marriage to Romeo, informs Juliet that she will marry a man named Paris in a few days. Juliet, outraged, refuses to comply. Her parents tell her that she must marry Paris and the Nurse agrees with them. Juliet asks Friar Lawrence for advice, insisting she would rather die than marry Paris. Fr. Lawrence gives Juliet a potion which will make her appear dead and tells her to take it the night before the wedding. He promises to send word to Romeo – intending the two lovers be reunited in the Capulet vault.
Juliet drinks the potion and everybody assumes that she is dead — including Balthasar, who immediately tells Romeo. Friar Lawrence’s letter fails to reach Romeo, so he assumes that his wife is dead. He rushes to Juliet’s tomb and, in deep grief, drinks a vial of poison. Moments later, Juliet wakes to find Romeo dead and kills herself due to grief. Once the families discover what happened, they finally end their bitter feud. Thus the youngsters’ deaths bring the families together. Romeo And Juliet is a true tragedy in the literary sense because the families gather sufficient self-knowledge to correct their behaviour but not until it is too late to save the situation..

1- PRESAGE
a sign of something about to happen
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
If I may trust the flattering truth sleep, My dreams presage some joyful news at hand

2- APOTHECARY
a health professional trained in the art of preparing and dispensing drugs
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
I do remember an apothecary, And hereabouts he dwells,–which late I noted.

3- PENURY
a state of extreme poverty or destitution
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
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 him.

4- POISON
any substance that causes injury or illness or death of a living organism
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
If a man did need a poison now,
Whose sale is present death in Mantua, Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him.

5- POVERTY
the state of having little or no money and few or no material possessions
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
My poverty, but not my will, consents.

6- INFECTiOUS
easily spread
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
The searchers of the town,
Suspecting that we both were in a house
Where the infectious pestilence did reign,
Seal’d up the doors, and would not let us forth.

7- ALOOF
remote in manner
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Give me thy torch, boy: hence, from and stand aloof.

8- APPROACH
come near or verge on, resemble, come nearer in quality, or character
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Thou shalt hear it: whistle then to me, As signal that thou hear’st something approach

9-STRAW
spread by scattering (“straw” is archaic)
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew.

10- INTENTS
an anticipated outcome that is intended or that guides your planned actions
EXAMPLE SENTENCE
The time and my intents are savage-wild, More fierce and more inexorable far Than empty tigers or the roaring sea.

11- INTEND
have in mind as a purpose
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
But if thou, jealous, dost return to pry
In what I further shall intend to do,
By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs

12- CONDEMN
demonstrate the guilt of (someone)
NOTES:
Note that Shakespeare is using it as an adjective here — Romeo has been condemned.
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee

13- NOBLE
having or showing or indicative of high or elevated character
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Mercutio’s kinsman, noble County Paris!

14- SLAUGHTER
kill (animals) usually for food consumption
NOTES:
Note that slaughter can also imply a senseless killing, rather than just for ‘food consumption.’
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
O no! a lantern, slaughter’d youth,
For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes This vault a feasting presence full of light.

15- WEARY
physically and mentally fatigued
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
O, here
Will I set up my everlasting rest,
And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars From this world- wearied flesh

16- MONUMENT
a structure erected to commemorate persons or events
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
It burneth in the Capel’s monument.

17- bRIEF
concise and succinct
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Yea, noise? then I’ll be brief.

18- RAISE
summon into action or bring into existence, often as if by magic
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Go, tell the prince: run to the Capulets: Raise up the Montagues: some others search,

19- SUSPICION

The state of being suspected

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
A great suspicion: stay the friar too.

20- SACRIFICED
the act of losing or surrendering something as a penalty for a mistake or fault or failure to perform etc.
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
If aught in this
Miscarried by my fault, let my old life
Be sacrificed, some hour before his time, Unto the rigour of severest law.