i am trying to help my son with his G.C.S.E coursework. shakespeares, romeo and juliet. HELPplease?

Question

he is really struggling to complete this work and i have never studied Shakespeare so am struggling to help him, is it a violent tragedy or a love story, how does he put these 2 elements together to impact on the audience, i just need a bit of insight really as feel at a loss to help him on this one, thanks in advance for any answers

Answer 1

Sparknotes.com is a lifesaver. I had to take a British Lit class, and I would have never made it without sparknotes. They have great summaries, study questions, key terms, etc. I know they definately have Shakespeare on there. Good Luck.

Answer 2

You are right. the play is both a violent tragedy and a love story. You could put it like this: the play could be seen as a comedy up to the point when Mercutio is killed. The scenes are well constructed. The family feud is shown with a riot, then dialogues between Romeo's friends (Mercutio and Benvolio) are humorous and the two take the mickey out of Romeo for being a dreamer. They are also adventurous enough to attend a ball givenby their family's greatest enermy which leads to the famous balcony scene. The high point of the comedy is Mercutio's "Queen Mab speech". Then comes Tybalt who kills Mercutio in a sword fight.
After that, the love story develops with help from Juliet's nurse and from Friar Lawrence. Unfortunately, right at the end of the play, the lovers misunderstand what is taking place and both kill themselves - the violent tragedy - with the moral ending that the family elders' feud is to blame.

Answer 3

Try sparknotes.com they have a lot of stuff on Shakespeare. But Romeo&Juliet is both a love story and a tragedy. Just look at the part where Romeo kills himself because he thinks Juliet is dead, and she isn't actually dead and then she kills herself. I had to read the play in ninth grade and hated it. I prefered The Tempest and A Mid Summer's night's Dream myself.

Answer 4

First and foremost u must try and lay ur hands on the CDs of these Shakespeare's work then u will understand how to go abt it and moreover it will become interesting if u have the course in the visual form

Answer 5

http://nfs.sparknotes.com/romeojuliet/page_76.html

This site gives the orginal text plus a side-by-side version in modern English. Major help for me. Hope it helps you guys!

Answer 6

www.clicknotes.com/romeo/MiscLessonPlans.html
www.123helpme.com/preview.asp?id=3596
redorbit.com/news/education/693138/.../index.html
www.bookrags.com/essay/Romeo_and_Juliet
www.123helpme.com/preview.asp?id=430