Teaching Romeo and Juliet to ESL Students in ... - learningdomain

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Shakespeare wants the audience to remember. In Romeo and Juliet there are even wholescenes in rhyming couplets to give a sense of completeness to the action. (McEvoy, 49)Students will notice rhyme in Shakespeare’s lines with a purpose. We find rhymewhen Mercutio is trying to tease Romeo on their way to the ball:Romeo: I dream’d a dream to-nightMercutio:And so did IRomeo: Well, what was yours?Mercutio: That dreamers often lie. (1.4.53-56)Shakespeare is not only using rhyme for dramatic effect but he is also using a sharedline between Romeo and Mercutio, which is difficult to play but sounds beautiful. Thereis also rhyme in Paris’ speech when he is telling Juliet that she will be his wife thatThursday:Paris: Happily met, my lady and my wife !Juliet: That may be, sir, when I may be a wife.Paris: That may be must be, love, on Thursday next.Juliet: What must be shall be. ( 4.1.18-21 )The rhyme is also mixed with a trochee, which is an alteration of the iambicpentameter pattern. This moment is very ironic since Paris does not know anything aboutwhat is happening between Romeo and Juliet. He is behaving very arrogant and therhyme here gives the play some ironic connotations. The audience has a right to laugh atParis for his lack of knowledge but the music of these lines makes it beautiful. As a lovestory, rhyme conveys the emotions of love in the play.ImageryStudents will also realize that in poetry and in the play the use of poetic language ispresent in some lines. Figurative language is another characteristic Shakespeare uses bymeans of the use of metaphors and images. The students should be aware of thecontribution of these devices to convey the meaning of what they are reading. Accordingto Caroline Spurgeon in her article “The Imagery of Romeo and Juliet ”, the mostremarkable images are those of light, sunlight and starlight, which convey the meaning oflove between the young lovers in a dark, artificial and superficial world. (72-78)For Juliet, Romeo is “day in night”. For Romeo, Juliet is “the sun rising from theeast”. We can ask our students to find these images and relate them to vocabularyactivities for the study of the play.Norrie Epstein claims that much of Shakespeare’s poetry relies upon oxymoron, thatis, two contradictory words together to make a striking expression, for example, “loving59
hate”. (320) We can ask our students to look for these opposed pairs of words in 1.1.167-72 in Romeo’s speech and Juliet has also a few in 3.2.75-79:Romeo:Juliet:Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love:Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate,O anything of nothing first create!O heavy lightness, serious vanity,Misshapen chaos of well-seeming formsFeather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health,Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!.Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical!Dove-feathered raven, wolvish-ravening lamb!Despisèd substance of divinest show!Just opposite to what thou justly seem’st,A damnèd saint, an honorable villain!These contradictory words in Romeo’s speech show how love confuses and may turnstability into chaos. However, in Juliet’s case, she learns that Tybalt is dead and startsaccusing Romeo of a beautiful appearance but acting vilely. A few lines below, sheshifts her mood and feelings to a high praise for Romeo.Oppositions, contrasts, and images are present in the play. Some of the images areassociated with death, night, and sex, so we will avoid to study them deeply at this stage.Students will study the play again in ninth grade, therefore, they will feel more mature todeal with the sexual meaning of some of these images:Juliet:Spread thy close curtain, love-performing nightThat runaways’ eyes may wink, and RomeoLeap to these arms untalked of and unseen. (3.2.5-7)While reading the playGive me my Romeo, and when he shall die,Take him and cut him out in little stars,And he will make the face of heaven so fineThat all the world will be in love with nightAnd pay no worship to the garish sun.Oh, I have bought the mansion of loveBut not possess’d it; and though I am soldNot yet enjoyed. (3.2.21-28 )Once students have learned about the background of the play, we can startstudying the play more in detail regarding the setting, the characters and the60
Page 2 and 3: We can benefit from Shakespeare’s
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Page 8 and 9: plot. First, I will prepare for stu
Page 10 and 11: For less able students, we can ask
Page 12 and 13: Procedures and Activities1. The tea
Page 14 and 15: Do your parents disagree with the r
Page 16 and 17: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHYWorks CitedBr
Page 18: A brief biography of the world’s

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