Applying SOAPSTone Literary Analysis to Romeo and Juliet

1.  Subject:  What is (briefly) happening in your assigned scene?
2.  Occasion:  All writers are influenced by the larger occasion: an environment of ideas, attitudes, and emotions that swirl around a broad issue. What are the rhetorical occasions in your scene?  Are there visions, memories, debates, monologues,  jesting, and/or fighting within your scene?
3.  Audience:  To whom is this scene directed?  Who was the audience of Shakespeare's plays?
4.  Purpose:  Why do you think Shakespeare included this scene in the play?  What is the purpose of the scene in the larger context of the play as a whole?
5.  Speaker:  The voice that tells the story.  Which characters are in your scene and what are their roles in the scene.  In their dialogue, what literary devices and figurative language do you notice? Describe them!  Metaphors, similes, hyperbole, personification?  Irony?  Symbolism?
6.  Tone:  What is the attitude or vibe of the scene?  Is it humorous, suspenseful, gloomy, exciting, or a combination of both?  (Later in your essay, you will comment on how you've interpreted and even changed the tone in your re-creation of the scene.)

Journal #26: Contrasting the Text and the Film

In two or more paragraphs, discuss the differences you notice between the film version and the text of Romeo and Juliet, paying specific attention to the setting, characterization, plot, additions, and deletions.  Due on Thursday, April 7.

Friday 4/1: Final Group Project Work Session

1.  Exchange phone numbers/email addresses.
2.  Choose a note-taker for the day.
3.  Review your scene.  What is the tone of the scene?  In what way(s) might you change the tone?
4.  Brainstorm various potential settings of the scene. (Take notes.)
5.  Brainstorm different roles each group members might take.  Who is going to do what?  (Take notes.)
6.  Decide if you will re-write the scene, and how you might do that.
7.  Plan a meeting time either during lunch and/or after school next week.

Romeo and Juliet Update 3/29

Make sure you have read through Act IV, Scene 4, and be prepared for Quiz on Acts II/III.  Study Guide should be complete through Act III. 

Romeo and Juliet Update

For those who have been absent, we are currently up to Act III, Scene 2.  Please stay up to date with both reading and Study Guide during your absence.  

Journal #25: Act II Prologue Translation

Please paraphrase the Prologue of Act II in your own words that you can understand.

Journal #24: "Old vs. Young" in Act I of Romeo and Juliet

The theme of conflict between the old and the young runs throughout the entire play.  In one paragraph, describe what you have seen of that theme so far in the play.  In what ways are are the old and the young in conflict with each other?  (1 paragraph = 5 points)

Romeo and Juliet 3/8/11

In class today, we read through Act I, Scene 2 and completed Study Guide Questions.

Journal #23: Prologue of Romeo and Juliet

In your journal, open to page 13, translate "The Prologue" of Romeo and Juliet into your own words. 

(5 points)