Category: Shakespeare studies

Please write 2 journal entires following my instructions based on Romeo and Juliet:
I will attach the instructions and examples of how it should be written.
Two options for the first page:
1) Textbased: Metaphor, like a pun, brings two things together that aren’t meant to be together–so it’s a particularly relevant literary technique for Romeo and Juliet, a play about two people brought together who are meant to stay apart according to social expectation. For a text based entry: Choose a particularly significant speech or exchange in the first act and analyze how it makes meaningful use of metaphor. The prologue, Mercutio’s Queen Mab speech in 1.4, Romeo and Juliet’s first kiss in 1.5, Juliet’s meditation on love, language, and time in 2.1, the Friar’s first speech in 2.2 or his wedding speech in 2.5, and Juliet’s
“Gallop apace” epithalamium are all especially charged moments to think about. Why does a given metaphor emerge at a given moment? Does it connect to other figurative uses of language in the play? What seems particularly ambiguous and/or meaningful about it? (Relatedly, how is a metaphor shaped by a speech that unfolds in very formal verse form, such as a sonnet—see the prologue, and Romeo and Juliet’s first kiss.)
2) Film-based: Metaphor is about movement; the word derives from the Greek for “transfer” or “carry across.” But for a more film focused journal entry this week, focus on something static: a single frame in Luhrmann’s film. Develop a close reading of a single frame in the scene you choose for your textual analysis; reproduce the frame in your entry (you may screen shot it), and give the time. Try to come up with a claim about the significance of the compositional elements in that single frame for the film’s vision of some thematic/characterological/linguistic concern in that scene or in the play more generally. (You might want to think about focus, mise-en-scène, camera angle, lighting, costume, bodily expressions). See the “Writing about Film” handout (at the top of our Moodle page) for tips and example of analyzing a frame.
Choose the text-focused or film-focused prompt, or you might do an entry that focuses on both metaphor and a frame.
For the 2nd page:
Three potential topics :
1) Text-focused: analyze the significance of the Friar in Romeo and Juliet (as more than just an instrument of the plot), with a particular focus on his language. What importance does he seem to have in the play, and what is important about how he speaks with characters?
Film-focused: analyze how the Friar is depicted in one or both of our films. Soundtrack and camera angle are especially interesting when considering the Friar’s presentation; montage too, if you’re looking at Luhrmann’s depiction of his plot with Juliet especially. You can attend to a speech in one scene, or a pattern within his language and action that connects a few moments–but remember to explicate textual and filmic details.
Choose the text focused of film-focused prompt, or do an entry that blends textual and film analysis.
***
2) Analyze Juliet’s long speech before she takes the Friar’s potion.
***
3) Analyze the relationship between love and death in the double death that concludes the play.
Text-focused: develop an account of how Romeo and Juliet conceive of death and their relation to it in one or both of their final speeches; you might consider metaphor, form of address, tone, or rhythm.
Film-focused: think about the relationship between the death-focused language of one of their speeches and the cinematographic details in one of the film versions that we have at our disposal. This would be a particularly apt moment to focus your film analysis on lighting; camera angle and movement; depth of field (https://www.youtube.com/watchv=V5AWJezSMi8&list=PLCEc4eMTXqNoQNLvq35US5f8G4G_7RnkV&index=14&t=0s), especially in Private Romeo; and/or soundtrack, especially in Lurhmann with its dramatic use of Richard Wagner’s “Liebestod” from Tristan und Isolde).
So overall just 1 page for each entry, feel free to pick whichever ones you think you can do the best. The entries are supposed to be 300 words each but I didn’t know how to select that option so try to get as close as possible if you can, if not I totally understand. Attached to this is how the prof wants u to write it.

Please write 2 journal entires following my instructions based on Romeo and Juliet:
I will attach the instructions and examples of how it should be written.
Two options for the first page:
1) Textbased: Metaphor, like a pun, brings two things together that aren’t meant to be together–so it’s a particularly relevant literary technique for Romeo and Juliet, a play about two people brought together who are meant to stay apart according to social expectation. For a text based entry: Choose a particularly significant speech or exchange in the first act and analyze how it makes meaningful use of metaphor. The prologue, Mercutio’s Queen Mab speech in 1.4, Romeo and Juliet’s first kiss in 1.5, Juliet’s meditation on love, language, and time in 2.1, the Friar’s first speech in 2.2 or his wedding speech in 2.5, and Juliet’s
“Gallop apace” epithalamium are all especially charged moments to think about. Why does a given metaphor emerge at a given moment? Does it connect to other figurative uses of language in the play? What seems particularly ambiguous and/or meaningful about it? (Relatedly, how is a metaphor shaped by a speech that unfolds in very formal verse form, such as a sonnet—see the prologue, and Romeo and Juliet’s first kiss.)
2) Film-based: Metaphor is about movement; the word derives from the Greek for “transfer” or “carry across.” But for a more film focused journal entry this week, focus on something static: a single frame in Luhrmann’s film. Develop a close reading of a single frame in the scene you choose for your textual analysis; reproduce the frame in your entry (you may screen shot it), and give the time. Try to come up with a claim about the significance of the compositional elements in that single frame for the film’s vision of some thematic/characterological/linguistic concern in that scene or in the play more generally. (You might want to think about focus, mise-en-scène, camera angle, lighting, costume, bodily expressions). See the “Writing about Film” handout (at the top of our Moodle page) for tips and example of analyzing a frame.
Choose the text-focused or film-focused prompt, or you might do an entry that focuses on both metaphor and a frame.
For the 2nd page:
Three potential topics :
1) Text-focused: analyze the significance of the Friar in Romeo and Juliet (as more than just an instrument of the plot), with a particular focus on his language. What importance does he seem to have in the play, and what is important about how he speaks with characters?
Film-focused: analyze how the Friar is depicted in one or both of our films. Soundtrack and camera angle are especially interesting when considering the Friar’s presentation; montage too, if you’re looking at Luhrmann’s depiction of his plot with Juliet especially. You can attend to a speech in one scene, or a pattern within his language and action that connects a few moments–but remember to explicate textual and filmic details.
Choose the text focused of film-focused prompt, or do an entry that blends textual and film analysis.
***
2) Analyze Juliet’s long speech before she takes the Friar’s potion.
***
3) Analyze the relationship between love and death in the double death that concludes the play.
Text-focused: develop an account of how Romeo and Juliet conceive of death and their relation to it in one or both of their final speeches; you might consider metaphor, form of address, tone, or rhythm.
Film-focused: think about the relationship between the death-focused language of one of their speeches and the cinematographic details in one of the film versions that we have at our disposal. This would be a particularly apt moment to focus your film analysis on lighting; camera angle and movement; depth of field (https://www.youtube.com/watchv=V5AWJezSMi8&list=PLCEc4eMTXqNoQNLvq35US5f8G4G_7RnkV&index=14&t=0s), especially in Private Romeo; and/or soundtrack, especially in Lurhmann with its dramatic use of Richard Wagner’s “Liebestod” from Tristan und Isolde).
So overall just 1 page for each entry, feel free to pick whichever ones you think you can do the best. The entries are supposed to be 300 words each but I didn’t know how to select that option so try to get as close as possible if you can, if not I totally understand. Attached to this is how the prof wants u to write it.

For this assignment you will attend a live performance of either Fat HamLinks to an external site. at Seattle Rep, running Apr. 12-May12, 2024, OR the UW School of Drama’s production of The Adding MachineLinks to an external site., running May 23-Jun2 2, 2024, and write a professional style performance review about the production.
Performance Review Submission Guidelines
Performance reviews should be written in clear, effective prose. Reviews should emphasize analysis of the production with a minimum of plot summary (no plot summary is necessary for often produced, well-known plays). The review might address the significance of production vis-à-vis its historical moment, performers, director, design, playwright, style, or its audience. A review might consider a play’s production values or emphasize the importance of a performance event with regard to its cultural, political, or historical context.
Length: Reviews should run 800-1000 words in length. A word count should be provided at the top of the first page. Reviews exceeding these word counts will generally be returned to the author for revision. This can delay the publication of the review.
Format:
Reviews should be double-spaced, on 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper. Indent each new paragraph. Do not include extra spaces between paragraphs
Review Headings: Type heading double-spaced. Type the play title in BOLDFACE CAPS, followed by the playwrights’ name, and the name of the director. Next, type the production company’s name, name of the theatre, city, state or country, and the date the production was seen (day, month, year). Follow this example:
UNCLE VANYA. By Anton Chekhov. Directed by Janis Benny. Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Angus Bowmer Theatre, Ashland, OR. 12 August 1998.
Review Signatures: Type your name in BOLDFACE CAPS at the end of the review, with your institution, position, or place of residence italicized below. Set these two lines against the right-hand margin, thus:
JULIA A. WALKER
Washington University in St. Louis
Stylistic Matters: Italicize play titles throughout the text. Refer to yourself in the first person, not as “the reviewer” or “this writer.” Avoid quotation marks and italics except where absolutely necessary. Remain as consistent in tense as good sense permits, remembering that the production may be closed by the time your review appears. Proofread your draft carefully, paying special attention to correct spelling of proper names and titles.
(Examples of professional reviews of live in-person performances are posted in the “Sample Performance Reviews” folder under “Files” on Canvas)
The files are examples

For this assignment you will attend a live performance of either Fat HamLinks to an external site. at Seattle Rep, running Apr. 12-May12, 2024, OR the UW School of Drama’s production of The Adding MachineLinks to an external site., running May 23-Jun2 2, 2024, and write a professional style performance review about the production.
Performance Review Submission Guidelines
Performance reviews should be written in clear, effective prose. Reviews should emphasize analysis of the production with a minimum of plot summary (no plot summary is necessary for often produced, well-known plays). The review might address the significance of production vis-à-vis its historical moment, performers, director, design, playwright, style, or its audience. A review might consider a play’s production values or emphasize the importance of a performance event with regard to its cultural, political, or historical context.
Length: Reviews should run 800-1000 words in length. A word count should be provided at the top of the first page. Reviews exceeding these word counts will generally be returned to the author for revision. This can delay the publication of the review.
Format:
Reviews should be double-spaced, on 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper. Indent each new paragraph. Do not include extra spaces between paragraphs
Review Headings: Type heading double-spaced. Type the play title in BOLDFACE CAPS, followed by the playwrights’ name, and the name of the director. Next, type the production company’s name, name of the theatre, city, state or country, and the date the production was seen (day, month, year). Follow this example:
UNCLE VANYA. By Anton Chekhov. Directed by Janis Benny. Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Angus Bowmer Theatre, Ashland, OR. 12 August 1998.
Review Signatures: Type your name in BOLDFACE CAPS at the end of the review, with your institution, position, or place of residence italicized below. Set these two lines against the right-hand margin, thus:
JULIA A. WALKER
Washington University in St. Louis
Stylistic Matters: Italicize play titles throughout the text. Refer to yourself in the first person, not as “the reviewer” or “this writer.” Avoid quotation marks and italics except where absolutely necessary. Remain as consistent in tense as good sense permits, remembering that the production may be closed by the time your review appears. Proofread your draft carefully, paying special attention to correct spelling of proper names and titles.
(Examples of professional reviews of live in-person performances are posted in the “Sample Performance Reviews” folder under “Files” on Canvas)
The files are examples

Write an essay in the third person comparing Shakespeare’s Othello with that of Girardi’s Hecatommithi and Boccaccio’s Decameron using textual and contextual influences. Make sure to use contextual influences that directly relate to Renaissance conceptions of race and gender. Try and make an inductive argument that includes lines from Shakespeare’s Othello. Also, consider how dramatic form influences the work. You will want to include five reputable academic and peer reviewed sources to support your comparisons and argument.