PLAFT Due Tuesday Week 6A

The play Romeo and Juliet should be studied by all teenagers as it contains important lessons about the consequences of not controlling one’s impulses. To what extent do you agree?


In your essay, consider how the audience is positioned to view the themes of love and conflict.

Due Tuesday Week 5 B

How is the audience positioned to consider the theme of love in Romeo and Juliet? Compare Mercutio, (1.4.96-103 & 2.4.72-75), Romeo (1.1.162-189 & 2.2.2-9 & 5.3.119-120) and Capulet’s (3.4.12-21) views on love, discussing what each of these male characters assumed about women.


Use full essay format (introduction, three body paragraphs, conclusion – all with TEEC paragraph structure) and evidence in the form of quotations. Ensure your thesis statement directly answers the question. Write your introduction and all three body paragraph topic sentences before writing the actual body paragraphs.

Example thesis:

“The audience is positioned to see the ‘reality’ of love (rather than a romanticised ideal or fantasy) through Mercutio, Romeo and Capulet’s differing views on the role of women and thus the importance of love.”

Due Tuesday Week Four

Romeo is variously characterised as virtuous (Capulet 1.5.66-67), melodramatic (Montague 1.1.122-133; Mercutio 1.4.53-103 & 2.1.1-43), lustful (Friar Lawrence 2.3.66-68; Mercutio 2.4.72-75), rash (Friar Lawrence 2.3.94), submissive (Mercutio 3.1.66), vile (Juliet 3.2.73-84), and womanish (Friar Lawrence 3.3.109-112). N.B. these are only examples, there other ways of looking at his character.


Make a decision about how Romeo is presented in the play, then explain the effect this has on audiences. Are we positioned to like Romeo? To despise him? To feel sorry for him?

Justify your view of Romeo by using at least 10 examples of things that other characters say about him. Try to integrate words and short phrases into your own sentences instead of using long quotations.

Due Tuesday Week 3

Juliet is 13 years old at the time of the play, and Romeo is assumed to be about 16. What EFFECT does the age of the main characters have on modern audiences?

In your response, refer to both:
• characterisation (the way that characters are presented to readers), and
• assumptions about Venetian social values (things that Venetians accept as ‘right’, ‘proper’ and ‘normal’, but may be very different to modern VABs).

Write at least one page in your English notebook - no typed responses (The exam requires handwriting so you should practice this way).

DUE TUESDAY WEEK 2 - R&J Question One

The play 'Romeo and Juliet' seems to be built around oppositions.

E.g.:

• The plot:             Montagues Vs Capulets.
• The language:     Antitheses (opposing words near each other in lines of text. E.g. ancient / new in line 3 of the prologue).

Using just the Prologue of the play, suggest a reason why Shakespeare chose to use so many oppositions. Your response should be a TEEC paragraph, at least half a page, and should be handwritten in your notebook - no typing. You must use at least one quotation from the prologue.

Femininity in Women's Magazines Survey

Email this link to your friends and family, and also complete the survey yourself. Click here to take survey We will look at the results on FRIDAY (Week 2). You may also like to share this link on Facebook.

Link for sending via email:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RWRZV3W

Link for posting on Facebook pages: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RWMHBS7

Due Tuesday Week 2

Complete the collaborative Google Docs project for women in different eras (instructions on Blackboard):

• you need to create 5 slides with your partner (image + caption)
• one slide per question
• stay focused on how femininity is represented.

Once your presentation is complete, post the link on your blogs. You should embed the HTML code from Google Docs.

To get this code, open up your presentation and click the little arrow next to the SHARE button (top right), and select  "Publish / embed". Go ahead an publish the presentation, and a new window will come up with the HTML code in the box at the bottom. Select and copy this code.

In blogger, make a new post and select the "Edit HTML" tab next to compose. Then simply paste the code and publish your post.

This is what it will look like: