The Make It Fun Guide to Romeo and Juliet is designed to make the play clear and understandable, and to help it come alive to today's reader. This in-depth guide to Romeo and Juliet includes a biography of Shakespeare, a presentation of the Elizabethan "worldview," a discussion of Shakespeare's use of language, as well as detailed analyses of characters, plot, themes, imagery, and the language of the play. This guide also includes a set of strategies for reading Shakespeare effectively. Since movies are such an important part of today's culture, films based on Romeo and Juliet are also discussed. Finally, this guide presents a wide variety of activities to make experiencing Romeo and Juliet interactive, engaging, and educational.
Whether you are a student, a teacher, a lover of Shakespeare productions, or someone who would like to develop a better understanding and appreciation of Shakespeare, this book, and the Shakespeare Make It Fun series, were developed with you in mind. Shakespeare's plays continue to be the most-often staged plays in the world, and scarcely a year passes without another major Hollywood film based on a Shakespeare play. In spite of Shakespeare's continuing popularity, too often he is presented as difficult and overly serious-many people miss the humor and playfulness that abounds in his work.
This guide is designed to help readers of Shakespeare and viewers of his plays engage with his work both as seen from within its setting in Renaissance England and from a modern perspective.