Romeo and Juliet Activities: Language (KS3)

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Here you can find resources designed around the 2019 Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank production of Romeo and Juliet. Created for young people, students are able to follow along with the production online on the Globe's dedicated Romeo and Juliet microsite.

If students are new to the play, we suggest you start with these introductory Key Stage 3 Lesson Plans. If you would like to teach the play in greater detail, we recommend you use the advanced activities which can be found in the Key Stage 4 or Key Stage 5 areas.

We will be updating this section week by week, so be sure to check back for more activities soon. 

Read the article, 'Love and Hate in Romeo and Juliet', by Chris Nayak. Chris highlights two major speeches in which the title characters express themselves using oxymora. Let's look at these in more detail.

Divide a page in half and create a table with two headings: Romeo and Juliet

Start with Romeo's speech in Act 1, Scene 1, lines 168-174. List all the oxymora that he uses. Ask for definitions of any words that are new to you. At this point in the play, who is Romeo talking about? What is causing Romeo to feel this way?  Add this explanation underneath your list. Select three of the oxymora and illustrate them. Annotate your illustrations with all the connotations you can think of linked to each word.

Now look at Juliet's speech in Act 3, Scene 2, lines 73-85. List all the oxymora that she uses.

Who is Juliet talking about here? At this point in the play, what two types of love that Juliet feels are in conflict? Add this explanation underneath your list. Select three of the oxymora and illustrate them. Annotate your illustrations with all the connotations you can think of linked to each word.

Now that you have your lists, explanations and annotated illustrations, compare Romeo and Juliet's use of oxymora. Are there any patterns you can spot? (Hint: look at light and darkness, religious images, nature) Whose oxymora are ‘stronger’, or better at conveying their conflicted emotions? Why? Think about the last time you felt conflicted about something. Try to create three oxymora to describe how you felt. Chris makes the point that oxymora are the perfect way to capture how you feel when you're young. How much do you agree?

Return to Chris’ article, and consider: without the hate in the play, would Romeo and Juliet love each other as much?

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