Really?
Smart People Can Make Connections—
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and the World Today and/or Experiences Faced by Teenager’s in Today’s Canadian Society.
CHALLENGE: Each group has to add to what was already stated by the previous groups.
Group 1
1. Having a parent figure in your life (as opposed to birth parents)
2. Keeping secrets from people you are close to.
Group 2 Additions…
3. Destroying bloodline—the issue of bloodline being a concern; family legacies being destroyed.
4. Showing mercy to somebody that does not show mercy themselves.
Group 3 Additions…
5. Pressure to appear a certain way: Capulet and Montague family image, Juliet’s chastity, Romeo’s masculinity
6. Parents corrupting children with hate.
Group 4 Additions…
7. Religious conflicts (To get this one, you have to get metaphor.)
8. Rebellion against parents
Group 5 Additions
9. Kids not wanting to disappoint their parents
10. Acting rashly and out of impulse does not end well
Group 6 Additions
11. Drugs as self-destructive
12. Noble, justified rebellion—going against society (rebelling against false authority to remain faithful to a true authority)
Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and the World Today and/or Experiences Faced by People in Today’s Canadian Society.
CHALLENGE: Each group has to add to what was already stated by the previous groups.
Group 1
1. There will always be people to comment and satirize others’ questionable decisions.
2. There will be people who hold power and status or crave power no matter their virtues.
3. People are still convicted and punished for crimes they never committed, or treated for illnesses they never had based on partial truths and stereotypes.
Group 2
4. Lady Olivia is a woman of power, and the empowerment of women is prominent in the media right now.
5. Donald Trump, as the president, is a “foolish wit.”
6. Alcoholism is still a thing.
7. Some of the notions behind cross-dressing are still there in present day.
8. There are still people who will go to great lengths to have somebody love them back.
9. People still forge letters.
10. People still take pranks too far.
Group 3
11. We have tons of media, such as novels, films and t.v shows, centered around identical twins posing as each other
12. Those who are mentally unstable are being treated properly in mental institutions.
13. Illyria echoed certain British cultural aspects much like how Canada, as a previous British colony, echoes certain British cultural aspects as well.
14. Comedians are professionals who make a living on the flaws of society by using word play and satirizing world events.
15. It is more acceptable to live in someone’s basement (Really?)
16. Certain people will hang around with people who are less intelligent than they are in order to feel or look superior.
Group 4
17. Social pressure: having to meet the standard of the class that you have been put into or failing e.g. fallen nobles.
18. Love triangles: conflict of love between three individuals e.g. Orsino, Olivia, and Cesario.
19. Rejection: not accepting the truth and persisting their intentions.
Group 5
20. Social class and hierarchy: stereotypes and labels
21. Clowns, fools, and entertainers (consultants and confidantes)
22. People will still cause trouble just to watch the chaos unfold.
Group 6
23. Art students know arts and speak different languages like knights (the ‘Renaissance man’ idea.)
24. Assumptions with a lack of facts (Antonio)
Final Words
(Viola) Do people still pretend to be something they’re not?
(Cesario) Do people still keep secret their attractions because they feel that verbalizing them would be wrong?
(Aguecheek) Do people still sound foolish when they mix up words?
(Viola and Sebastian) Do siblings still love each other?
(Malvolio) Do people still single other people out and mock them?