"Do you believe that fate is inescapable, or that people forge their own lives?" This is the essential question at the heart of Romeo and Juliet, according to the narrator of a series on Shakespeare's tragedy. Short but dense, the video presents viewers with the complexity of the play and urges them to ponder, posit, and support their own interpretation with evidence from the text.

Concepts

tragedies, william shakespeare

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Additional Tags

william shakespeare, tragedy, english language arts

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Classroom Considerations

• This video is hosted on YouTube

Pros

• The narrator models supporting an analysis and interpretation with lines from the play
• The questions the narrator presents at the end of the video make great prompts for writing
• Viewers are encouraged to post responses to the video on the site.

 

Cons

• Preview to ensure the commentary and asides are appropriate for your classroom
• The esoteric nature of the discussion and the rapid pace may overwhelm some viewers
• The captions include material not found in the commentary