Attached you will find a pdf labeled Paper Topics, you can choose any that deem fit for you. I choose Antigone because it seems the easiest, if you want to do another - please let me know and I will provide you with what you need. You will also find the a

When you read Romeo and Juliet, you may feel that you know the play already: you may have read it in high school, and the basic story is famous. I’m here to say that the play is stranger and more interesting than its reputation, and that it is worth a second (or a third or fourth) look. Please read the play and try to watch at least one version of it. A very good version, free on YouTube, is the 2019 Globe Theatre production. It is only about 90 minutes . . . (it makes cuts). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFBWXRqa7Gs For movie versions of Romeo and Juliet, I recommend the 1968 Zeferelli film (this contains some brief nudity) or the 1996 film with Clare Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio (also contains some nudity). The 1996 film is modernized and takes liberties with Shakespeare’s text. Hungry for more videos? Scroll down; there you will find more scenes. I will play some of them in class. But meanwhile, let’s talk about sonnets, those 14-line poems that have at least one turn in them. When Shakespeare was writing Romeo and Juliet, he was also writing sonnets. In the play, two sonnets appear at the start of Act 1 and Act 2, when the chorus speaks. The chorus drops out after Act 2, but the sonnet haunts the play. At one point, Mercutio speaks of Petrarch, an Italian poet famous for writing sonnets. And there are other hidden sonnets in the play. For example, in the dance scene in Act 1, Scene 5, Romeo and Juliet create a sonnet when they talk to each other:

ROMEO If I profane with my unworthiest hand This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. JULIET Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, Which mannerly devotion shows in this; For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch, And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss. ROMEO Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too? JULIET Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer. ROMEO O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do; They pray—grant thou, lest faith turn to despair. JULIET Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake. ROMEO Then move not, while my prayer’s effect I take. [Kiss.]

Beyond sonnets, what makes Romeo and Juliet extraordinary is how Shakespeare changed the story. As you may or may not know, few plots of Shakespeare are original; his originality stems from how he adapted stories and from his poetry. There are many versions of the Romeo and Juliet story that come before Shakespeare. One shocking thing about Shakespeare’s version is how young Juliet is. How young is she, and why is she so young? I will ask you that question in class. For now, I will simply say that Shakespeare’s Juliet is by far the youngest in all versions. For Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s main source was Arthur Brooke’s poem The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet. At the start of his poem, Brooke summarizes the plot with a sonnet, which I supply below along with the main differences between Shakespeare’s version and Brooke’s version. In class, I will ask you why Shakespeare changed the story, and what difference it makes that he made those changes.

If you have time, watch some scenes from the play that are available on YouTube: Dance scene (with extra song) from the Zeferelli film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp-BUn0Asjc Balcony scene from the Zeferelli film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q3Y9223kSI Perhaps the best stage version, and the most complete, is the 2009 production from the Globe Theatre; some of the scenes are available for free. Opening scene (Act 1, Scene 1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NL2_19YrQQ Dance Scene (Act 1, Scene 5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj6ihSxv5Ts Sonnet Dance (Act 1, Scene 5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6baK-km5gFA Benvolio and Mercutio (Act 2, Scene 1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dhJFMvlcAs&list=PLWr4aeJbanIkjD7Tz7e6r5lbXlWx0Bj 55&index=12 Nurse tells Juliet about Romeo (Act 2, Scene 5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4XGVFuUIJ0 Lark and Nightingale (Act 3, Scene 5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FFGrm_MYv0 Juliet before she takes the potion (Act 4, Scene 3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bb2lICAr9Q Juliet’s fake death (Act 4, Scene 5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WiVaQheUfE