Kicking off your Shakespeare unit in a way that engages your students can be a challenge, but one sure way to heighten intrigue and prompt deeper analysis is to apply a critical lens. Critical approaches can increase student engagement by bringing a play in conversation with modern
social issues and igniting meaningful discussion. With themes such as violence, class, racialized beauty standards, and the consequences of generational hatred, Romeo and Juliet is chock full of opportunities for critical engagement.
One of the juiciest themes to explore in Romeo and Juliet is the concept of gender. Gender roles and expectations affect every character in the story, and applying this lens gets even more interesting when we invite in modern interpretations that play with these centuries-old ideas. Here we have compiled resources that support teaching Romeo and Juliet with a focus on gender including key quotes, discussion questions, activity ideas, outside resources, and contemporary connections. Use what feels most appropriate for your students. If you have any ideas on this topic or would like to share how you have incorporated the theme of gender in your Romeo and Juliet lesson plan, please email us at info@myshakespeare.com!
Quotes
Use these quotes to prompt discussion, practice critical analysis, or lay the foundation for a final project or writing assignment.
1. 1. 14-17
Sampson
True, and therefore women, being the weaker vessels,
are ever thrust to the wall. Therefore I will push
Montague's men from the wall, and thrust his maids
to the wall.
1.1.210-217
Romeo
O she is rich in beauty, only poor
That when she dies, with beauty dies her store.
Benvolio
Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste?
Romeo
She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste,
For beauty starved with her severity
Cuts beauty off from all posterity.
She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair,
To merit bliss by making me despair.
1.2.7-12
Capulet
But saying o'er what I have said before:
My child is yet a stranger in the world;
She hath not seen the change of fourteen years.
Let two more summers wither in their pride,
Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.
Paris
Younger than she are happy mothers made.
1.3.71-75
Lady Capulet
Well, think of marriage now. Younger than you
Here in Verona, ladies of esteem,
Are made already mothers. By my count,
I was your mother much upon these years
That you are now a maid.
1.3.89-90
Lady Capulet
This precious book of love, this unbound lover,
To beautify him, only lacks a cover.
1.4.90-92
This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,
That presses them and learns them first to bear,
Making them women of good carriage.
1.5.80
Capulet
You will set cock-a-hoop, you'll be the man!
2.2.4-9
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.
Be not her maid since she is envious.
Her vestal livery is but sick and green,
And none but fools do wear it. Cast it off.
*Pop-up note at line 8: In this line, Shakespeare is referencing a condition that, in modern times, we refer to as hyperchromic anemia. This condition, which was called the Green Sickness in Shakespeare's day, results in the skin appearing pale and green because the person lacks enough red blood cells to give skin its healthy color. In Shakespeare's time, it was often associated with virginity because physicians at the time believed the disease to uniquely affect young, unmarried women. Diana was the goddess of chastity, which is why Shakespeare describes "vestal," or virginal, livery as "sick and green."
3.3.86-89
Nurse
Even so lies she,
Blubb'ring and weeping, weeping and blubb'ring.
Stand up, stand up, stand an you be a man.
For Juliet's sake, for her sake, rise and stand.
3.3.108-112
Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art.
Thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts denote
The unreasonable fury of a beast.
Unseemly woman in a seeming man,
And ill-beseeming beast in seeming both.
Discussion Questions
Purity and Chastity
- How does the social convention of female purity operate in the play?
- Who was Petrarch? How is Romeo displaying a Petrarchan affection, and how does this perpetuate ideas of female purity and chastity?
Male bonding
- How does the degradation of women work as a mechanism for male bonding?
- How do we still see this today?
Age
- What does Juliet’s age as the men around her discuss marriage imply about the power dynamics between men and women in the play?What about these dynamics in Shakespeare’s day?
- Life expectancy for everyone was much shorter at the time, but women were still marrying much younger than men. Why?
- Who displays the most emotional maturity in the play?
Language
- What language and metaphors are used to describe Juliet and other women and girls in the play?
- How is language used to reinforce power dynamics and gender roles?
Petrarchan Ideal vs. Sexual Object
- Language about women in the play seems to indicate they can only be either the Petrarchan ideal or a sexual object. How does Juliet defy both roles?
Activities
Tracing Toxic Masculinity
Students read and annotate the 2019 article “APA issues first-ever guidelines for practice with men and boys” to support their understanding about toxic masculinity and how it creates harm. Using the Tracing Toxic Masculinity graphic organizer, students identify quotes from Act 2 Scene 4 that tie into the concept of toxic masculinity, cite the APA article to support their argument, and describe the connection between the two quotes. This activity can be used at any point in the play to support discussions of how gender norms operate!
Tracking Gender with the myShakespeare Notebook
Students highlight and annotate in their myShakespeare Notebook as they work through the play, identifying at least five passages that reflect themes of gender, such as power dynamics, societal expectations, or character defiance of gender roles. Students then tag each highlighted passage with keywords like “gender roles,” “female agency,” “masculinity,” or “patriarchy” and explain their tags in the comment section next to the highlighted text.
Bonus: Multimedia Assignment! For at least two of their highlighted passages, students find and link to relevant multimedia resources (such as articles, videos, or artwork) that explore gender themes in the play, explaining how each multimedia resource connects to the passage highlighted in the comments. For example, if they link to a video discussing female agency in Shakespeare's works, they might then explain how it relates to Juliet's character.
Outside Resources
- Folger Professional Development: Exploring Gender: Shakespeare’s Take on Caste, Silent, and Obedient
This professional development offered by the Folger Shakespeare Library does require a teacher membership for access, but it is full of all sorts of interesting insights about the role of women in Shakespeare’s plays, and even some lesser known ways that Shakespeare may have been subtly pushing back against gender norms
- Dystopia Junkie Video: The Theme of Gender in Romeo and Juliet
This 30 minute video provides a great analysis of the theme of gender in Romeo and Juliet. Offer it as an extra resource to students, or use it to deepen your understanding of this topic before tackling it in class.
Contemporary Connections
- R&J by Joe Colarco: This short video is about the theater adaptation R&J, which depicts a group of Catholic school boys in the 1950s secretly reading the risque Romeo and Juliet in their dorm room. The scene begins to parallel the play itself when a forbidden romance between two of the teenage boys unfolds.
- & Juliet on Broadway!: Check out the trailer for this modern theatrical spin! "Juliet’s new story bursts to life through a playlist of pop anthems as iconic as her name, including 'Since U Been Gone‚' 'Roar,' 'Baby One More Time,' 'Larger Than Life‚' 'That’s The Way It Is,' and 'Can't Stop the Feeling!'—all from the genius songwriter/producer behind more #1 hits than any other artist this century. Break free of the balcony scene and get into this romantic comedy that proves there’s life after Romeo."
- Takes on Shakes: Romeo & Juliet: This article and several video interviews with the director and artists behind a 2020 queer adaptation of Romeo and Juliet that explore gender identity and sexuality through the lens of the play.
- Rosaline: This trailer for a 2022 spin on Romeo and Juliet asks, “How did all this make Rosaline feel?”
