 My name is Kim Douthit and today we're going to be looking at objectives using a soliloquy from Romeo and Juliet. You don't need a whole lot of materials for this. We have, as you can see, the text provided for you. This is from the balcony scene for Romeo and Juliet. So if you want to get a little fancy and grab a chair or a stool or something to be your stand-in balcony, you're welcome to do that. You're also going to need to take a couple notes during this. So grabbing a riding utensil or grab and something to write on, be a good idea. We all have things that we want, right? We might want a cookie or a new pair of shoes for our younger siblings to suddenly disappear. And we have different ways of getting what we want, right? So in theater we call what we want an objective. Getting what we want, like let's say I want a cookie. That's going to depend a little bit on how I'm trying to get it, right? Who I'm talking to. If I was trying to get a cookie from my grandmother, that'd be a little different than trying to get a cookie from, let's say, my little brother. Our relationships are different. So the way I go about it, that's going to be a little different, right? So if I'm talking to my grandma, I might try imploring her or begging her for that cookie. My little brother, I might try threatening him. In theater we call this actions or tactics, the different ways we try to get our objective. Something is standing in the way of our objective. That's an obstacle. Why are obstacles important in theater? Well, if our story of Romeo and Juliet went once upon a time, Romeo and Juliet met and they fell in love and got married and it was wonderful and they lived happily ever after. It's not really an interesting story. Romeo and Juliet might be a little bit more fond of it, but there's no conflict because from conflict that's where we get drama. So we need things standing in the way of what we want. So we're going to look at what one character wants, at what Juliet wants, using a soliloquy. What's a soliloquy? It's a character saying their thoughts aloud. Now, sometimes they're by themselves or they think they're by themselves. In the balcony scene at this point, Juliet thinks she's by herself. She doesn't realize that Romeo is nearby listening in. Now, a soliloquy is different than a monologue. That's another thing you find in theater, which is also any time a character speaks for a long period of time. Soliloquies specifically deal with a character's inner thoughts. What's going on internally? So this is a very famous soliloquy. In fact, you probably know a line or two from it, or you'll recognize them when you start hearing it. Now, since Shakespeare is designed to be performed, let's start off by just reading through this soliloquy. So have a stand up, look at the text, do your best Shakespearean voice and say, Oh, Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo, deny thy father and refuse thy name, or if that will not be but sworn my love, and I'll no longer be a Capulet, tis but thy name that is my enemy, thou art thyself, though not a Montague. What's a Montague? It is nor hand nor foot nor arm nor face nor any other part belonging to a man. Oh, be some other name. What's in a name, that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called, retain that dear perfection, which he owes without that title. Romeo, doth thy name, and for that name, which is no part of thee, take all myself. It was awesome. We got all that in the first try, right? What we're gonna do, because again, this is a lot of text, we're gonna do an activity I call telegramming. I love this activity for breaking down text. What we're gonna do is look at each line and pick the four words from each line that we think best encompasses what's happening that stand out the most to us. Now it's important to note the four words that I think create the best line, they may not be the same as your four words. So if you're looking at it and saying, Hey, no, wait a minute, Kim, I disagree. I think these four are better. That's totally fine. And you can write down the four that you think work the best. So let's look at this first line. Oh, Romeo, Romeo, where for art thou Romeo? Now are we are we noticing anything that is being repeated over and over again? Any word at all? Might it be the word Romeo? She says it three times. Romeo, Romeo, Romeo. I feel like that's giving us a really good idea of what she is speaking of. The word where for and this is also really interesting. She's not asking, Where are you Romeo? She's asking, Why are you Romeo? Romeo, Romeo, why are you Romeo? So that to me is another really important word. So our telegram for the first line reads Romeo, Romeo, where for Romeo? Look at the next line, deny thy father and refuse thy name. Well, a couple words really stand out to me. The word refuse is really interesting and name. We've already had a name up here a lot. We had Romeo. Let's keep going with that name. Deny. That's a strong word and father. So we have four words here too. So so far, our telegram reads Romeo, Romeo, where for Romeo, deny father, refuse name. That actually creates a pretty clear picture of what's going on. Now if we look at the next line, this is a little trick here. Or if that will not be but sworn my love. I'm going to go with, let's see, wilt not sworn love, but you might pick a different combination of words here. Let's do one last line together. And then I'm going to give you a few moments to look at the text and figure out your own. So our next line is, and I'll no longer be a Capulet. I think there's a couple important things happening in this line. One of them again, anytime we say a name, I feel that that's important. So let's look at Capulet. What's she not going to be anymore? She's not going to be a Capulet. So I'll no longer. So what we have so far, Romeo, Romeo, where for Romeo, deny father, refuse name, wilt not sworn love, I'll no longer Capulet. So if we're looking at just those first four lines and what Juliet wants, what does she want in her telegram? Romeo, she wants Romeo. But what's standing in the way of getting what she wants? Well, it's because they're enemies, right? So they're families. What's she going to do about it? She switches pretty quickly here, I think, because she says, if you deny your father and refuse my name, then we can be together. Or if you won't do that, you know what? I'll deny my name. Now I want you to look at the rest of this text and pick out your four words on each line. We'll give you a little bit of time to do that. Name's up here. We got a lot of words up here. Let's see what let's see what I did and see how it compares to what you did. Romeo, Romeo, where for Romeo, deny father, refuse name, wilt not sworn love, I'll no longer capulate thy name my enemy, thou thyself not Montague, what's Montague, hand, foot, arm, face nor part, man, some other name, what's name that rose other name smells sweet. Romeo would not Romeo retain dear perfection owes without title Romeo name, name no part thee, take all myself. What's so interesting from this, you still get a really good idea of what's being said. Juliet wants Romeo. Now let's take this one step further. From a four word telegram, I want you to break it down to one word from each line. And you know what, we've already narrowed it down to four words. So from each of those words, I want you to just pick one one word. I'm going to do these words for me in red. So my telegram now reads Romeo, name, love, capulet, enemy, Montague, Montague, face, name, name, name, Romeo, perfection, Romeo, name myself. What do you notice in that? There's a couple words said over and over again, the word name being the main one. And I even circle all the names. Name is said seven times in the soliloquy. The word Romeo is said six times. So her inner thoughts are so apparent. She wants Romeo. But what is this idea of a name? And can she have him? She's trying to find a way to justify she's working through that obstacle, that thing standing in the way because I love that section where it says, Capulet enemy, Montague, Montague. Because that really encompasses what her obstacle is. The two families are enemies. And how does she work through it? By thinking about the very nature of what makes a person? Are we more than a name? And why does a name matter? What I also really love about this, this kind of shows you how young Juliet is, because what's she fixating on? She's fixating on Romeo, a boy she just met at a party. And even though they are sworn enemies, there is an ancient grudge between these two families, she finds a way in only a few lines to kind of work around this whole ancient grudge thing and say, but I like this boy. So I'm going to kind of not think about the fact that our families hate each other as Juliet is extremely young. So you get so much of her character and what she wants in just a few lines. So looking at the full text again, read it one more time since you have a little bit better grasp on it. Oh, Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name or thou wilt not be but sworn my love and I'll no longer be a Capulet. Tis but thy name that is my enemy. Thou art thyself though not a Montague. What's Montague? Is it nor hand nor foot nor arm nor face nor any other part belonging to a man? Oh, be some other name. What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called, retain that dear perfection which he owes without that title. Romeo, doth thy name and for that name which is no part of thee, take all myself. Now this method of breaking down text is really fantastic for figuring out a character's objective. But it's also really great if you're having trouble understanding anything. Because every time you take it into smaller chunks, it automatically becomes more manageable. I want to thank you all for breaking down a little bit of text with me and looking at some Romeo and Juliet. My name is Kim Douthit, and I hope you have a wonderful day.