LESSON PART I: Rules of the Game

RED LIGHT – GREEN LIGHT GAME

Image of Lord Capulet and Paris Courtesy of Folger Shakespeare Library

This entertaining Romeo and Juliet lesson will facilitate navigation of Shakespeare’s great love story, helping students to identify tensions, track plot development, and negotiate the figurative language in the play.

PLAYERS

• Two Student Actors to perform the scene and identify the red and green lights
• One Student Traffic Cop
• Traffic Court Judges (the rest of the class)

PROPS

• A red light painted or drawn on a piece of cardboard that is mounted on a stick so that one of the actors can hold the light up at the appropriate times. The light should be large enough for students in the back of the class to clearly see it.
• A green light painted or drawn on a piece of cardboard that is mounted on a stick so that the other actor can hold the green light up at the appropriate times. This light should be large enough for students in the back of the class to clearly see it.
• Traffic tickets worth -2 and -1 points.

STEP 1 – INTRODUCTION

In class, read and discuss the two red-light/green-light examples below. Then have students copy the Romeo and Juliet scenes we’ve listed below from OpenSource Shakespeare to a blank Word document. 

STEP 2 – RED-LIGHTING/GREEN-LIGHTING 

We recommend that students work in pairs and red-light/green-light their text in class or at home for the assigned scene(s). As they read, the pair must mark in ALL the red and green lights in the text. When they encounter a red light, they should STOP, highlight the relevant text red if the work is done on a word processor or draw a red circle (“red light”) at the appropriate point in the text with a red marker if done on paper. Then, before moving forward, they must interpret the red light by answering the following three questions: What is the purpose of the red light? What is the character’s motive for slowing things down or halting action? Is slowing things down or halting action at this point wise or unwise?

Similarly, students should mark all the green lights in the text as they pass (read) through them with a green highlight or marker. When students complete their highlighting, they must go back and explain why each green light is or is not well-placed. For example, if someone advises haste to prevent a dangerous situation from escalating, this would be a well-placed “green light.”

Then each pair should hand in one copy of their highlighted text with their interpretations of each red and green light and keep a second copy for an in-class performance of the scene(s).

STEP 3 – PERFORMANCE

For the performance portion of the lesson, select a pair of students to play the roles of the characters in the scene(s). Designate a third student as the traffic cop and provide her or him with a stack of traffic tickets, some worth – 2 points and some worth -1 point. As the student actors perform the scene, they must STOP whenever they encounter a “red light” and interpret it for the judges (the rest of the class). At the end of the scene, the actors should evaluate each green light. The traffic cop will give a ticket (minus 2 points) if the actors crash a red light (fail to identify a red light and “read-drive” through it). Similarly, failing to acknowledge a green light is a 2-point ticket. The traffic cop will ticket an actor who stops at an imaginary red light (-1 point) or wrongly places a green light in the scene (-1 point). If the traffic cop wrongly tickets an actor or fails to give a ticket to an actor who deserves one, then he or she will be penalized by the judges, losing the same amount of points as the value of the ticket. 

MORE ON POINTS & GRADING:

Each student starts the game with up to 30 points, depending on the scene (30 points for the balcony scene). In this Game-Lesson, students don’t win points, they either maintain the points they began with or they lose some or all of them. Each red or green light is worth 2 points: 1 point for correctly identifying the light and 1 point for explaining why the red or green light is helpful, harmful or neutral. (Teachers may want to modify this point system to suit their class requirements; for example, a teacher might choose to give 15 points for the balcony scene instead of 30, decreasing the value of each light from 2 points to 1.)

EXAMPLE 1:

Act I, Scene 2, lines 6 – 13 [Scene between Juliet’s father Lord Capulet and Paris.]

PARIS

But now, my lord, what say you to my suit?

LORD 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 think her ripe to be a bride. 

PARIS

Younger than she are happy mothers made.

LORD CAPULET

And too soon marred are those so early made.

RED-LIGHT INTERPRETATION

1st RED LIGHT – Lord Capulet calls his daughter “my child” to emphasize that Juliet is too young to marry. She is not quite 14. Using a comparison and a contrast (“wither” and “ripe) Lord Capulet tells Paris to be patient. When two summers have withered (reached their peak and declined), Juliet will be ripe (mature) enough for marriage. This is sound advice (a well-placed red light) because Juliet is too young for marriage, even in the 15th or 16th century, and Lord Capulet is probably not yet ready to lose his daughter to a husband. Paris, in a hurry to wed Juliet (green light), points out that many Verona women marry when they are even younger than Juliet and are mothers by the time they are 12 or 13.  2nd RED LIGHT – In line 13, Lord Capulet replies that women who marry young quickly lose their charm (another red light) – this is another way in which he counsels patience. In the next part of his speech, Lord Capulet invites Paris to attend his feast and compare Juliet to other attractive women. In other words, if Paris is in too much of a hurry to wait two years, then perhaps he should choose someone else: “At my poor house look to behold this night/Earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light…Hear all, all see,/And like her most whose merit most shall be…”

GREEN-LIGHT INTERPRETATION

From Lord Capulet’s response (“But saying o’er what I have said before:”), we see that Paris has asked for Juliet’s hand on one or more prior occasions. Evidently Paris is growing impatient. But why is he in such a rush to marry an underage girl he doesn’t even know? Today, his rush seems absurd. But in Renaissance Italy, among the wealthy classes, marriage was based on politics and economics. Marriages, which were arranged, were typically regarded as political and economic alliances between wealthy families. Paris may fear that if he waits, a suitor from another powerful family might win Juliet and her dowry. “He that can lay hold of her,” the Nurse says, “Shall have the chinks” – loads of money. As the only daughter of the wealthy Lord Capulet, Juliet will inherit all the family wealth, which will then be transferred to her husband. Juliet may be the richest heiress in Verona. Maybe that’s why Paris is in a hurry. He is probably also infatuated with Juliet’s good looks and manners, but money and power certainly play a large part in his choice. 

EXAMPLE 2: Act II, Scene 5 – Juliet and Nurse

EXAMPLE 2: FIRST DISPLAY OF JULIET’S IMPATIENCE – PASSION-DRIVEN IMPATIENCE

In this example, Juliet waits for news from her Nurse, who she’s dispatched as a messenger to Romeo. The nurse is slow to return and upon returning slow to deliver Romeo’s message.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT AS YOU READ:

• Think of a time when you or someone you know waited impatiently for something positive and exciting to occur: news, a visitor, your birthday, a holiday, etc. Then put yourself in Juliet’s shoes while she waits – 3 hours for the most important news of her life!
• As she waits and waits and waits, Juliet’s impatience accumulates. To vent her mounting frustration, she criticizes both the messenger’s tardiness and the messenger. Again picture yourself feeling a growing impatience while you wait. Would you criticize the person making you wait?
• When the Nurse finally arrives, Juliet lets out a great sigh of relief: “O God, she comes!” Now Juliet calls the Nurse, who she just criticized as “unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead,” “O honey Nurse.” Why does Juliet now call her “honey nurse”? Again, try to feel the changing shades of Juliet’s feelings as she expresses them.
• Then what happens? More waiting and a new kind of impatience. Again, try to imagine a messenger finally arriving and then postponing giving you the message you long to hear, using various excuses or ruses.

ACT II, Scene 5:

JULIET

The clock struck nine when I did send the nurse;
In half an hour she promised to return. [We can feel Juliet watching the clock!]
Perchance she cannot meet him. That’s not so.
O, she is lame! Love’s heralds should be thoughts,
Which ten times faster glides than the sun’s beams
Driving back shadows over low’ring hills.

JULIET cont.

Therefore do nimble-pinioned doves draw Love,
And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings.
Now is the sun upon the highmost hill
Of his day’s journey, and from nine till twelve
Is three long hours; yet she is not come.
Had she affections and warm youthful blood,
She would be as swift in motion as a ball;
My words would bandy her to my sweet love,
And his to me…

JULIET cont.

But old folks, many feign as they were dead – 
Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead.

Enter Nurse [and Peter].

O God, she comes! O honey nurse, what news?
Hast thou met with him? Send thy man away. 

NURSE

Peter, stay at the gate. 

JULIET

Now, good sweet nurse – O Lord, why lookest thou sad?
Though news be sad, yet tell them merrily;
If good, thou shamest the music of sweet news
By playing it to me with so sour a face. 

NURSE

I am aweary, give me leave awhile.
Fie, how my bones ache! What a jaunce have I!

JULIET

I would thou hadst my bones, and I thy news.
Nay, come, I pray thee speak. Good, good nurse, speak.

NURSE

Jesu, what haste! Can you not stay awhile?
Do you not see that I am out of breath?

RED-LIGHT INTERPRETATION

To tease Juliet and ratchet up her impatience, the nurse feigns (pretends) to be out of breath, to suffer from back pain and finally to have a headache. Each complaint is a red light that forces Juliet to wait even longer to hear the news from Romeo. Since the Nurse’s complaints don’t surprise Juliet, we can assume she’s heard them before. The Nurse probably truly suffers from various minor ailments. But in this situation, the nurse exaggerates her pains to torment Juliet and postpone telling her what she’s dying to know. Nevertheless, it’s a playful game, and it reveals a part of Juliet’s nature that we hadn’t seen before. She can be very headstrong. 

GREEN-LIGHT INTERPRETATION

When we meet Juliet in Act I, Scene 3, she is  calm and rational, discussing Paris with her mother (“I’ll look to like, if looking liking move”). But after falling in love with Romeo, her intensely passionate nature surfaces and sometimes overwhelms her (“My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep…”). Act II Scene 5 opens with Juliet impatiently waiting for the return of her nurse who she’s dispatched to Romeo. The Nurse promised to return at 9:30 am. It is now noon, and Juliet is still waiting. Her patience has worn thin, and her eagerness to hear good news from Romeo is  beginning to overwhelm her. Naturally she’s anxious to find out her fate: will Romeo “green light” their marriage or not? Remember Juliet questioned Romeo’s intentions in the balcony scene (“If thou meanest not well, I do beseech thee – to cease thy strife and leave me to my grief”). When the Nurse finally arrives, Juliet breathes a sigh of relief, believing that at last she will learn her fate. Instead the Nurse delays further by talking about her aches and pains. In fact the Nurse simply delay telling Juliet the news to toy with Juliet’s emotions. The more the Nurse vents her various complaints, the more anxious and impatient Juliet becomes until her fiery core explodes, and she demands (a big GREEN light) that the nurse give her the news. It is, in part, Juliet’s fiery and impetuous core that later helps cause her death. 

FOR PRACTICE, FINISH RED-LIGHTING/GREEN LIGHTING THIS SCENE.

JULIET

How art thou out of breath when thou hast breath
To say to me that thou art out of breath?
The excuse that thou dost make in this delay
Is longer than the tale thou dost excuse.
Is thy news good or bad? Answer to that.
Say either, and I’ll stay the circumstance.
Let me be satisfied, is’t good or bad?

NURSE

Well, you have made a simple choice, you
know not how to choose a man. Romeo? No, not
he. Though his face be better than any man’s, yet 
his leg excels all men’s; and for a hand and a foot,
and a body, though they be not to be talked on,
yet they are past compare. He is not the flower of
courtesy, but, I’ll warrant him, as gentle as a lamb.
Go they ways, wench; serve God. What, have you dined at home?

JULIET

No, no. But all this did I know before.
What says he or our marriage? What of that?

NURSE

Lord, how my head aches! What a head have I!
It beats as it would fall in twenty pieces.
My back a t’other side – ah, my back, my back!
Beshrew your heart for sending me about
To catch my death with jauncing up and down!

JULIET

I’faith, I am sorry that thou art not well.
Sweet, sweet, sweet nurse, tell me, what says my love?

NURSE

Your love says, like an honest gentleman, and
a courteous, and a kind, and a handsome, and, I
warrant, a virtuous – Where is your mother?

JULIET

Where is my mother? Why, she is within.
Where should she be? How oddly thou repliest!
“Your love says, like an honest gentleman,
‘Where is your mother?'”

NURSE

O God’s Lady dear!
Are you so hot? Marry come up, I trow.
Is this the poultice for my aching bones?
Henceforth do you messages yourself.

JULIET

Here’s such a coil! Come, what says Romeo?

NURSE

Have you got leave to go to shrift today?

JULIET

I have.

NURSE

Then hie you hence to Friar Lawrence’s cell;
There stays a husband to make you a wife. 
Now comes the wanton blood up in your cheeks:
They’ll be in scarlet straight at any news.
Hie you to church; I must another way,
To fetch a ladder, by the which your love
Must climb a bird’s nest soon when it is dark.

Recommended Scenes to Use in this Lesson

RED-LIGHT GREEN-LIGHT SCENES FROM ACTS I, II, AND III TO BE USED IN THIS LESSON:

• ACT I, Scene 3 (10 lights) – The discussion between Lady Capulet, Juliet and the Nurse, beginning with LADY CAPULET: Marry, that “marry” is the very theme I came to talk of.
• ACT I, Scene 5 (about 8 lights) – The argument between Lord Capulet and Tybalt, beginning with TYBALT: This, by his voice, should be a Montague.
• ACT II, Scene 2 (15 lights) – The balcony scene, beginning with ROMEO: Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?
• ACT II, Scene 6  (5 lights) – the wedding scene, beginning with FRIAR: So smile the heavens upon this holy act…
• ACT III, Scene 1 (18 llights), – the fight scene, beginning with BENVOLIO: I pray thee, good Mercutio, let’s retire.
• ACT III, Scene 3 (10 lights) – beginning with, FRIAR: Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou fearful man.
• ACT III, Scene 4 (5 lights) – discussion between Lord Capulet and Paris, beginning with, LORD CAPULET: Things have fall’n out, sir, so unluckily…
• ACT III, Scene 5 (10 lights) – Juliet’s chamber, beginning with, JULIET: Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day.
• ACT III, Scene 5 (10 lights) – argument between Juliet and her parents, beginning with, LADY CAPULET: Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn.

AFTER PLAYING THE RED LIGHT-GREEN LIGHT GAME FOR THE FIRST THREE ACTS OF ROMEO AND JULIET, YOU MAY CONTINUE THE GAME FOR ACT IV AND ACT V IF YOU LIKE. WHEN STUDENTS FINISH THE TRAGEDY, HAVE THEM ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS. 

CLASS DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Does Act I have more red lights or green lights?
2. Act II?
3. Act III?
4. Act IV?
5. Act V?
6. If an act has more green lights than red, does that accelerate the pace of the drama?
7. If an act has more red lights than green does it slow down the dramatic tempo?
8. Which characters change from red to green or green to red during the play, and when do they change (cite the act, scene and line numbers)?
9. When would replacing a green light with a red one improve the outcome? List the instances (include act, scene and line numbers) and explain why a red light would help?
10. If you could step inside Juliet’s or Romeo’s shoes, where would you plant a red light to avoid a tragedy?

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