Plot
- In Verona, the Montague and Capulet families are feuding. The Prologue tells the audience that 'a pair of star-cross'd lovers' will die.
- Romeo, a Montague, meets Juliet, a Capulet, at the Capulets' party. They declare their love in the balcony scene and are secretly married by Friar Laurence.
- Tybalt kills Romeo's friend Mercutio, and Romeo kills Tybalt in revenge. Romeo is banished to Mantua.
- Juliet's parents arrange for her to marry Paris. The Friar gives Juliet a potion to make her seem dead, but his message explaining the plan never reaches Romeo.
- Romeo hears Juliet is dead, buys poison, kills Paris at the tomb and drinks the poison. Juliet wakes, finds Romeo dead and stabs herself. The families are finally reconciled.
Themes
- Love (romantic, courtly and sexual), conflict and violence, fate, family and duty, youth and age, and time and haste.
Context
- It was written around 1595, during Elizabeth I's reign. Society was patriarchal: daughters were expected to obey their fathers, and marriages were often arranged for wealth and status.
- Honour mattered greatly to men, which made insults lead to violence. Many people believed in fate and the stars. Italy was seen by English audiences as a place of passion and violence.
Key quotations
- 'A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life' (Prologue).
- 'O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!' and 'It is the east, and Juliet is the sun' (Romeo).
- 'My only love sprung from my only hate!' (Juliet). 'These violent delights have violent ends' (Friar Laurence).
- 'A plague o' both your houses!' (Mercutio). 'O, I am fortune's fool!' (Romeo).
Key terms
- Prologue
- An introduction spoken before a play begins.
- Star-crossed
- Doomed by fate, as if controlled by the stars.
- Feud
- A long and bitter conflict between two families.
- Patriarchy
- A society in which men hold power.
- Foreshadowing
- Hints about what will happen later.
- Dramatic irony
- When the audience knows something a character doesn't.
- Sonnet
- A fourteen-line poem, often about love.
- Oxymoron
- Two contradictory words placed together, such as 'loving hate'.