Introduction to Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”

Written by William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet is his most well-known play and is synonymous with love stories. It is the quintessential story of young “star-crossed lovers” and their tragic end. Shakespeare based his play on a poem by English poet Arthur Brooke, called “The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet.” The play was first published in 1597. 

It is taught often in schools and is usually among the first of Shakespeare works to be  introduced to students. It has been reworked and adapted several times for various media, particularly the stage and the screen. West Side Story, another popular play, is based on Romeo and Juliet. Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet, released in 1968, was the first well-received film adaptation of the play. Another acclaimed adaptation was Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 Romeo + Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, which retains its popularity till date. 

Plot Summary of Romeo and Juliet

The prologue establishes the setting of the play. It takes place in Verona, Italy, among the households of two feuding families—the Montagues and the Capulets. Their “ancient grudge” is a matter of concern for the whole town as bloody fights frequently break out in the streets between members of these two families; even the servants indulge in the hostilities. The frequent outbreaks of violence have become a public nuisance and Verona’s ruler, Prince Escalus, has ordered the death of anyone who breaks the peace.

The violence between the Montagues and the Capulets had escalated to become a public matter.

Romeo is a young man from the Montague family who, infatuated with a young woman named Rosaline, gatecrashes a masked ball at the Capulet house with a few friends. There, he meets Juliet and he falls deeply in love with her instead, in spite of the fact that she is the daughter of Lord Capulet and engaged to be married to Count Paris. 

After the ball, Romeo sneaks into the Capulets’ garden to see Juliet. She is sitting on her balcony, and the two express their love for each other. The next day, they are secretly married by Friar Laurence. 

Later in the day, Romeo and his friend Mercutio encounter Tybalt, a Capulet, in the street. He knows that the two of them snuck into the Capulets’ masked ball and is enraged about it. He challenges them to a duel. Romeo declines, as he is now related to Tybalt by marriage, while Mercutio accepts and is stabbed to death. Romeo flies into a rage and kills Tybalt to avenge his friend.  

Romeo spends his wedding night with Juliet, and the following morning flees to Mantua to escape getting caught for Tybalt’s murder. Meanwhile, Lord Capulet decides to hold Juliet and Paris’ wedding in three days. Juliet is distraught at the death of Tybalt, Romeo’s departure, and now the added pressure of being forced to marry Paris. She approaches Friar Laurence for help who devises an elaborate plan to unite Romeo and Juliet. He gives her a potion to drink that will make her seem dead for some time. Once she is moved to her family’s crypt, he will fetch her and she can rejoin Romeo.

Juliet drinks the potion and, the next morning, the Capulet family is devastated to discover her “dead.” They take her to the crypt. Friar Laurence sends a messenger to Romeo to explain the whole situation. However, the messenger is detained, and Romeo, hearing of Juliet’s death from elsewhere, rushes back to Verona. He arrives at the Capulet crypt and runs into Paris, who is also mourning Juliet. The two have a duel in which Romeo kills Paris. He then drinks a vial of poison he had bought from an apothecary on the way.  

Juliet regains consciousness only to discover Romeo’s real death. Stricken, she stabs herself with his dagger as she does not want to live without him.

The long conflict between the Montagues and the Capulets was brought to an end only with the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.

The play ends with the discovery of the bodies of the young lovers. Pained by the tragedy, the Montagues and the Capulets decide to bring their feud to an end.

The Characters in Romeo and Juliet

• The Chorus: In spite of the name, this is a single character who narrates and comments on the action on stage. They also recite the prologue to the audience. 
• Romeo: One of the titular characters, he is the son of Lord Montague and is his heir. He is young (about 16 to 18 years old), handsome, sensitive, impulsive, and idealistic. His love for Juliet overwhelms him completely and makes him disregard the fact that she is a Capulet and, thus, among his family’s biggest enemies. 
• Juliet: The second titular character, she is the daughter of Lord Capulet and was engaged to Paris before her secret marriage to Romeo. She, too, is young (around 14 years old), beautiful, and courageous. Like for Romeo, the conflict between their families dissolves into nothing for her in comparison to her love for him. She has much to lose and is put under a lot of stress from different quarters. Neither of them wants to live without the other.

Both the titular characters, Romeo and Juliet, are young, passionate, and idealistic, and their love for each other overwhelms all their other emotions.

• Tybalt: He is Juliet’s cousin and hates the Montagues. He is violent, vain, and provocative and is killed by Romeo as revenge. 
• Mercutio: He is Romeo’s friend who tries to rouse him from his lovesick state. He is temperamental and dies in a duel with Tybalt. 
• Friar Laurence: He is the priest who marries Romeo and Juliet in secret. He is sympathetic towards their circumstances and tries to help them. However, all his schemes come to naught. 
• The Nurse: She is Juliet’s nurse and knows of their love. She is also aware of their secret marriage and tries to help them. However, she does not think that Juliet should have to endure the stress put on her and encourages her to marry Paris as Romeo is in exile and unlikely to see her again. 
• Paris: He is Juliet’s betrothed, her father’s choice, before she married Romeo. 
• Prince Escalus: He is the monarch ruler of Verona and attempts to keep the peace between the two feuding families. 
• Lord and Lady Capulet: Lord Capulet is the patriarch of the Capulet family, and though he loves Juliet very much, he does not understand what she wants. Lady Capulet’s main interest is in seeing Juliet married to someone she deems to be suitable. 
• Lord and Lady Montague: Lord Montague is the head of the Montague family and is concerned by Romeo’s melancholic brooding. Lady Montague is similarly worried and dies of grief when he is exiled. 
• Friar John: He is the messenger dispatched by Friar Laurence who is unable to deliver the plan to Romeo. 
• Benvolio: He is Romeo’s cousin and friend who tries to cheer him up and attends the Capulet ball with him. 
• Balthasar: He is Romeo’s servant who brings him the news of Juliet’s death. 
• Sampson and Gregory: Two Capulet servants who provoke a Montague man into a fight at the beginning of the play. 
• Abram: He is the above-mentioned Montague man.

Themes in Romeo and Juliet

The major themes of the play are as follows. 

• Love: The central feature of the play is the passionate love between Romeo and Juliet. Its intensity is such that it drives them to defy their families and even life itself. It contrasts true love with the infatuation Romeo held for Rosalie at the beginning of the play. That infatuation melted when he saw Juliet, to be replaced by something far more powerful and stronger. In fact, it is strong enough to force an end to a long and bitter family feud. Their love is also a contrast to the violence in their surroundings. However, it too causes a great deal of violence, and that makes for a very tragic love story.

• Conflict: While Romeo and Juliet is mainly associated with love, it also deals with conflict. The central conflict is between the Montagues and the Capulets. While the reason for the conflict is not mentioned, it is determined to be a long and deep one, as also a particularly violent one that concerns the whole town. Death is often a result of the various conflicts. The play also deals with a lot of internal conflict within the individual characters. One such is the dilemma Juliet faces after Romeo goes into exile and her father begins to pressure her into marrying Paris.

The individualism of Romeo and Juliet along with the strength of their love drove them to behave very differently from their families.

• Individualism: Romeo and Juliet is set in a time when society played a huge role in who a person was and what they did. In such circumstances, Romeo and Juliet defied those roles and expectations and decided who they would love and marry, a rare demonstration of individuality. When forced to separate, they chose death over life without each other. What makes their story inspirational to this day is their revolt against the expectations forced on them by their families’ rivalry.

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