Romeo and Juliet
"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare is one of the most famous tragedies. It follows the lives of Romeo and Juliet, from two opposing households, and their going against all odds to be with each other. From cheerful parades to jousting, from love to death, this action-filled play is worth watching. Click below for "Romeo and Juliet" ticket information. |
Summary:
On a blistering morning in Verona, Italy, servants of two rival households, the Capulets and the Montagues, enrage each other and begin to fight, but when the brawl gets out of hand, Prince Escalus arrives in timely fashion and warns that whoever starts another duel would forfeit with their own lives.
Capulet, one of the household's "leader", plans out a feast/party for his only daughter, Juliet, to get to know the County Paris, a kinsman of the Prince who is dearly in love with Juliet. When Capulet makes the faulty mistake of assigning an illiterate servant to read out a list of invited people, Romeo, the only son of Montague, helps the servant out and reads it for him. Romeo, in love with Rosaline, a relative of Capulet, decides to crash the party along with his cousin Benvolio and Escalus's kinsman, Mercutio.
Romeo meets Juliet by chance, and forgets Rosaline and instead falls for Juliet, and Tybalt, Juliet's cousin, hears Romeo's profession of love to Juliet, but only recognizes his voice. Capulet prevents Tybalt from attacking Romeo, not wanting to ruin the party atmosphere. Meanwhile, Romeo takes Juliet and they talk in idle but pleasant chatter, and share two delicate kisses, but are later separated. Romeo ditches Benvolio and Mercutio to see Juliet once again later.
In the next morning, Romeo seeks out Friar Laurence and asks for his word to wed both him and Juliet. With great reluctance, hesitation, and frustration, the Friar agrees to do so, and the two are later wed. At this time, though, Benvolio and Mercutio are stalked by Tybalt, who wishes to duel with Romeo.
The newlywed husband arrives and finds Tybalt waiting for him. The cousin of his wife taunts him, trying to get him to attack, but to no avail. Romeo seems too calm and cheery, and this forces Tybalt to continue his squander. Mercutio, unable to hear his friend become a laughingstock any longer, fights Tybalt, and perishes when Romeo tries to break up the fight. In remorse and outrage, Romeo slaughters Tybalt, and flees to a nearby city in Mantua.
Juliet also finds pain and sorrow when her parents force down a second wedding down on her. Their one wish, for her to be married to a royal kinsman, is denied, and they threaten to disown her in anger. Juliet, distraught, goes to the Friar, who gives her a poison vial of death impersonation, and she takes it. Instead of having a marriage, a funeral takes place, and Romeo's servant happens to witness it, and tells his master, who buys poison from a poor apothecary with a large sum of money.
Paris, having been mourning the loss of his lover, finds Romeo and tries to arrest him, believing that Romeo caused the death of Juliet because of Tybalt's slaying. Romeo mercilessly murders Paris, but he decides to lay him in rest with Juliet as it is Paris's dying wish, and because he remembers that Paris was kin to Mercutio, too. Romeo then kisses Juliet, and afterwards, drinks the poison, dying soon after.
Juliet awakes to see only the Friar, and refuses to leave her husband's corpse, and stabs herself with Romeo's dagger.
Prince Escalus, the Capulets, and the Montagues witness the scene in front of them, and the two rivals become friends, promising to erect golden statues of both Romeo and Juliet.
On a blistering morning in Verona, Italy, servants of two rival households, the Capulets and the Montagues, enrage each other and begin to fight, but when the brawl gets out of hand, Prince Escalus arrives in timely fashion and warns that whoever starts another duel would forfeit with their own lives.
Capulet, one of the household's "leader", plans out a feast/party for his only daughter, Juliet, to get to know the County Paris, a kinsman of the Prince who is dearly in love with Juliet. When Capulet makes the faulty mistake of assigning an illiterate servant to read out a list of invited people, Romeo, the only son of Montague, helps the servant out and reads it for him. Romeo, in love with Rosaline, a relative of Capulet, decides to crash the party along with his cousin Benvolio and Escalus's kinsman, Mercutio.
Romeo meets Juliet by chance, and forgets Rosaline and instead falls for Juliet, and Tybalt, Juliet's cousin, hears Romeo's profession of love to Juliet, but only recognizes his voice. Capulet prevents Tybalt from attacking Romeo, not wanting to ruin the party atmosphere. Meanwhile, Romeo takes Juliet and they talk in idle but pleasant chatter, and share two delicate kisses, but are later separated. Romeo ditches Benvolio and Mercutio to see Juliet once again later.
In the next morning, Romeo seeks out Friar Laurence and asks for his word to wed both him and Juliet. With great reluctance, hesitation, and frustration, the Friar agrees to do so, and the two are later wed. At this time, though, Benvolio and Mercutio are stalked by Tybalt, who wishes to duel with Romeo.
The newlywed husband arrives and finds Tybalt waiting for him. The cousin of his wife taunts him, trying to get him to attack, but to no avail. Romeo seems too calm and cheery, and this forces Tybalt to continue his squander. Mercutio, unable to hear his friend become a laughingstock any longer, fights Tybalt, and perishes when Romeo tries to break up the fight. In remorse and outrage, Romeo slaughters Tybalt, and flees to a nearby city in Mantua.
Juliet also finds pain and sorrow when her parents force down a second wedding down on her. Their one wish, for her to be married to a royal kinsman, is denied, and they threaten to disown her in anger. Juliet, distraught, goes to the Friar, who gives her a poison vial of death impersonation, and she takes it. Instead of having a marriage, a funeral takes place, and Romeo's servant happens to witness it, and tells his master, who buys poison from a poor apothecary with a large sum of money.
Paris, having been mourning the loss of his lover, finds Romeo and tries to arrest him, believing that Romeo caused the death of Juliet because of Tybalt's slaying. Romeo mercilessly murders Paris, but he decides to lay him in rest with Juliet as it is Paris's dying wish, and because he remembers that Paris was kin to Mercutio, too. Romeo then kisses Juliet, and afterwards, drinks the poison, dying soon after.
Juliet awakes to see only the Friar, and refuses to leave her husband's corpse, and stabs herself with Romeo's dagger.
Prince Escalus, the Capulets, and the Montagues witness the scene in front of them, and the two rivals become friends, promising to erect golden statues of both Romeo and Juliet.
ROMEO AND JULIET: Friar Laurence's importance
In the tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” composed by William Shakespeare, Romeo meets Juliet by chance. Despite the rivalry between their two families, they fall hopelessly in love. As a result, Romeo wishes for Friar Laurence to marry them the following day. The Friar, shocked by the sudden news, falls as a victim to the requests and pleads both lovers ask of him. When Romeo, having been banished for murdering Juliet’s cousin: Tybalt, flees to Mantua, he approaches a neighboring city. Juliet, being forced into a second marriage, demands a solution with her life in the balance. Friar Laurence gives one single solution: a vial of poison that would fool her parents, allowing Juliet to be placed in the Capulet vault where Romeo will come and sweep her away to Mantua. Thus, the two would live their lives happily without their parents’ ruling. Although the proposed idea seems settled, the strategy breaks apart, causing the two lovers to meet their lethal demise.
The Friar is responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet because he did not hold back their wedding. In the play, the Friar demonstrates his frustration of Romeo’s quick turn of love, commenting that “young men’s love then lies not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes”. After Romeo begs the Friar to not “chidst me (himself) oft for loving Rosaline”, basically telling the Friar that no attention will be given unless the talk is about the marriage between himself and Juliet. Friar Laurence, technically giving up on looking at the brighter side of things, tells him that he would marry them with the hope that this would “turn the households’ rancor to pure gold”, or saying that he wishes that the two's marriage would cease the bloodshed between the Montagues and the Capulets. Although there is definitely a good intention to this, another route that could’ve been taken to avoid the fate of these two lovers would be to recognize the “love” Romeo had been endorsed by was merely pure lust. Furthermore, the “love” that the two “lovers” were in was childish, for the two of them are both at a young age.
The Friar is also held accountable for the perishment of the two lovers because of other various reasons. An example plainly shown in the readings that escalates the plot line is when Juliet accepts the given vial mentioned by Friar Laurence. When Juliet was threatened by her parents who were forcing another marriage upon their daughter, this time to the County Paris, she goes to seek the Friar for dear help who assures her by saying, “I do spy a kind of hope”. With that, he handed her the vial, in which the content contained within was a dangerous toxin that would cause all the organs in her body to shut down, her breath to cease as her cheeks would begin to appear pale, and her lips portraying the dark color of death. However, it would all be an illusion, a facade to manipulate whoever saw her into thinking that she had perished. This caused Balthasar: one of the witnesses to Juliet’s “funeral”, to run to the city of Mantua, allowing him to inform his master of the tragedy that had destroyed his beloved. As the news of Juliet’s death became known to Romeo, he fled to seek an apothecary allowing him to commit suicide with a vial of fatal poison.
The Friar was responsible for giving into Romeo’s pleas for marriage in secrecy. Although he states that all his intentions were to “turn the household’s rancor into pure gold”, he marries the son of Montague and the daughter of Capulet in complete privacy. Without the knowledge of Juliet’s parents: the Capulets, they force upon their daughter a marriage to the noble house of Prince Escalus, which causes Juliet to go and take her vial of poison from the Friar. With that, Juliet would give the impression of death, mentioned previously. Balthasar would then escape to Mantua, inform his master, which would lead to the death of Romeo, causing Juliet to follow in her lover's footsteps.
Friar Laurence is responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet in three ways: the first being that he did not prevent the marriage of the two, he handed Juliet the vial of poison, and wedding the two in secrecy. Although he stated beforehand that he did not mean any harm to befall the two, the friar did mention that “these violent delights have violent ends”. To explain, the sudden joys of life will have sudden endings, just “like fire and powder”, which can explode in a quick and abrupt manner.
The Friar is responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet because he did not hold back their wedding. In the play, the Friar demonstrates his frustration of Romeo’s quick turn of love, commenting that “young men’s love then lies not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes”. After Romeo begs the Friar to not “chidst me (himself) oft for loving Rosaline”, basically telling the Friar that no attention will be given unless the talk is about the marriage between himself and Juliet. Friar Laurence, technically giving up on looking at the brighter side of things, tells him that he would marry them with the hope that this would “turn the households’ rancor to pure gold”, or saying that he wishes that the two's marriage would cease the bloodshed between the Montagues and the Capulets. Although there is definitely a good intention to this, another route that could’ve been taken to avoid the fate of these two lovers would be to recognize the “love” Romeo had been endorsed by was merely pure lust. Furthermore, the “love” that the two “lovers” were in was childish, for the two of them are both at a young age.
The Friar is also held accountable for the perishment of the two lovers because of other various reasons. An example plainly shown in the readings that escalates the plot line is when Juliet accepts the given vial mentioned by Friar Laurence. When Juliet was threatened by her parents who were forcing another marriage upon their daughter, this time to the County Paris, she goes to seek the Friar for dear help who assures her by saying, “I do spy a kind of hope”. With that, he handed her the vial, in which the content contained within was a dangerous toxin that would cause all the organs in her body to shut down, her breath to cease as her cheeks would begin to appear pale, and her lips portraying the dark color of death. However, it would all be an illusion, a facade to manipulate whoever saw her into thinking that she had perished. This caused Balthasar: one of the witnesses to Juliet’s “funeral”, to run to the city of Mantua, allowing him to inform his master of the tragedy that had destroyed his beloved. As the news of Juliet’s death became known to Romeo, he fled to seek an apothecary allowing him to commit suicide with a vial of fatal poison.
The Friar was responsible for giving into Romeo’s pleas for marriage in secrecy. Although he states that all his intentions were to “turn the household’s rancor into pure gold”, he marries the son of Montague and the daughter of Capulet in complete privacy. Without the knowledge of Juliet’s parents: the Capulets, they force upon their daughter a marriage to the noble house of Prince Escalus, which causes Juliet to go and take her vial of poison from the Friar. With that, Juliet would give the impression of death, mentioned previously. Balthasar would then escape to Mantua, inform his master, which would lead to the death of Romeo, causing Juliet to follow in her lover's footsteps.
Friar Laurence is responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet in three ways: the first being that he did not prevent the marriage of the two, he handed Juliet the vial of poison, and wedding the two in secrecy. Although he stated beforehand that he did not mean any harm to befall the two, the friar did mention that “these violent delights have violent ends”. To explain, the sudden joys of life will have sudden endings, just “like fire and powder”, which can explode in a quick and abrupt manner.
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glossary
Amerce: to punish, by forcing a fine
Aqua vitae: another way of saying alcohol or liquor
Atomi: creatures the size of atoms
Bedaubed: coated or smeared with blood
Behoveful: necessary, required
Benedicte: latin for "bless you" as a greeting
Caitiff: another way to describe "wretched"
Countervail: to match or equal
Cynthia's brow: the moon
Demesnes: the leftover land around a mansion
Descry: to detect
Disparagement: synonym for disrespect
Enmity: hatred or hostility
Fatal loins: fateful and/or unfortunate
Gossamers: cobwebs usually found floating in air or near bushes
Harlotry: baleful behavior
Intercession: prayers and/or petitions
Jaunce: to trudge and down
Lour: to scowl and/or to frown upon
Mammet: a doll or puppet or pawn
Obsequies: the funeral rites
Orisons: holy prayers
Presage: to predict or to forecast
Prorouge: to postpone or to delay
Rancour: continuing hate or ill will
Star-cross'd lovers: lovers destined for a tragic or unhappy fate
Surcease: to cease or to stop
Tetchy: touchy or peevish
Wherefore: why
Zounds: an oath, a swearing
Aqua vitae: another way of saying alcohol or liquor
Atomi: creatures the size of atoms
Bedaubed: coated or smeared with blood
Behoveful: necessary, required
Benedicte: latin for "bless you" as a greeting
Caitiff: another way to describe "wretched"
Countervail: to match or equal
Cynthia's brow: the moon
Demesnes: the leftover land around a mansion
Descry: to detect
Disparagement: synonym for disrespect
Enmity: hatred or hostility
Fatal loins: fateful and/or unfortunate
Gossamers: cobwebs usually found floating in air or near bushes
Harlotry: baleful behavior
Intercession: prayers and/or petitions
Jaunce: to trudge and down
Lour: to scowl and/or to frown upon
Mammet: a doll or puppet or pawn
Obsequies: the funeral rites
Orisons: holy prayers
Presage: to predict or to forecast
Prorouge: to postpone or to delay
Rancour: continuing hate or ill will
Star-cross'd lovers: lovers destined for a tragic or unhappy fate
Surcease: to cease or to stop
Tetchy: touchy or peevish
Wherefore: why
Zounds: an oath, a swearing