Romeo and Juliet

• Verona: the Montagues and Capulets are locked in a blood feud. Street brawls, swordfights, civic disorder • Romeo (Montague) crashes a Capulet party and sees Juliet. Instant, overwhelming love at first sight • The balcony scene: they declare their love. "What's in a name?" — the feud is just words, but words kill • Friar Lawrence secretly marries them, hoping the union will end the feud. It won't • Tybalt (Juliet's cousin) challenges Romeo. Romeo refuses to fight (he's now family). Mercutio fights instead and is killed • Romeo kills Tybalt in revenge. He's banished from Verona. One night with Juliet, then exile • Juliet's father arranges her marriage to Count Paris. She's already married. No one she can tell • Friar Lawrence's plan: Juliet takes a potion that simulates death. Romeo will be told, come to the tomb, they'll flee together • The message to Romeo never arrives. He hears Juliet is dead. Buys poison. Goes to the tomb • Kills Paris at the tomb entrance. Takes poison beside Juliet's body. Dies • Juliet wakes, finds Romeo dead, stabs herself with his dagger • The Prince: "All are punished." The families reconcile over their children's corpses • The play's engine: speed. Everything happens in 4 days. The urgency is the tragedy