Prologue: The Chorus tells us two feuding families in Verona, the Montagues and Capulets, will lose their children, "a pair of star-crossed lovers", to death.
Act 1: Romeo, a Montague, gatecrashes the Capulet party and falls in love with Juliet. They learn each other's names too late.
Act 2: Juliet appears above at a window while Romeo speaks from below, often staged as a balcony scene. Friar Laurence secretly marries them, hoping to end the feud.
Act 3: Tybalt kills Mercutio; Romeo kills Tybalt and is banished. Capulet insists Juliet marry Paris.
Act 4: Juliet takes a potion to appear dead to avoid the marriage; Friar Laurence plans to tell Romeo.
Act 5: Romeo does not get the message, hears Juliet is dead, buys poison and dies at her tomb. Juliet wakes, finds him dead and stabs herself. The families reconcile.
An upper window and enclosed orchard
Characters
Romeo is passionate and often hasty; Juliet is young, questioning and increasingly determined. Mercutio uses wit; Tybalt responds aggressively to perceived insults. The Nurse and Friar offer support but make consequential choices. Capulet’s approach to Juliet’s marriage changes; Benvolio attempts peace.
How the conflict develops
Context
Probably composed around 1595–96. Its imagined Verona and family conflict may be read alongside early modern concerns about household authority, marriage, honour and belief. Practices and views varied. Use religious language, family demands or references to stars as textual evidence rather than asserting one universal audience response.
Context must meet the text
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