James Baquet

Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” are often held up as paradigms of romantic love. But do you know what happened in the play? Are they really good role models for young lovers to follow?

The story begins in a fictionalized Verona, Italy, where two families, the Montagues and the Capulets, have lived in enmity for years. At the time of the story, bloodshed has erupted, with younger members of each household brawling in the streets, despite admonitions by a local noble, Count Paris.

Romeo, scion of the Montagues, is depressed because he has been jilted by his would-be lover Rosaline. His cousin Benvolio and friend Mercutio convince him to crash a party at the Capulets’, where he falls in love with old Capulet’s young daughter Juliet — not knowing who she is.

After learning her identity, Romeo sneaks into the Capulets’ garden, where he overhears her repeating his name from her balcony: “Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?” (“Wherefore art thou” means “why are you”; she is lamenting that he is the son of her father’s enemy.) He reveals himself to her, and with the help of the girl’s aged nurse, the couple are secretly married by a family friend, Friar Laurence, the next day.

Juliet’s cousin Tybalt, who had seen Romeo at the party, then challenges him to a duel. Romeo now considers Tybalt family and will not fight with him. Mercutio, Romeo’s friend, takes up the challenge, and is killed in the fight. In grief and guilt, Romeo kills Tybalt, for which Count Paris banishes him from Verona.

In order to escape a forced marriage to the Count, Juliet drinks a potion to fake her death, part of a plan by the crafty Friar Laurence. The Friar sends a message to Romeo in Mantua to inform him of the plan, but the messenger is delayed by a quarantine. However, Romeo’s servant, Balthasar, gets through and reports Juliet’s “death.”

Believing Juliet dead, Romeo rushes back to Verona and the Capulet crypt, where he finds Juliet’s “corpse” lying. He drinks a poison and, just as he dies, she awakes to find him there and stabs herself with his dagger. The two families, seeing the folly of their ways, agree to end their feud.

Vocabulary:

Which words above mean:

1. long-running fight, often between families and frequently violent

2. dead body

3. warnings

4. intended, wished-for

5. fight between two people

6. broke out

7. rejected by a lover

8. room for holding the dead

9. foolishness

10. fighting between crowds