Opening Prologue
- reveals what will happen during the play
- Montague and Capulet are rich, feuding families, extreme hatred between the families
- Chorus reveals an important theme of the play: that Romeo and Juliet are destined to be with one another,and to die, which will end the feud
- The tone of the play is set (danger)
Scene 1 (three mini –scenes)
1.
- fighting between the servants
- servants add comic relief to the play
- the fact that the servants from each household are fighting shows that this feud has gone too far
- public fighting takes place in the city of Verona – includes Benvolio (peace maker), Tybalt, Prince, Lord Capulet and Lord Montague
- Prince threatens to execute (kill) any member of either family if another feud breaks out
2.
- Montague, Lady Montague and Benvolio discuss Romeo
- parents can’t understand what is wrong with Romeo
- Benvolio offers to talk to Romeo and figure out what is wrong with him
3.
- Romeo is depressed, and sad (melancholy) because he is pining away for Rosaline
- Benvolio promises to snap Romeo out of his depressions, by showing Romeo other women
Scene 2
- scene begins with Capulet and Paris
- Paris reminds Capulet of his desire to marry Juliet
- Capulet is concerned with Juliet being so young
- he tells Paris to come to the party, that there may be other women who might interest him
Scene 3
- we are finally introduced to Juliet
- the nurse talks a lot about her taking care of Juliet as a child
- Lady Capulet tell Juliet the “good news” – that Paris wants to marry her
- Juliet quickly replies that she has never thought about marriage, despite the fact that many girls younger than her are already married with children
- Lady Capulet, compares the beauty of Paris to a good novel
- Juliet tells her mother she will try to like him, but there are no guarantees
Scene 4
- the most important part of this scene is where the men (Mercutio, Benvolio and Romeo) discuss love...