what is the summary of the play romeo and juliet?
Favorite Answer
sommat on them lines anyway
so she did, but she did’nt.
then he did because he thought she did.
and then she realy did.
hope this helps…
Later, Count Paris, a young nobleman, talks to Lord Capulet about marrying his thirteen-year-old daughter, Juliet. Capulet demurs, citing the girl’s tender age, and invites him to attract the attention of Juliet during a ball that the family is to hold that night. Juliet’s mother tries to persuade her daughter to accept Paris’ courtship during this ball; and Juliet says that although she will make an effort to love him, she will not express love that is not there. In this scene Juliet’s nurse is introduced as a talkative and humorous character who has raised Juliet from infancy.
Meantime, Benvolio queries his cousin Romeo, Lord Montague’s son, to find out the source of his melancholy. He discovers that it stems from an unrequited love for a girl named Rosaline, Capulet’s niece. Upon the insistence of Benvolio and another friend, Mercutio, Romeo decides to attend the masquerade ball at the Capulet house, in hope of meeting Rosaline. Alongside his masked friends, Romeo attends the ball as planned, but falls in love with Juliet, and she with him. Despite the danger brought on by their feuding families, Romeo sneaks into the Capulet courtyard and overhears Juliet on her balcony vowing her love to him. He makes himself known to her, and the two declare their love for each other and agree to be married. With the help of the Franciscan Friar Lawrence, who hopes to reconcile the two families through their children’s union, the two are married secretly the next day.
All seems well until Tybalt, Juliet’s hot-blooded cousin, challenges Romeo to a duel for appearing at the Capulets’ ball in disguise. Though no one is aware of the marriage yet, Romeo refuses to fight Tybalt since they are now kinsmen. Mercutio is incensed by Tybalt’s insolence, and accepts the duel on Romeo’s behalf. In the ensuing scuffle, Mercutio is fatally wounded when Romeo tries to separate them. Romeo, angered by his friend’s death, pursues and slays Tybalt, then flees.
Despite his promise to call for the head of the wrong-doers, the Prince merely exiles Romeo from Verona, reasoning that Tybalt first killed Mercutio, and that Romeo merely carried out a just punishment of death to Tybalt, although without legal authority. Juliet grieves at the news, and Lord Capulet, misinterpreting her grief, agrees to engage her to marry Paris in three days’ time, threatening to disown her if she does not. The Nurse, once Juliet’s confidante, now tells her she should discard the exiled Romeo and comply. Juliet desperately visits Friar Lawrence for help. He offers her a drug which will put her into a death-like coma for forty-two hours. She is to take it, and, when discovered apparently dead, she will be laid in the family crypt. While in her sleep, the Friar will send a messenger to inform Romeo, so that she can rejoin him when she awakes.
The messenger, however, does not reach Romeo. Romeo instead learns of Juliet’s “death” from his servant Balthasar. Grief-stricken, he buys poison from an apothecary, returns to Verona in secret, and visits the Capulet crypt. He encounters Paris, who has come to mourn Juliet privately. Paris confronts Romeo, believing him to be a vandal, and in the ensuing battle Romeo kills Paris. He then says his final words to the comatose Juliet and drinks the poison to commit suicide. Juliet then awakes. Friar Lawrence arrives and, aware of the cause of the tragedy, begs Juliet to leave, but she refuses. At the side of Romeo’s dead body, she stabs herself with her lover’s dagger.
The feuding families and the Prince meet at the tomb to find the three dead. In explanation, Friar Lawrence recounts the story of the two lovers. Montague reveals that his wife has died of grief after hearing of her son’s exile. The families are reconciled by their children’s deaths and agree to end their violent feud. The play ends with the Prince’s brief elegy for the lovers: “For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”
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