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PLAYS: Romeo and Juliet
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This recently glorified play tells
the story of two "star-crossed lovers"
who defy their family's feuds and get married.
Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet meet at a
costumed party at the Capulet estate. They fall
instantly in love and decide to marry. Juliet was
supposed to wed Paris, a noble her parents had
deemed appropriate for her. Juliet did not want
to marry Paris, and so confided in her nurse. Her
nurse, a large woman, becomes something of a
messenger to the two lovers. After speaking with
a local priest, the two children (they are only
in their teens) become married. The marriage is
hidden from the families as they are fighting
over an issue both sides have long forgotten.
Romeo is so overwhelmed with his love for Juliet
that he innocently tells his foe Tybalt of his
love for him. Thinking Romeo is mocking him,
Tybalt attempts to fight Romeo. Romeo's cousin
Mercutio leaps to Romeo's defense, and in the
fray, Mercutio is killed. Romeo is so enraged
that in a flash of anger, he slashes out and
kills Tybalt. When news of the slayings reach the
Prince, he takes into consideration Mercutio's
death and banishes Romeo from Verona-and, in
effect, Juliet.
This event tears the two apart. The friar
Laurence, however, devises a plan. Juliet is to
feign her death, and, when buried, Romeo will
awaken her and the two will venture off together.
The plan would have worked beautifully, only
Romeo never got the letter telling him Juliet's
death was staged. He weeps for her, and kills
himself in her presence at her family's tomb.
Juliet awakens soon after that, and finding her
Romeo dead from a lethal poison, uses his knife
to take her own life.
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