If I tell you to name a Shakespeare play, what’s the first one that springs to mind?
For most, it’s “Romeo and Juliet.” It’s not just a great Shakespeare play for beginners, but undeniably one of the greatest love stories of all time.
We all know that The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is about star-crossed lovers who get themselves into a lot of trouble. However, that’s basically the plot of every modern teen romance, from Twilight to Riverdale.
So what sets Romeo and Juliet apart and makes it the definitive tragic love story?
Why has it engrossed audiences for centuries and inspired countless spin-offs, while it only takes a few decades for most rom-droms to end up in the cultural trash heap?
In a nutshell, Romeo and Juliet is the real thing. Like all Shakespeare’s plays, it captures eternal themes about human experience‒ something that most romance novels try to grasp, but can only imitate.
By comparison, even the most popular modern romance dramas fall flat.
In fact, they often have to rely on amped-up drama and over-the-top sexual content in order to keep their audiences hooked. (Sorry to call you out, Vampire Diaries and Fifty Shades of Grey).
If you’re ready to understand what sets Romeo and Juliet apart and why it’s relevant to your life, this article is for you. (Don’t worry if you’re a beginner - we’ll start with a summary of Romeo and Juliet to get you familiar with the play.)
Summary of Romeo and Juliet
Act 1
In the streets of Verona, Italy, two noble families - the Montagues and the Capulets - are locked in a violent feud. The play opens as a street fight breaks out between servants of these families.
Verona’s ruler, the Prince, arrives to end the battle. Attempting to end the violence plaguing the city, he announces that anyone caught fighting in the future will be punished by death.
Meanwhile, Romeo Montague, the son of Lord Montague, runs into his cousin Benvolio. Romeo tells Benvolio that he is miserable because has been scorned by a beautiful woman named Rosaline.
At the Capulet house, a nobleman named Paris approaches Lord Capulet. Paris asks for the hand of Capulet’s daughter, Juliet, in marriage.
Capulet approves of the match but feels that Juliet may be too young to marry. Instead of consenting outright, Capulet invites Paris to a masquerade ball he is holding, hoping that Juliet will meet and fall in love with him there.
In the streets of Verona, Benvolio and Romeo meet a Capulet servant who is carrying the list of invitees to the ball. Benvolio convinces Romeo to sneak into the party so that Romeo can find a more beautiful woman than Rosaline to love, and Romeo agrees because he knows Rosaline will attend.
While preparing for the party, Lady Capulet approaches her daughter Juliet to talk about Paris. Juliet has never thought about marriage before; however, she agrees to meet Paris to see if she thinks she could love him.
Still reluctant, Romeo sneaks into the masquerade with Benvolio and their wild friend Mercutio.
Inside the Capulet estate, Romeo and Juliet see one another from a distance and fall in love instantly. Not knowing one another’s names, they banter and kiss.
As the party forces them apart, they each learn the other’s identity and that they have fallen in love with their families’ enemies.
While Romeo’s friends leave, he sneaks into the Capulets’ orchard to catch another glimpse of Juliet.
Act 2
Romeo watches while Juliet emerges onto the balcony overlooking the orchard. After listening to her ponder out loud about her love for him, Romeo shows himself and they both confess their love.
Romeo turns to his friend Friar Lawrence and begs him to perform a secret marriage. The Friar agrees, hoping that the marriage will bring the bloody feud between the families to an end.
The next day, Romeo and Juliet meet at the Friar’s cell and are secretly married.
Act 3
The following day, before Romeo and Juliet have met after their wedding, another fight breaks out between the Capulets and Montagues. This time, Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, picks a fight with Benvolio and Mercutio.
Tybalt saw Romeo at the masquerade ball. Enraged that Romeo infiltrated the Capulet house, Tybalt challenges him to a duel when he enters the scene.
Not wanting to hurt Juliet’s cousin, Romeo tries to stop the fight. However, Mercutio leaps in to duel Tybalt instead.
As Romeo tries to force the two apart, Tybalt finds an opening to stab Mercutio, who dies. Romeo kills Tybalt in vengeance.
The Prince arrives, and recognizing that Romeo acted in self-defense, withholds capital punishment. However, he banishes Romeo, declaring that he will be put to death if he ever returns.
Romeo and Juliet spend the night together secretly in her room. Upon waking, Romeo flees the city for his life, not knowing when he will see Juliet again.
Act 4
Lord Capulet, spooked by the violence in the city, tells Juliet that she must marry Paris in three days. Juliet runs to Friar Lawrence for help.
The Friar comes up with a plan to help Juliet escape the marriage to Paris: she will drink a potion to make her appear dead, so that her family will place her in the Capulet crypt. Then, Romeo can come wake her and the lovers can escape together.
Juliet agrees to the plan and returns home to drink the potion. Her family discovers her apparently lifeless body and places her in the crypt.
Act 5
The messenger sent to tell Romeo about the escape plan gets delayed. Instead of understanding his part in the plan, Romeo only hears the news that Juliet is dead.
Now suicidal, Romeo talks an apothecary into selling him deadly poison. He sneaks back into the city and enters the Capulet crypt, killing Paris along the way.
Discovering Juliet’s body, Romeo drinks the poison and dies by her side.
Moments later, Juliet wakes up and discovers his body. Realizing what happened, she takes Romeo’s dagger and stabs herself, preferring to die than to live without him.
Every great tragedy ends on a note of hope amidst the gloom. Romeo and Juliet is no exception.
When the Prince, the Montagues, and the Capulets come rushing into the crypt and find their children lying dead, Friar Lawrence explains the tragic story. In response, the warring families decide to end their feud so that no further bloodshed can occur.
Finally, Verona’s bloody war has ended, and there is hope for a peaceful future.
Themes in Romeo and Juliet
Like all great stories, Romeo and Juliet presents eternal themes.
We don’t all live in Renaissance Italy, nor feel the pressures of clan feuds and forced marriages. However, the themes of Romeo and Juliet speak to human experiences that we all have.
Divided Loyalties
Have you ever had to choose between two loyalties that both seemed unbreakable?
Romeo loved his cousins as if they were his brothers. However, he chose Juliet over them, which inadvertently led to Mercutio’s death.
Juliet loved her parents and nurse dearly. She valued their approval enough to be open to marrying Paris because they asked her to (before she met Romeo).
She had to choose between her family and Romeo, which led to Paris’s death.
Shakespeare seems to be warning us that when we divide our loyalties, there are always consequences. He’s cautioning us to consider the consequences before we decide what side we are really on.
Duty vs. Passion
In Shakespeare’s time, marriages of duty were common. Today, the idea is almost unheard-of in the West.
We tend to rely on our emotions and passions for guidance, but for Shakespeare’s audience, duty held a more important place.
However, Shakespeare compellingly presents the tension between the two. After all, if Juliet had followed her father’s wishes for her to marry Paris as she originally intended to do, there would have been much less collateral damage.
In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare creates a situation in which it’s not easy to tell what the right thing is to do: follow through on one’s duty, or follow one’s heart?
Risk vs. Safety
Romeo and Juliet felt the full fervor of young love in its glorious, all-consuming intensity.
It made them willing to risk everything - and they lost everything.
When you watch Romeo and Juliet, you feel the magnetic intensity of their romance. You want to feel that emotional whirlwind too.
At the same time, the story shows us how dangerous it can be when our passions take the reins.
The play forces us to ask ourselves: is the ecstasy of unbridled romance worth the risk? Or is it worth it to temper our emotions with some practicality?
Fate vs. Choice
The prologue tells us that Romeo and Juliet are “star-crossed lovers.” This means that the forces of the universe are working against their love, so they are destined to have a tragic end.
Elsewhere in the play, Romeo also hints that he thinks that fate working against him: “Some consequence, still hanging in the stars, shall bitterly begin,” he warns, before agreeing to attend the Capulets’ masquerade.
Shakespeare suggests that Romeo and Juliet never had a chance at a happy ending because greater forces opposed them. Their choices couldn’t overcome their destiny.
However, take a look at the play for yourself. Do you think their choices mattered?
Can you see any choices they could have made differently to change their ending?
Next time you end up in a situation where it feels like fate is working against you, consider that you might not be as star-crossed as you think.
Best Romeo and Juliet Adaptations
Romeo and Juliet (1968)
Franco Zeffirelli’s adaptation comes across as a traditional Shakespearean play.
Don’t be intimidated by the Renaissance costumes and harpsichord music, though.
Zeffirelli's adaptation is visceral, violent, and personal. By the balcony scene, this version sheds the stuffy period costuming and feels breathless and primal.
In this version, the actors are almost as young as the characters they portray (Juliet is thirteen in the play).
Seeing the characters represented as so young adds a level of urgency to the drama. It drives home the point that this tense, violent love story surrounds something we’ve all experienced: an innocent teen crush.
William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (1996)
Baz Luhrmann’s iconic modernization keeps Shakespeare’s language intact, but gets creative with every other aspect. Set in “Verona Beach,” the rival gangs of Montague and Capulet feud among palm trees and burned-out beachscapes.
Young Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes bring this campy, imaginative, and brutal adaptation to life. Watch it for the goosebump-inducing love-at-first-sight scene, and to see Paul Rudd in an astronaut costume.
West Side Story (2021)
While not a direct adaptation, the classic musical is closely based on Romeo and Juliet. It reimagines the family feud of Verona as the gang wars between white and Puerto Rican residents of New York City’s West Side.
The 2021 film version, directed by Steven Spielberg, adds vibrant visuals and breathtaking choreography. Its near-perfect audience rating says it all.
Famous Romeo and Juliet Quotes
“Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?”
-Act 2 Scene 2
Juliet’s famous line from the balcony scene is often misunderstood to mean that she is looking for Romeo.
“Wherefore” doesn’t mean “where,” as in, “Where are you, Romeo?” Rather, it means “why”?
Juliet is pondering why Romeo, the man she just fell in love with, has to be a Montague. She explains that she loves everything about him, except for his name, which is the name of her enemy.
She raises a complicated question: can she separate the man she loves from his identity?
If you have ever been in love with someone who has traits you can’t reconcile with, you understand the tension Juliet is expressing. Can you separate the unacceptable traits of a person you love from who they really are?
"A plague on both your houses!"
-Act 3, Scene 1
Mercutio shouts this line as he dies in his duel with Tybalt.
Mercutio is the wildest character in the play and loves to pick a fight, but he’s neither a Capulet nor a Montague. The senseless feud costs him his life, so he curses both families as he dies.
Interestingly, it’s the spread of a plague (and the resulting isolation measures taken in response) that ultimately impedes Friar Lawrence’s messenger from delivering details of the plan to Romeo in Verona.
So in retrospect, Mercutio’s words can also be viewed as having a curse-like quality to them.
This line is often quoted to mean that both opponents in a grievance are to blame and that the speaker refuses to take sides in a dangerous conflict.
"I defy you, stars!"
-Act 5 Scene 1
When Romeo hears the news that Juliet is apparently dead, he screams that he defies the stars. Although he has lost the love of his life, he won’t accept the fate he has been given; instead, he takes desperate action.
When fate seems to stonewall us, we all have a choice: to accept what seems inevitable, or keep fighting.
Remember this quotation for when you feel the urge to rebel against the stars.
What Sets Romeo and Juliet Apart?
There are many good love stories in the Western canon (and many not-so-good ones out there, too).
So what is it that sets Romeo and Juliet apart as a great one? Well, a tragedy isn’t just a story where things go wrong and people die.
Instead, it’s a story where things almost worked out for the characters that we loved and identified with.
In Romeo and Juliet, there were many chances for things to turn out differently. But whether you call it fate, chance, bad decisions, or immaturity, the story ended with the worst possible outcome.
We’re left agonizing over how close Romeo and Juliet came to getting their happy ending. Just like when things go wrong in real life, we’re haunted by what could have been.
Romeo and Juliet makes us feel the incredible romance that we all hope to have in our lives, but also the horrible experience of that romance going wrong. It’s exaggerated, yet it rings true and resonates with us.
Fall in Love With Romeo and Juliet
There’s so much more to Romeo and Juliet than I could cover here. If you want to take a deeper dive, check out the best Shakespeare podcasts.
Ultimately, we can all relate to the experience of being a teenager desperately in love, so don’t overthink the story just because it’s Shakespeare.
Just read a summary of Romeo and Juliet, find an adaptation that attracts you, grab some tissues, and fall in love.
Shakespeare’s plays have so much to teach us about love, sexuality, and many other issues that are vital to our lives.
In fact, they have so much to teach that I wrote a book to get you started.
Click the link above to download your free copy of The Bard and the Bees: What Shakespeare taught me about sex, evil, and life in the modern world.
Until next time,
-Evan