Shakespeare "Romeo and Juliet" - summary

The Capulets and the Montagues, two aristocratic families from Verona, Italy, are in a long-standing feud that leads them to carnage in the streets. However, Romeo, the young heir to the head of the Montecchi family, pays little attention to this civil strife. He has another concern - unrequited love for a certain beauty, who is cold as ice.

Cousin, Benvolio, advises Romeo to overcome his hopeless passion, paying attention to other girls. In the Capulet house, a noisy celebration is being prepared with the participation of many local young ladies. Benvolio invites Romeo to go there with him. The Capulets will never let in any of their sworn enemies, the Montagues, but it will be possible to sneak into a crowded gathering in disguise.

Hiding under masks and defying the considerable danger of being recognized, Romeo, Benvolio and their perky friend Mercutio go to the Capulet's feast. In this family, the 14-year-old beauty Juliet is growing up, to whom a respected relative of the local duke, Paris, is already wooing. However, Juliet herself does not yet want to get married.

Of all the ladies present at the ball, Romeo immediately singles out Juliet. He doesn't know who she is yet. Fascinated by the girl, Romeo approaches her and asks for permission to kiss her hand. The sophisticated stranger also makes a big impression on Juliet. Through the nurse Juliet, both of them learn each other's names and understand: the deadly enmity of their families will be an almost insurmountable obstacle to the emerging love.

Fragments from the feature film "Romeo and Juliet". Music by Nino Rota

Act two

Losing his head with passion, Romeo climbs over the wall of the Capulet garden late at night and hides at Juliet's balcony. Soon she comes to him, talking aloud about her irrepressible attraction to the young Montecchi. Romeo steps out of the shadows and makes a passionate love confession to Juliet. The girl is seized with confusion. She remembers the indomitable family feud, is afraid of insidious deceit, but in the end agrees to marry Romeo. Tomorrow morning, Juliet's emissary will have to ask Romeo for the time and place of the ceremony.

Romeo asks for the wedding of his confessor, the Franciscan monk Lorenzo. Wise Lorenzo scolds the young man for excessive vehemence and reminds: unbridled passions can lead to a disastrous end. However, the monk still agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet - in the hope that their marriage will reconcile the bloody family strife.

Juliet sends her nurse to Romeo. He conveys: let his beloved come to Lorenzo today at noon, as if for confession, but in fact for the wedding. Juliet arrives and the monk secretly performs the ceremony. Romeo gives the nurse a rope ladder. After sunset, she must lower her from Juliet's balcony so that Romeo can climb up there and spend his wedding night with his wife.

Act three

On the same day, shortly after the wedding, Juliet's cousin, the bully Tybalt, starts a quarrel with Romeo's friend, Mercutio, in the town square. The skirmish turns into a sword fight. Romeo, who appeared on the square, tries to separate the duelists, but Tybalt, from under his hand, treacherously inflicts a mortal wound on Mercutio.

Boiling with anger, Romeo himself rushes with a sword at Tybalt and kills him. A crowd is gathering around. The prince of Verona, Escalus, who came, condemns Romeo for murder to exile from the city.

The Nurse informs Juliet of these sad news. Love for Romeo overshadows the girl's longing for the death of her cousin, and she is not going to refuse a nightly date with her lover.

Young spouses spend an unforgettable night together, and hardly part in the morning. Both Romeo and Juliet are tormented by this parting foreboding.

Farewell Romeo and Juliet on the balcony. Illustration for the play by W. Shakespeare. Artist F. B. Dixie, 1884

Immediately after Romeo's departure, the Capulet parents inform Juliet: they have betrothed her to Paris, and the marriage will take place in three days. The girl in tears refuses this marriage, but her parents remain adamant and threaten to kick her daughter out of the house for her stubbornness.

act four

On the advice of the monk Lorenzo, Romeo leaves Verona for neighboring Mantua - with the hope that his friends will soon beg the prince to pardon him. Meanwhile, a desperate Juliet comes running to Lorenzo and tells her that her parents are giving her away to Paris. The girl asks the monk to find some way out, threatening to commit suicide otherwise.

The priest finds only one - very dangerous - solution. Being a connoisseur of herbs, he knows how to prepare a tincture that puts a person into such a deep sleep for 42 hours that he looks like he is dead. If Juliet is not afraid to drink this drug, her parents will think that she is dead and will bury her in the family crypt. Lorenzo will send a messenger to Romeo. He will come from Mantua at night, secretly pick up the awakened wife right from the tomb and take him away.

In selfless determination, Juliet agrees to this risky plan. Having delighted her parents with feigned consent to marriage with Paris, on the eve of the wedding, she drinks the flask received from Lorenzo. In the morning, her father and mother find her lifeless and carry her to the crypt right in her wedding dress.

act five

Lorenzo sends a messenger to Mantua, but he is not allowed to leave Verona because of the epidemic. Meanwhile, news of Juliet's death reaches the exiled Romeo. He buys poison and decides to go home to commit suicide at his wife's body.

Romeo arrives at the cemetery at night and begins to open the Capulet's tomb. Juliet's inconsolable fiance, Paris, also comes there. Seeing Romeo, he decides that a member of the Montecchi clan planned to desecrate the remains of his old enemies, and enters into a duel with swords with him. Romeo kills Paris, then enters the crypt and, tenderly looking at the features of his wife who has not yet regained consciousness, drinks poison.

Lorenzo also comes to the tomb, deciding to shelter Juliet in his house until the moment when Romeo can be summoned from Mantua. Romeo's servant tells the monk about the events that have just happened here. At this time, Juliet wakes up and sees next to her the dead bodies of her husband and groom. Unable to survive the death of Romeo, she is stabbed with his own dagger.

Guards run to the grave. Prince Escalus arrives and the heads of the Montecchi and Capulet families. Lorenzo tells everyone about the secret marriage of Romeo and Juliet and the tragic ending of their love. In the midst of bitter lamentations over the innocent victims, the Montague and Capulet families decide to end their fatal feud.

The end of Shakespeare's tragedy. Reconciliation of the heads of the Capulet and Montague families over the dead bodies of children. Artist F. Leighton, c. 1850s