Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare - Book Report/Review Example

the action moves to the hall of old Capulets house, then to the orchard below Juliets balcony, then to Friar Lawrence’s cell and finally the play ends in the vault where the Capulet family and the Montague family have come to mourn their dead children. The play is spread over five days. The Prologue in the play establishes that the play will be a tragedy and that Romeo of the Montague family and Juliet of the Capulet family, belonging to two feuding families, will love and die in the course of the play.

The play begins with a fight between the servants of two prestigious families, the Capulets and the Montagues, of Verona, Italy. These two families have been locked in a feud for quite some time now. Sampson and Gregory, the servants of the Capulet family and Abraham and Balthasar, servants of the Montague family start a street fight and are soon joined by Benvolio Montague and Tybalt Capulet. When Escalus, the Prince of Verona learns of this fight, he declares that their next public fight will be punished by a death penalty.

After the fight Benvolio, a cousin of Romeo, tries to cheer Romeo. At that time Romeo reveals that he is in love with Rosaline, but that she has decided that she will live a life of chastity. Romeo and Benvolio get invited to their enemy’s party. Romeo is convinced by Benvolio to attend the party. At the party, Romeo meets a young lady named Juliet of the Capulet family. They fall in love, but do not realize that their families are bitter enemies. When they come to know that their families are enemies, they are devastated.

Here Juliet says, Juliet speaks these lines in perhaps the most famous scene often referred to as the balcony scene in the play. She asks why Romeo had to be a Montague, the son of the greatest enemy of her family. She asks him to renounce his family for her and adds that if he will not do it, she will renounce her family. She also says, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other word would