A+Longer+Plot+Summary

A Longer Plot Summary

**Prologue** **We learn that this play will be a tragedy and that the children (Romeo and Juliet) of two feuding families both alike in virtue, will both love and die...** Setting the scene, we learn by choir of "Two households, both alike in dignity," (two households or families of equal status), (Line 1) in the fair city of Verona. The "ancient grudge" (feud) between these two families has now developed to "new mutiny," involving "civil blood", a reference to increasing violence between the two families on Verona's streets. The Prologue outlines the life of the play. We learn that, "From forth the fatal loins of these two foes" (from the loins of these two opposed families / from their children), a reference to the heads of the two families, "A pair of star-cross'd lovers [Romeo and Juliet] take their life; / Whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows" results in the burial of these two lovers and "their parents' strife" (their parent's grief), (Line 8). The Prologue explains that the audience will follow "The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love," (the sad events of their death marked love), the ongoing rage of their parents and ultimately their tragic death. In the Prologue, we are told to be patient; "What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend" (Line 13).

Act 1