Romeo and Juliet

Roles

• Romeo - Teenager (13-19), Young Adult (20-35), Male

About this piece

Juliet expresses her love for Romeo

Summary

In the city of Verona we find two quarreling families, the Montegues and the Capulets. Romeo belongs to the Montegue family and Juliet to the Capulets. In this first scene of the play a fight takes place between servants and kinsmen of the two families until the Prince of Verona stops them. Benvolio runs into his cousin Romeo who tells him he is in love with Rosaline who has sworn to live a life of chastity and therefore does not return her love. Benvolio advices him to forget about her but Romeo won't listen to him. The Capulets throw a masquerade party at their house. Capulet, the father of the Capulet family asks Paris, a kinsman to the Prince, to meet his daughter Juliet at the party and court her. He wants him to marry her but wait at least two years since she is thirteen years old. Mercutio convinces his friend Romeo to join him and his friends at the Capulet party. Romeo is reluctant but then accepts to go. There he meets Juliet and instantly falls in love. He meets her and they kiss. Juliet doesn't know that Romeo is a Montegue and later finds out from her nurse. Tybalt, Juliet's cousin, notices that they are at his party and wants to start a fight but is stopped by Capulet. Romeo and his friends leave the party but then Romeo decides to go back and meet Juliet again. He climbs into the Capulet's orchard and there he sees Juliet at the window. He wants to speak to her but then decides not to. In this monologue, in ACT II, Scene 2, Juliet, not knowing that Romeo is there, expresses her love for him and laments the fact that he is a Montegue.

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