- Author: William Shakespeare
- Year: 1597
- Famous for: Feuding families, a potion that mimics death, the lovers’ double-suicide.
- Main character: Romeo, a girl-crazy Montague teen, and Juliet, his forbidden Capulet love.
Boy meets girl. Boy marries girl. Boy and girl commit suicide.
Who can resist a story like that? Evidently, no one. After all, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is the world’s most popular melodrama.
Of course, there’s more to Romeo and Juliet than our snarky, one-line plot summary. There are great characters—passionate Romeo and naïve Juliet, scheming Friar Lawrence, sarcastic Mercutio, hot-headed Tybalt. There are famous lines—“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?”
And there is the irresistible lure of love-against-all-odds. In Romeo and Juliet, the love of two young lovers must withstand the assaults of prejudice, bigotry, revenge—in short, just about every impulse known to civilization. Big stuff. Big story.
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