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William Shakespeare. It sounds like something you’d see carved in marble.

But let’s not forget that at one time, “Billy the Bard” Shakespeare (no one called him that, by the way—certainly not to his face), was a money-grubbing playwright and part-time theater operator with one mission: To pack his audience with people who bought tickets. That meant Mr. Shakespeare would do anything—anything!—to keep his story humming, and his audience entertained. The plot of Romeo and Juliet is a case in point. Give us 60 seconds and you’ll see what we mean.

Video Transcription:

Shakespeare sets it out for you right at the beginning: The story of Romeo and Juliet is going to be a tragedy. So how do we get from the opening … to lost love and hideous death? Let’s take a look.

There’s a town named Verona where two families hate each others’ guts. Which wouldn’t be a problem if they’d keep it to themselves, but there’s fighting in the streets … and then, young Romeo, a Montague, attends a Capulet feast and finds himself madly in love with Juliet, Capulet’s daughter.

There’s passion! There are flowery statements in rhyme.

Then Romeo, who has already shown himself to have questionable judgment when it comes to women, decides to set things up with the Friar so that he and Juliet can be married the next day.

Well, of course that’s a bad idea—and the badness spills out into the rest of the play.

Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, can’t believe Romeo would even show his face at the feast, and the next thing you know, the guys are duking it out in the street. Tybalt kills Mercutio, Romeo’s pal, and Romeo kills Tybalt.

Things only get worse from there.

Romeo is banished. Juliet is promised to another man. Juliet fakes her death so she can escape with Romeo, but the news doesn’t reach Romeo in time. Returning to what he thinks is a dead Juliet, Romeo kills himself, and THEN Juliet wakes up from her drug-sleep and kills herself.

But at least the two families reconcile in the end, right?