

Juliet’s cousin Tybalt finds out that Romeo attended the ball and wants to fight him.Because of the feud, Romeo and Juliet’s families would never approve of their relationship.Juliet’s family wants her to marry Paris, a count.Romeo and Juliet arrange that a secret communication will take place the next day-if he truly loves Juliet, Romeo will send her a message asking for her hand in marriage.īut here’s the catch-actually, here are several catches: “Parting is such sweet sorrow,” she laments. Then, her nurse calling for her, she must leave Romeo. Romeo presses Juliet for a deeper pledge-and she admits her feelings for him are “as boundless as the sea.” “It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden,” she worries.

But given how little they know of each other, Juliet expresses concern about their connection. Juliet is not nearly as freaked out you might expect, given that Romeo has scaled walls and risked his life to linger under her balcony.Īs Romeo puts it, “stony limits cannot hold love out.”Īs the more practical Juliet puts it, “If do see thee, they will murder thee.” Her interest in Romeo is clear and, at last, he speaks from the darkness. So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called.” “That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet. A relationship between the two teenagers would never be accepted by their families.īut Juliet opposes the feud. Romeo is a Montague and, therefore, an enemy of the Capulet family. (“Wherefore” means “why,” so Juliet is not asking where Romeo is but why he is who he is.) So here it is-the sticking point: “’Tis but thy name that is my enemy,” she says. “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” Juliet asks. “O, speak again, bright angel,” he implores. “O, that I were a glove upon that hand,” he yearns, “That I might touch that cheek!” Likewise, he marvels at her voice. He admires how Juliet’s star-like eyes “twinkle in their spheres.” He watches her movements closely. Juliet stands right above him, but Romeo decides not to let his presence be known. “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?” he asks himself of Juliet’s bright beauty. Romeo is so enamored of her beauty that he sneaks into the family’s garden so he can look up at her balcony, where Juliet stands. When Romeo sneaks into the Capulet family’s ball, he meets and dances with the lovely Juliet. In fact, the play begins with members of the two families brawling in the streets. Both Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet come from wealthy families in the kingdom of Verona (in our Italy), but the families have been fighting bitterly for years. It is the story of two lovesick teenagers whose relationship is-here’s the source of the tension- forbidden. Romeo and Juliet is not just the story of two lovesick teenagers.
