romeo and juliet essay outline

A Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Although it was first performed in the 1590s, the first  documented  performance of Romeo and Juliet is from 1662. The diarist Samuel Pepys was in the audience, and recorded that he ‘saw “Romeo and Juliet,” the first time it was ever acted; but it is a play of itself the worst that ever I heard in my life, and the worst acted that ever I saw these people do.’

Despite Pepys’ dislike, the play is one of Shakespeare’s best-loved and most famous, and the story of Romeo and Juliet is well known. However, the play has become so embedded in the popular psyche that Shakespeare’s considerably more complex play has been reduced to a few key aspects: ‘star-cross’d lovers’, a teenage love story, and the suicide of the two protagonists.

In the summary and analysis that follow, we realise that Romeo and Juliet is much more than a tragic love story.

Romeo and Juliet : brief summary

After the Prologue has set the scene – we have two feuding households, Montagues and Capulets, in the city-state of Verona; and young Romeo is a Montague while Juliet, with whom Romeo is destined to fall in love, is from the Capulet family, sworn enemies of the Montagues – the play proper begins with servants of the two feuding households taunting each other in the street.

When Benvolio, a member of house Montague, arrives and clashes with Tybalt of house Capulet, a scuffle breaks out, and it is only when Capulet himself and his wife, Lady Capulet, appear that the fighting stops. Old Montague and his wife then show up, and the Prince of Verona, Escalus, arrives and chastises the people for fighting. Everyone leaves except Old Montague, his wife, and Benvolio, Montague’s nephew. Benvolio tells them that Romeo has locked himself away, but he doesn’t know why.

Romeo appears and Benvolio asks his cousin what is wrong, and Romeo starts speaking in paradoxes, a sure sign that he’s in love. He claims he loves Rosaline, but will not return any man’s love. A servant appears with a note, and Romeo and Benvolio learn that the Capulets are holding a masked ball.

Benvolio tells Romeo he should attend, even though he is a Montague, as he will find more beautiful women than Rosaline to fall in love with. Meanwhile, Lady Capulet asks her daughter Juliet whether she has given any thought to marriage, and tells Juliet that a man named Paris would make an excellent husband for her.

Romeo attends the Capulets’ masked ball, with his friend Mercutio. Mercutio tells Romeo about a fairy named Queen Mab who enters young men’s minds as they dream, and makes them dream of love and romance. At the masked ball, Romeo spies Juliet and instantly falls in love with her; she also falls for him.

They kiss, but then Tybalt, Juliet’s kinsman, spots Romeo and recognising him as a Montague, plans to confront him. Old Capulet tells him not to do so, and Tybalt reluctantly agrees. When Juliet enquires after who Romeo is, she is distraught to learn that he is a Montague and thus a member of the family that is her family’s sworn enemies.

Romeo breaks into the gardens of Juliet’s parents’ house and speaks to her at her bedroom window. The two of them pledge their love for each other, and arrange to be secretly married the following night. Romeo goes to see a churchman, Friar Laurence, who agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet.

After the wedding, the feud between the two families becomes violent again: Tybalt kills Mercutio in a fight, and Romeo kills Tybalt in retaliation. The Prince banishes Romeo from Verona for his crime.

Juliet is told by her father that she will marry Paris, so Juliet goes to seek Friar Laurence’s help in getting out of it. He tells her to take a sleeping potion which will make her appear to be dead for two nights; she will be laid to rest in the family vault, and Romeo (who will be informed of the plan) can secretly come to her there.

However, although that part of the plan goes fine, the message to Romeo doesn’t arrive; instead, he hears that Juliet has actually died. He secretly visits her at the family vault, but his grieving is interrupted by the arrival of Paris, who is there to lay flowers. The two of them fight, and Romeo kills him.

Convinced that Juliet is really dead, Romeo drinks poison in order to join Juliet in death. Juliet wakes from her slumber induced by the sleeping draught to find Romeo dead at her side. She stabs herself.

The play ends with Friar Laurence telling the story to the two feuding families. The Prince tells them to put their rivalry behind them and live in peace.

Romeo and Juliet : analysis

How should we analyse Romeo and Juliet , one of Shakespeare’s most famous and frequently studied, performed, and adapted plays? Is Romeo and Juliet the great love story that it’s often interpreted as, and what does it say about the play – if it is a celebration of young love – that it ends with the deaths of both romantic leads?

It’s worth bearing in mind that Romeo and Juliet do not kill themselves specifically because they are forbidden to be together, but rather because a chain of events (of which their families’ ongoing feud with each other is but one) and a message that never arrives lead to a misunderstanding which results in their suicides.

Romeo and Juliet is often read as both a tragedy and a great celebration of romantic love, but it clearly throws out some difficult questions about the nature of love, questions which are rendered even more pressing when we consider the headlong nature of the play’s action and the fact that Romeo and Juliet meet, marry, and die all within the space of a few days.

Below, we offer some notes towards an analysis of this classic Shakespeare play and explore some of the play’s most salient themes.

It’s worth starting with a consideration of just what Shakespeare did with his source material. Interestingly, two families known as the Montagues and Capulets appear to have actually existed in medieval Italy: the first reference to ‘Montagues and Capulets’ is, curiously, in the poetry of Dante (1265-1321), not Shakespeare.

In Dante’s early fourteenth-century epic poem, the  Divine Comedy , he makes reference to two warring Italian families: ‘Come and see, you who are negligent, / Montagues and Capulets, Monaldi and Filippeschi / One lot already grieving, the other in fear’ ( Purgatorio , canto VI). Precisely why the families are in a feud with one another is never revealed in Shakespeare’s play, so we are encouraged to take this at face value.

The play’s most famous line references the feud between the two families, which means Romeo and Juliet cannot be together. And the line, when we stop and consider it, is more than a little baffling. The line is spoken by Juliet: ‘Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?’ Of course, ‘wherefore’ doesn’t mean ‘where’ – it means ‘why’.

But that doesn’t exactly clear up the whys and the wherefores. The question still doesn’t appear to make any sense: Romeo’s problem isn’t his first name, but his family name, Montague. Surely, since she fancies him, Juliet is quite pleased with ‘Romeo’ as he is – it’s his family that are the problem. Solutions  have been proposed to this conundrum , but none is completely satisfying.

There are a number of notable things Shakespeare did with his source material. The Italian story ‘Mariotto and Gianozza’, printed in 1476, contained many of the plot elements of Shakespeare’s  Romeo and Juliet . Shakespeare’s source for the play’s story was Arthur Brooke’s  The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet  (1562), an English verse translation of this Italian tale.

The moral of Brooke’s tale is that young love ends in disaster for their elders, and is best reined in; Shakespeare changed that. In Romeo and Juliet , the headlong passion and excitement of young love is celebrated, even though confusion leads to the deaths of the young lovers. But through their deaths, and the example their love set for their parents, the two families vow to be reconciled to each other.

Shakespeare also makes Juliet a thirteen-year-old girl in his play, which is odd for a number of reasons. We know that  Romeo and Juliet  is about young love – the ‘pair of star-cross’d lovers’, who belong to rival families in Verona – but what is odd about Shakespeare’s play is how young he makes Juliet.

In Brooke’s verse rendition of the story, Juliet is sixteen. But when Shakespeare dramatised the story, he made Juliet several years younger, with Romeo’s age unspecified. As Lady Capulet reveals, Juliet is ‘not [yet] fourteen’, and this point is made to us several times, as if Shakespeare wishes to draw attention to it and make sure we don’t forget it.

This makes sense in so far as Juliet represents young love, but what makes it unsettling – particularly for modern audiences – is the fact that this makes Juliet a girl of thirteen when she enjoys her night of wedded bliss with Romeo. As John Sutherland puts it in his (and Cedric Watts’) engaging  Oxford World’s Classics: Henry V, War Criminal?: and Other Shakespeare Puzzles , ‘In a contemporary court of law [Romeo] would receive a longer sentence for what he does to Juliet than for what he does to Tybalt.’

There appears to be no satisfactory answer to this question, but one possible explanation lies in one of the play’s recurring themes: bawdiness and sexual familiarity. Perhaps surprisingly given the youthfulness of its tragic heroine, Romeo and Juliet is shot through with bawdy jokes, double entendres, and allusions to sex, made by a number of the characters.

These references to physical love serve to make Juliet’s innocence, and subsequent passionate romance with Romeo, even more noticeable: the journey both Romeo and Juliet undertake is one from innocence (Romeo pointlessly and naively pursuing Rosaline; Juliet unversed in the ways of love) to experience.

In the last analysis, Romeo and Juliet is a classic depiction of forbidden love, but it is also far more sexually aware, more ‘adult’, than many people realise.

4 thoughts on “A Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet”

Modern reading of the play’s opening dialogue among the brawlers fails to parse the ribaldry. Sex scares the bejeepers out of us. Why? Confer “R&J.”

It’s all that damn padre’s fault!

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Romeo and Juliet

William shakespeare, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

In Renaissance-era Verona, Italy, two noble families, the Montagues and Capulets, are locked in a bitter and ancient feud whose origin no one alive can recall. After a series of public brawls between both the nobles and the servants of the two families, which shed blood and disturb the peace in Verona’s city streets, Prince Escalus , the ruler of Verona, declares that anyone in either family involved in any future fighting will be put to death.

Every year, the Capulets throw a masquerade ball. The Montagues are, of course, not invited. As Capulet and Lady Capulet fuss over the arrangements for the party, ensuring that everything is perfect for their friends and guests, they hope that their daughter Juliet will fall in love with the handsome count Paris at the ball. At 13, Juliet is nearly of marriageable age, and the Capulets believe that marrying Paris would allow their daughter to ascend the social ladder in Verona. During the party, two Montagues, 16-year-old Romeo and his cousin Benvolio , along with their bawdy, quick-tongued friend Mercutio , a kinsmen of Prince Escalus, crash the affair. Romeo attends the party reluctantly, and only because he is hoping to see Rosaline , a young woman he has been hopelessly in love with—and unsuccessfully pursuing—for quite some time. His lack of romantic success has made him noticeably forlorn as of late, much to the chagrin of his friends, who nonetheless poke fun at their lovesick friend’s melodramatic state. Tybalt , a hot-blooded member of House Capulet, notices the intrusion of the Montagues and recognizes them in spite of their masks—but when he draws his rapier and begins approaching them to provoke a fight, Capulet urges Tybalt not to embarrass their family.

When the masked Romeo spots Juliet from across the room, he instantly falls in love with her. Juliet is equally smitten. The two of them speak, exchanging suggestive jokes, and then kiss. As the party ends, Romeo and Juliet, pulled away from one another to attend to their friends and family, separately discover who the other truly is. Both are distraught—Juliet laments that her “only love [has] sprung from [her] only hate.” As the party winds down and Romeo’s friends prepare to leave, Romeo breaks off from them, jumps an orchard wall, and hides in the dark beneath Juliet’s bedroom window. She emerges onto her balcony and bemoans her forbidden love for Romeo, wishing aloud that he could “be some other name.” Romeo jumps out from his hiding place and tells Juliet that he’d do anything for her—he is determined to be with her in spite of the obstacles they face. Romeo and Juliet exchange vows of love, and Romeo promises to call upon Juliet tomorrow so they can hastily be married.

The next day, Romeo visits a kindly but philosophical friar, Friar Laurence , in his chambers. He begs Friar Laurence to marry him to his new love, Juliet. Friar Laurence urges Romeo to slow down and take his time when it comes to love: “these violent delights,” he predicts, “have violent ends.” But Romeo insists he and Juliet know what they’re doing. Friar Laurence comes around, realizing that a marriage between Romeo and Juliet could end their parents’ age-old feud. Later that day, Benvolio and Mercutio encounter Tybalt, who is furious that the Montagues crashed the Capulet party. Tybalt has, in a letter, challenged Romeo to a duel, and Mercutio and Benvolio are worried about the impulsive Romeo rising to the skilled Tybalt’s challenge. When Romeo shows up to find Tybalt, Benvolio, and Mercutio exchanging verbal barbs and teetering on the edge of a fight, Romeo does all he can to resist dueling with Tybalt. He and Juliet have just hastily visited Friar Laurence’s chambers together and are now married. Romeo doesn’t want to fight Tybalt, who is now technically his kinsman—but he knows he can’t reveal the truth to Tybalt, either. Before Romeo can explain his reasons for hesitating, Mercutio disgustedly steps in and challenges Tybalt to a duel himself. Romeo tries to separate them, but Tybalt stabs and kills Mercutio under Romeo's arm. Mercutio dies from his wounds, cursing both the Montagues and the Capulets and invoking “a plague [on] both houses.” In a miserable, mournful rage, Romeo kills Tybalt, then declares himself “fortune’s fool.” Benvolio urges him to hurry from the square. The prince and the citizens’ watch arrive, along with the elders of House Capulet and House Montague. Benvolio tells Prince Escalus what has unfolded, and the prince decides to banish Romeo to Mantua rather than sentence him to death.

Back at the Capulet manse, Juliet dreamily awaits the arrival of Romeo, whom she believes is hurrying from church so that they can spend their wedding night together. Juliet’s reveries are shattered with her nurse enters and informs her that Romeo has slain Tybalt and been banished from Verona. Juliet is furious with Romeo for killing Tybalt, but at the same time, her love for him is so profound that she admits she’d rather he lived than Tybalt. Juliet bids her nurse to go find Romeo and bring him to her, letting him know that she still wants to see him in spite of his actions. The nurse heads to Friar Laurence’s chambers, where the miserable, embarrassed, and angry Romeo is hiding. Though Romeo laments his fate to Friar Laurence, the friar urges Romeo to see that he is lucky to be alive, and promises to find a way to bring him back to Verona from exile in Mantua soon enough. The nurse arrives and summons Romeo to Juliet’s chambers—he happily follows her, and Friar Laurence urges Romeo to head straight to Mantua in the morning and await word from a messenger.

The death of Tybalt affects Capulet deeply. He decides to marry Juliet to Paris immediately, to cheer both Juliet and himself up. Juliet and Romeo bid each another farewell as the dawn breaks the next morning, and though Juliet says she has a terrible feeling she’ll never see Romeo again, she urges him to hurry on to Mantua. Lady Capulet enters Juliet’s chambers just after Romeo leaves to find her daughter weeping. Believing Juliet is still sad over Tybalt’s death, Lady Capulet delivers the news that Juliet will soon be married to Paris. Juliet refuses, and Lady Capulet urges Juliet to tell her father of her decision. Capulet enters, and, when Juliet stubbornly and angrily refutes the arrangement he’s made for her, Capulet threatens to disown her. Lady Capulet sides with her husband, and even the nurse advises Juliet to marry Paris and forget Romeo.

Juliet rushes to Friar Laurence in a rage, threatening to kill herself if he cannot devise a plan to get her out of the marriage to Paris. Friar Laurence, sensing Juliet’s deep pain, quickly comes up with a scheme: he gives her a vial of potion that, once drunk, will make it seem like she's dead—but will really only put her to sleep for about 40 hours. Juliet will be laid to rest in the Capulet tomb, and once she wakes up there, Friar Laurence will collect her and hide her until Romeo returns from Mantua. The friar promises to get news of the plan to Romeo so that he can hurry back home. Juliet takes the vial and returns home with it. Though she is afraid the potion might either kill her or not work at all, Juliet drinks it and immediately falls unconscious. The next morning the Capulet household wakes to discover that Juliet has seemingly died. As Capulet and Lady Capulet dramatically mourn their daughter’s loss, Friar Laurence chides them for their tears—in life, he says, they sought Juliet’s social “promotion.” Now that she is in heaven, she has received the highest promotion of all.

In Mantua, Romeo’s servant Balthasar approaches and tells him that Juliet has died. Romeo is devastated—he plans to “deny [the] stars” and return to Verona. Before leaving Mantua, however, he visits the shop of a local apothecary who sells forbidden poisons . If Juliet really is dead, Romeo plans to drink the vial of poison and kill himself inside her tomb. Back in Verona, Friar Laurence learns that his brother in the cloth, Friar John , has failed to deliver the letter about Juliet’s feigned “death” to Romeo—Romeo has no idea that Juliet is really alive. Friar Laurence hurries to the Capulet crypt to try to head off any calamity. At the gravesite, however, trouble is brewing: Paris has arrived with his page, intending to scatter flowers around Juliet’s tomb. Romeo and Balthasar approach, and Paris hides to see who has come to the crypt. Romeo takes up some tools and begins to break open the Capulet tomb. The astonished, offended Paris steps forward to stop him. The two duel, and Romeo kills Paris. Romeo succeeds in opening Juliet’s tomb, and brings Paris’s corpse down into it with him.

As Romeo looks upon Juliet, he notes that her cheeks and lips still seem flushed with blood—but, believing she is dead, resolves to drink the poison after a final kiss. Romeo drinks the vial and dies. Friar Laurence arrives to find a terrible scene before him. Juliet wakes, and Friar Laurence urges her to follow him without looking at the bodies. As sounds of the citizens’ watch approach, however, Friar Laurence flees, begging Juliet to follow him so he can install her in a nunnery. Instead, Juliet stays behind with Romeo’s corpse. Seeing the poison in his hand, she tries to drink a drop from his lips, but Romeo has left none for her. Instead, she pulls Romeo’s dagger from his hip and uses it to kill herself. Several watchmen arrive and bring Friar Laurence, Balthasar, Prince Escalus, and Paris’s page to the crypt to investigate what has happened. As the truth unravels, the elders of House Montague and Capulet arrive. Prince Escalus tells them that their hatred has killed their children. “All,” the prince says, “are punished.” The Capulets and Montagues agree to end their feud and erect statues of each other’s children in the town square.

Romeo and Juliet

By william shakespeare.

• Romeo and Juliet Summary

Romeo and Juliet is set in Verona, Italy, where there is an ongoing feud between the Montague and Capulet families. The play opens with servants from both houses engaged in a street brawl that eventually draws in the family patriarchs and the city officials, including Prince Escalus . The Prince ends the conflict by issuing a decree that prohibits any further fighting at the risk of great punishment.

Meanwhile, Romeo , a young man from the Montague house, laments his unrequited love for a woman named Rosaline, who has vowed to remain chaste for the rest of her life. Romeo and his friend Benvolio happen to stumble across a Capulet servant, Peter , who is trying to read a list of invitees to a masked party at the Capulet house that evening. Romeo helps Peter read the list and decides to attend the party because Rosaline will be there. He plans to wear a mask so that he will nobody will recognize him as a Montague.

Romeo arrives at the Capulets' party in costume. He falls in love with young Juliet Capulet from the moment he sees her. However, Juliet's cousin Tybalt recognizes Romeo and wants to kill him on the spot. Lord Capulet intervenes, insisting that Tybalt not disturb the party because it will anger the Prince. Undeterred, Romeo quietly approaches Juliet and confesses his love for her. After exchanging loving words, they kiss.

Afterwards, Juliet's Nurse tells Romeo that Juliet is a Capulet, which upsets the smitten youngster. Meanwhile, Juliet is similarly distraught when she finds out that Romeo is a Montague. Later that night, Romeo climbs the garden wall into Juliet's garden. Juliet emerges on her balcony and speaks her private thoughts out loud. She wishes Romeo could shed his name and marry her. Upon hearing her confession, Romeo appears and tells Juliet that he loves her. She warns him to be true in his love, and he swears by his own self that he will be. Before they part, they agree that Juliet will send her Nurse to meet Romeo at nine o'clock the next day, at which point he will set a place for them to be married.

The Nurse carries out her duty, and tells Juliet to meet Romeo at the chapel where Friar Laurence lives and works. Juliet meets Romeo there, and the Friar marries them in secret.

Benvolio and Mercutio (another one of Romeo's friends) are waiting on the street later that day when Tybalt arrives. Tybalt demands to know where Romeo is so that he can challenge him to a duel, in order to punish him for sneaking into the party. Mercutio is eloquently vague, but Romeo happens to arrive in the middle of the verbal sparring. Tybalt challenges him, but Romeo passively resists fighting, at which point Mercutio jumps in and draws his sword on Tybalt. Romeo tries to block the two men, but Tybalt cuts Mercutio and runs away, only to return after he hears that Mercutio has died. Angry over his friend's death, Romeo fights with Tybalt and kills him. Then, he decides to flee. When Prince Escalus arrives at the murder scene, he banishes Romeo from Verona forever.

The Nurse tells Juliet the sad news about what has happened to Tybalt and Romeo. Juliet is heart-broken, but she realizes that Romeo would have been killed if he had not fought Tybalt. She sends her Nurse to find Romeo and give him her ring.

That night, Romeo sneaks into Juliet's room, and they consummate their marriage. The next morning, he is forced to leave when Juliet's mother arrives. Romeo travels to Mantua, where he waits for someone to send news about Juliet or his banishment.

During Romeo and Juliet's only night together, however, Lord Capulet decides that Juliet should marry a young man named Paris , who has been asking for her hand. Lord and Lady Capulet tell Juliet of their plan, but she refuses, infuriating her father. When both Lady Capulet and the Nurse refuse to intercede for the girl, she insists that they leave her side.

Juliet then visits Friar Laurence, and together they concoct a plan to reunite her with Romeo. The Friar gives Juliet a potion that will make her seem dead for at least two days, during which time Romeo will come to meet her in the Capulet vault. The Friar promises to send word of the plan to Romeo.

Juliet drinks the Friar's potion that night. The next morning, the day of Juliet and Paris' wedding, her Nurse finds her "dead" in bed. The whole house decries her suicide, and Friar Laurence insists they quickly place her into the family vault.

Unfortunately, Friar John has been unable to deliver the letter to Romeo informing him of the plan, so when Romeo's servant brings him news in Mantua that Juliet has died, Romeo is heart-broken. He hurries back to Verona, but first, buys poison from an Apothecary and writes a suicide note detailing the tragic course of events. As soon as Friar Laurence realizes that his letter never made it to Romeo's hands, he rushes to the Capulet tomb, hoping to arrive before Romeo does.

Romeo arrives at the Capulet vault and finds it guarded by Paris, who is there to mourn the loss of his betrothed. Paris challenges Romeo to a duel, and Romeo kills him quickly. Romeo then carries Paris' body into the grave and sets it down. Upon seeing Juliet's "dead" body lying in the tomb, Romeo drinks the poison, gives her a last kiss - and dies.

Friar Laurence arrives to the vault just as Juliet wakes up. He tries to convince her to flee, but upon seeing Romeo's dead body, she takes her own life as well.

The rest of the town starts to arrive at the tomb, including Lord Capulet and Lord Montague . Friar Laurence explains the whole story, and Romeo's letter confirms it. The two families agree to settle their feud and form an alliance despite the tragic circumstances.

Romeo and Juliet Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Romeo and Juliet is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Can you find verbal irony in the play? Where?

One example of verbal irony would be Romeo's reference to the poison he has purchased as a "sweet medicine". A cordial is a sweet liquor or medicine.

Come, cordial and not poison, go with me To Juliet's grave; for there must I use thee.

What do we learn about Mercutio in queen man speech?

The whole speech is based on pagan Celtic mythology. Mercutio’s speech is laced with sexual innuendo. The words “queen” and “mab” refer to whores in Elizabethan England. As his speech goes on we notice the subtext get increasingly sexual...

What does Romeo fear as he approaches Capulet house? What literary device would this be an example of?

Romeo feels something bad is going to happen.

I fear too early, for my mind misgives Some consequence yet hanging in the stars

Looks like foreshadowing to me!

Study Guide for Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet study guide contains a biography of William Shakespeare, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Romeo and Juliet
• Romeo and Juliet Video
• Character List

Essays for Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.

• Unity in Shakespeare's Tragedies
• Fate in Romeo and Juliet
• Romeo and Juliet: Under the Guise of Love
• The Apothecary's Greater Significance in Romeo and Juliet
• Romeo and Juliet: Two Worlds

Lesson Plan for Romeo and Juliet

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Romeo and Juliet
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Romeo and Juliet Bibliography

E-Text of Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet e-text contains the full text of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.

• List of Characters

Wikipedia Entries for Romeo and Juliet

• Introduction
• Date and text

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How to write Romeo and Juliet Essay? Outline and Topics

Almost everyone has heard of Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet" at some point. It is a classic tragedy that has been part of literary and cultural education for centuries. This story is about fate and affection. It was written in 1595 or 1596. Moreover, this play is set in the city of Verona. Many essays are written to describe this play in words. Professors still assign Romeo and Juliet essay to students as a writing task.  If your teacher assigned a task to write an essay about Romeo and Juliet, but you don't know how to compose it, you came to the right place! In this blog, we'll share effective tips for writing essays on Romeo and Juliet as well as Romeo and Juliet essay topics. 

How to write a Romeo and Juliet essay?

Essays about Romeo and Juliet are common in schools and colleges. Most students don't like the idea of reading books of 100+ pages. But that's not a good thing. You should read the book so that you get to know the characters, story, and important characters in it.  This essay follows the same structure as other essays. Here are some steps you need to follow for writing the essays of Romeo and Juliet.  

Carefully read the play

Even though you may have already read thousands of concise summaries, it is still worthwhile to read the literary work for yourself. It will help you better understand the plot and notice the minor details that are frequently ignored in overviews in order to keep them concise.

Ask questions

Write down any questions you have when you read the play. Try to find out the answer to these questions. This will assist you in forming your own opinion on the individuals and their deeds and may perhaps inspire a brilliant topic or introduction for your essay.

Make an outline

Make an outline of the topics you will cover in your essay once you have compiled all of your questions and their responses. The outline will help you to structure your thoughts and maintain a logical flow between concepts. 

An essay on Romeo and Juliet, like any assignment on a literary work, is ideal to include a few brief quotes from the tragedy. If correctly cited, the relevant quotations will serve as compelling evidence for your arguments and support your line of reasoning. When quoting, always place the text in quotation marks and include the precise page number from where you took the material. Remember that quotes shouldn't make up more than 10% of the text as a whole.

Never hesitate to seek help

It's always acceptable to ask for help! If you need assistance with your essay, you may always contact your teacher for guidance, go to a writing center, check online tutorials, or look for expert writing instruction online. Before implementing any advice, make sure it will be helpful and applicable to your writing process.

Proofread Your Essay

Once you've finished writing your essay, read it multiple times, preferably after a day or two, to get a new perspective on the writing's quality. You can also show your essay to friends or family members so that they can not only point out any mistakes you've made but also tell you if it sounds coherent and professional.

How to make an outline for an essay of Romeo and Juliet?

A crucial step in any paper writing process is the outline. It helps in keeping our thoughts organized and properly structuring the text from the very start. You must include the following components in your outline:

Romeo and Juliet essay introduction

The introduction of Romeo and Juliet essay is the attention grabber section in which the writers try to grab the reader's attention. In order to write it properly, there is need to be:

• As the first sentence of the introduction, this one should pique the reader's interest in the topic. Quotations, relevant information, or even hypothetical questions might serve as effective hooks for Romeo and Juliet essays.
• Once you have written the hook, give readers some background information about the topic and explain why you chose it. If you use any factual data in this area, be careful to cite it.
• A Romeo and Juliet thesis statement would be the final sentence of your introduction. List the key arguments that you intend to address in the paper's body in this section.

The body section is the longest and most detailed part of your essay on Romeo and Juliet. In this step, you need to examine each of the previously given arguments and support them with information gathered via research.

Romeo and Juliet Essay Conclusion

How to write a conclusion for a Romeo and Juliet essay? Firstly, restate your thesis statement and summarize the points you have discussed in the body section of the essay. Second, in order to ensure that your essay has a thoughtful conclusion, address the "so what" query. In other words, explain why what you have said so far is important. Lastly, keep in mind that a strong closing line for an essay leaves the reader with a positive impression and encourages them to think about the topic further. Therefore, be sure that your essay's conclusion refers to and restates the most important points you have already made, connects them to broader contexts, or urges the reader to take a certain course of action.

Creative Topics for Romeo and Juliet Essay

Here are some exciting ideas for Romeo and Juliet essays:

• Literary analysis of Romeo and Juliet
• Romeo and Juliet themes essay
• Romeo and Juliet essay on love
• Romeo and Juliet essay on fate
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What kind of essay to choose?

You can think about working on a variety of essays about Romeo and Juliet. If you are allowed to select any topic and, consequently, any essay form, we advise selecting one of the following: Persuasive essay on Romeo and Juliet: Such an essay's primary objective is to persuade the audience that your point of view is the correct one. In addition to creating a concise argument, it's critical to appeal to people's emotions and sense of logic. Argumentative essay on Romeo and Juliet: Once you've chosen a controversial subject, you'll need to make up your opinion and back it up with facts. Romeo and Juliet Literary analysis essay: You can discuss specific story points, imagery, and literary strategies in such a paper. Compare and contrast essay on Romeo and Juliet: Choose two personalities or circumstances and explain the similarities and differences between them.  Romeo and Juliet critical essay: To conduct a critical analysis, you must assess the source material. Inform readers of what you think about the play and provide evidence for it from the text and other reliable sources.

Wrapping Up

Writing an essay about 'Romeo and Juliet' can be an exciting adventure into Shakespeare's world. Just follow the steps we mentioned above, and you'll be able to write a great essay on different aspects of this classic love story. If you still have any confusion, you can ask experts for assistance. Our team of skilled essay writers is ready to assist you in your academic journey. They can offer valuable advice, assist in improving your arguments, and make sure your essay reaches its full potential.

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Romeo and Juliet - Entire Play

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The prologue of Romeo and Juliet calls the title characters “star-crossed lovers”—and the stars do seem to conspire against these young lovers.

Romeo is a Montague, and Juliet a Capulet. Their families are enmeshed in a feud, but the moment they meet—when Romeo and his friends attend a party at Juliet’s house in disguise—the two fall in love and quickly decide that they want to be married.

A friar secretly marries them, hoping to end the feud. Romeo and his companions almost immediately encounter Juliet’s cousin Tybalt, who challenges Romeo. When Romeo refuses to fight, Romeo’s friend Mercutio accepts the challenge and is killed. Romeo then kills Tybalt and is banished. He spends that night with Juliet and then leaves for Mantua.

Juliet’s father forces her into a marriage with Count Paris. To avoid this marriage, Juliet takes a potion, given her by the friar, that makes her appear dead. The friar will send Romeo word to be at her family tomb when she awakes. The plan goes awry, and Romeo learns instead that she is dead. In the tomb, Romeo kills himself. Juliet wakes, sees his body, and commits suicide. Their deaths appear finally to end the feud.

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Romeo and Juliet Themes Sheet - Essay Ideas

Subject: English

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

9 April 2024

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This resource provides top-grade essay ideas for exam questions about Shakepeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Revising ‘Romeo and Juliet’ themes is made simple, with three points on each theme (11 themes total) that are designed to make three high-level paragraphs for your Romeo and Juliet essays.

This resource suits anyone who:

• would like to feel prepared for any theme question that could come up in their exams (all exam boards considered)
• is unsure how they would make three points out of a harder theme question (e.g. time or youth)
• wants to feel confident discussing all characters
• is looking to double check their notes or read through some essay content ideas before a mock or exam
• struggles to integrate context into their essays and would like some comprehensive context ideas.

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Romeo and Juliet Essay, with Outline

Published by gudwriter on May 24, 2021 May 24, 2021

Ready for a  Romeo and Juliet Essay? Take a look at this informational resource featuring an outline, APA style format, a list of references and a list of Romeo and Juliet topics . Use ideas from this essay sample to form the focus of your writing assignment.

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Romeo and Juliet Essay Outline

Introduction.

Thesis: Romeo and Juliet are more responsible for their plight than fate is.

Paragraph 1:

Throughout the play, astral images are used to show how Romeo and Juliet are responsible for the unfolding events surrounding their love and lives.

• References are made to the stars, heavens, moon, and sun.
• This may imply that a different view of human responsibility can be expressed through imagery.
• Romeo uses the image of stars to describe the otherworldly beauty of Juliet.
• Romeo compares Juliet to the sun out of his love for her.

Paragraph 2:

As humans, Romeo and Juliet or either of them could have acted to halt their situation from reaching its tragic conclusion.

• It is through their own decisions that they move towards their destruction at the end of the play.
• Romeo could not have allowed Tybalt to engage him in a fight on his own wedding day.
• He takes his own life just moments before Juliet wakes up.

Paragraph 3:

Romeo has a propensity for rash action and this gets him and his love Juliet into unredeemable trouble.

• In popular culture, he earns the status of a romantic icon due to his impulsiveness
• In the play, this proves to be his greatest undoing.
• He climbs Juliet’s wall and prevails on her to blind herself to him.
• He murders Tybalt.
• He poisons himself.

Paragraph 4:

Juliet too contributes to their downfall as she proves a strong-willed partner for Romeo.

While she is worried about the speed at which their love progresses, she does nothing to address these worries.

• Each choice she makes drives them towards their tragic end.
• She agrees to marry Romeo.
• She out of despair takes the potion.
• She kills herself.

Paragraph 5:

The major theme of the play seems to be the intertwinement of love and fate.

• Shakespeare’s message in the play was that once one falls deeply in true love, they may not be able to control what happens to them out of the love.
• He must have been warning young people against the risks involved in loving someone too much.

Romeo and Juliet have more responsibility for their tragedy than fate. They make decisions that are rash because they are apparently blinded by love not realizing that most of the decisions are destructive.

Are you a student and have a part-time job, engage in co-curricular activities and wondering how to balance them with your school life considering the bulk assignments given? Look no more! Seek English assignment helper online from a trusted service like Gudwriter that has trusted experts.

Romeo and Juliet Essay Example

In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet , the chorus in the opening prologue refers to the characters Romeo and Juliet as “star-crossed lovers,” giving the impression that events on earth can be controlled by stars and planets. Out of this line, many readers may believe that it is out of destiny and fate that the two characters fell in love. The possibility that the characters’ lives were shaped by some supernatural, impersonal forces is further raised as the play continues. However, as the play ends, it becomes clear that Romeo and Juliet are more responsible for their plight than fate is.

Throughout the play, astral images are used to show how Romeo and Juliet are responsible for the unfolding events surrounding their love and lives. Though the first and perhaps the most famous celestial imagery example in the play is provided by the prologue, references are made to the stars, heavens, moon, and sun throughout it. Taken as a whole, this may imply that a different view of human responsibility can be expressed through imagery. When Romeo and his gang approach the Capulet’s ball in Act 1 Scene 4, he says that he fears “some consequence yet hanging in the stars.” However, Romeo does not refer to the astrological power of the stars when he mentions them next. He rather uses their image to describe the otherworldly beauty of Juliet. The subsequent use of celestial images in the play follows this trend, including the scene where Romeo compares Juliet to the sun out of his love for her.

As humans, Romeo and Juliet or either of them could have acted to halt their situation from reaching its tragic conclusion. This is because it is through their own decisions that they moved towards their destruction at the end of the play. For example, Romeo should not have allowed Tybalt to engage him in a fight on his own wedding day since the day should always be peaceful. He goes on to take his own life just moments before Juliet wakes when he should have chosen to remain alive and see how things play out. It may be true that the two lovers do not shoulder the entire responsibility for their difficult situation. Their society, their families, and their friends may have contributed in creating the unfortunate circumstances. However, they should not have acted in a manner that made it easy for the circumstances to get worse and finally lead to their destruction.

Romeo has a propensity for rash action and this gets him and his love Juliet into unredeemable trouble. In popular culture, he earns the status of a romantic icon due to his impulsiveness but in the play, this proves to be his greatest undoing. Shakespeare cautions the reader right from the beginning not to too idealistically view this character’s sudden fits of passion. After all, it is suggested by Shakespeare in the play that Romeo’s feeling towards Juliet was initially based on infatuation before it developed into real love. Compared to any other character, Romeo arguably contributes more aggressively towards the tragedy through his hasty actions. The night they meet with Juliet, he climbs her wall and prevails on her to blind herself to him. He murders Tybalt in a blind rage before poisoning himself thinking that Juliet is dead, actions all of which show that he never thinks before he acts.

Juliet too contributes to their downfall as she proves a strong-willed partner for Romeo. While she is at least worried about the speed at which their love progresses unlike Romeo, she does nothing to address these worries. She says, in the balcony scene, that their love is like lightning which can flare up but again quickly vanish into darkness. However, each choice she makes, though a logical response to a situation, drives them towards their tragic end. Since she needs evidence that Romeo is truly committed to her, she agrees to marry him. She also out of despair takes the potion while believing that the plan by Friar Lawrence will set things right and normalize the situation. Upon seeing her beloved Romeo dead, she decides to become rash in her endeavors and ends up killing herself out of grief.

The major theme of the play seems to be the intertwinement of love and fate. Shakespeare’s message in the play was that once one falls deeply in true love, they may not be able to control what happens to them out of the love. He must have been warning young people against the risks involved in loving someone too much. This was why as the play came to an end; the young lovers lost their lives. The specific message was that a person in love might be compelled into paying for their love with their lives. At the end of the play, the major lesson seems to be that though love is a beautiful thing, it can possibly lead one to destructive fate. The elements of the play that communicated this theme included the hatred between Romeo and Juliet’s families, the resolve of the two lovers to never let go of their love, and their eventual deaths.

Romeo and Juliet have more responsibility for their tragedy than fate. They make decisions that are rash because they are apparently blinded by love not realizing that most of the decisions are destructive. Even the use of imagery only serves to show how immersed in love they allowed themselves to be. This is why as the play ends; the characters’ actions are strongly condemned. They should have done better to save themselves and therefore, neither the gods nor fate should be blamed for their tragic end. They were so blinded that Juliet fails to act accordingly even as she develops worries about their love and the pace at which it was moving. Apparently, they blindly believed that all that that involves love ends well.

Shakespeare, W. (2016). Romeo and Juliet (Norton Critical Editions). New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.

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Romeo And Juliet Rhetorical Analysis Essay

By: Elijah and Zoe. The conclusions reached in the article “Teens’ Brains” affirm the actions and thoughts of both Romeo and Juliet. Romeo affirms the conclusion that experts’ can talk about how “juveniles on average are more: impulsive, aggressive, emotionally volatile, likely to take risks, reactive to stress, vulnerable to peer pressure, prone to focus on short-term payoff and underplay longer term consequences of what they do” “when they are confronted with stressful or emotional decisions” (qtd in “Teens’ Brains”). Meaning that teens don’t look for any alternate solutions to the problems they may face and are greatly affected by their emotions which Romeo does after Tybalt kills Mercutio, Romeo overtaken by grief and wanting to fight Tybalt saying, “And …show more content…

i. 131-136. See also In this scene Romeo only acts on his emotions in a vulnerable state and decides to fight Tybalt, not thinking about what the consequences could be or seeking a peaceful form of action. As a teen myself I feel like many others can relate to similar situations but hopefully not as violent situations as Romeo is put in. Dr. David Fassler is a psychiatry professor at the University of Vermont College of Medicine. He says that teens on average are more “Impulsive, aggressive, emotionally volatile, likely to take risks, reactive to stress, vulnerable to peer pressure, prone to focus on short-term payoffs and underplay longer-term consequences of what they do” (qtd in “Teens’ Brains). As a teen myself, I feel that I can fall into some of these categories like being more impulsive. If someone said something that I may not have liked, I would have reacted in a way that I shouldn’t have had due to me not thinking before acting. In short, teens are more sensitive when people hurt their feelings or tell them things they don’t want to hear, as in Romeo and Juliet when Lady Capulet tells Juliet that she should leave Romeo and Mary Paris. At that moment it shows that Juliet is

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