Romeo and Juliet is a play by William Shakespeare and written about
1594-96. In literature, music, dance, and theatre, the characters of
Romeo and Juliet have been widely depicted as young hero and heroine
whose families are unforgiving enemies. Even today, in the popular
imagination, they are the representative type of star-crossed lovers.
Principal source for the plot of this drama was a long narrative poem by
the English poet Arthur Brooke.
Scenes are set in Verona, Italy. Juliet and Romeo meet and fall
instantly in love and they profess their love when Romeo, unwilling to
leave, climbs the wall into the orchard garden of her family's house and
fi nds her alone at her window. As their families are enemies, the two
are married secretly. But their rivalry aff ects the relationship of
their children. Due to their families' ongoing confl ict, they cannot be
together, so they kill themselves because they cannot cope with being
separated from one another. Thus, Romeo and Juliet is a tragic love
story.