Romeo & Juliet Act 1 Summaires
Fall on your back
Scene 1 Battling Families and Finding Romeo
The play opens on the servants of Juliet's house desiring to pick a fight with the servants from Romeo's house. Benvolio tries to stop the fighting, but "fiery" Tybalt only intensifies the brawl. Before anyone is seriously injured, the Prince breaks up the fight. He decrees that anyone who fights in the streets of Verona will forfeit his or her life. Afterwards, Benvolio speaks with Romeo to try to find out what is causing him to cry all the time and mope around. We learn that Romeo is in love with Rosaline--a beautiful woman who doesn't love him in return.
Scene 2
In scene two, Paris asks Capulet’s permission to marry Juliet. Capulet says no. Capulet says no because she is not yet 14 and is too young to get married. Capulet told Paris to wait two years then they can get married. Paris and his genius ideas were to win Juliet over at a masked ball. Romeo and Benvolio argue at the fact that Romeo won’t get over his love. In the past Romeo secluded himself from everybody else and stayed in his room. Benvolio tells Romeo to go to the masked ball and see if he can find another girl. But, Romeo argues and says he doesn’t want to.
Scene 3
Juliet and her mother meet the nurse and the nurse talks about how to be a woman. The nurse tells juliet about how she needs to marry a rich man. The nurse wants her to marry Paris. The nurse also tells juliet to lay on her back for paris to get all his money. The mom wants juliet to marry him because she is a burden. Juliet does not want to marry paris because she feels as if she is too young and needs to live alone for a while.
Scene 4
Mercutio and Romeo are debating on whether to go to the capulet dance to get drunk or not. Romeo had a dream that something bad was going to happen and they were going to die. Mercutio reassured him that it was just Queen Mab also known as a fairy messing with his dreams because Mercutio believes that dreams mean nothing. So Romeo ended up going to the Capulet dance with Mercutio. When he was there he was trying not to get seen because he was part of the Montagues.
Scene 5
In scene five romeo and Mercutio decided to go to the Capulet dance, despite their membership to the Montagues, the only enemies of the Capulet family. Romeo shows up and spots Juliet, he instantly thinks she is beautiful. This was very short lived while Tybalt, who is a warrior for the Capulet family recognized romeo. Capulet forced Tybalt to release romeo and let him stay at the ball. Romeo and Juliet start to dance and they kiss. Later on they both find out their last names....
Act 2
Scene 1
After the party ends, Romeo can't stop thinking about Juliet, so he ditches Mercutio and Benvolio and heads back to the Capulet house. Mercutio and Benvolio try to find Romeo after the party. They assume that Romeo is going to find Rosaline. Afterwards, they crack a lot of dirty jokes at Romeo's expense. Mercutio is offended that Romeo left them.
Scene 2
The scene starts with Romeo watching Juliet, who is standing on a balcony. As he observes her, he compares her to the sun. Romeo listens to Juliet confess her love to him. After he hears her confession, he reveals himself to her and confesses his love. The two promise to marry one another.
Scene 3
Later that morning, Mercutio and Benvolio wonder what happened to Romeo the previous night. They both think that Romeo got with Rosaline. They both crack jokes and are humorous about it. After the joking Mercutio goes into a deep description about Tybalt. When romeo arrives, Mercutio immediately begins to ridicule him. He accuses Romeo of abandoning him.
Scene 4
In this scene, Juliet impatiently waits for the nurse to return. When the nurse returns, Juliet questions the nurse on every little detail. The nurse says she is too sore and out of breath to tell her. When the nurse stops stalling she tells juliet to go to friar lawrence for the wedding.
Scene 5
Romeo and Friar lawrence wait for Juliet to arrive. Friar lawrence tells Romeo that this might not be a good idea. He says that they have jumped into this too fast. The night before Romeo was still ogling over Rosaline. When juliet enters they have the ceremony. they exchange words of love and leave the chapel happily wed.
ACT 3
Scene 1
As they walk in the street under the boiling sun, Benvolio suggests to Mercutio that they go indoors, fearing that a brawl will be unavoidable should they encounter Capulet men. Mercutio replies that Benvolio has as quick a temper as any man in Italy, and should not criticize others for their short fuses. Tybalt enters with a group of cronies. He approaches Benvolio and Mercutio and asks to speak with one of them. Annoyed, Mercutio begins to taunt and provoke him. Romeo enters. Tybalt turns his attention from Mercutio to Romeo, and calls Romeo a villain. Romeo, now secretly married to Juliet and thus Tybalt’s kinsman, refuses to be angered by Tybalt’s verbal attack. Tybalt commands Romeo to draw his sword.
Scene 2
In Capulet’s house, Juliet longs for night to fall so that Romeo will come to her “untalked of and unseen” Suddenly the Nurse rushes in with news of the fight between Romeo and Tybalt. But the Nurse is so distraught, she stumbles over the words, making it sound as if Romeo is dead. Juliet assumes Romeo has killed himself, and she resigns to die herself. The Nurse then begins to moan about Tybalt’s death, and Juliet briefly fears that both Romeo and Tybalt are dead. When the story is at last straight and Juliet understands that Romeo has killed Tybalt and been sentenced to exile, she curses nature that it should put “the spirit of a fiend” in Romeo’s “sweet flesh”
Scene 3
In Friar Lawrence’s cell, Romeo is overcome with grief, and wonders what sentence the Prince has decreed. Friar Lawrence tells him he is lucky: the Prince has only banished him. Romeo claims that banishment is a penalty far worse than death, since he will have to live, but without Juliet. The friar tries to counsel Romeo but the youth is so unhappy that he will have none of it. Romeo falls to the floor. The Nurse arrives, and Romeo desperately asks her for news of Juliet.
Scene 4
Capulet, Lady Capulet, and Paris walk together. Capulet says that because of the terrible recent events, he has had no time to ask his daughter about her feelings for Paris. Lady Capulet states that she will know her daughter’s thoughts by the morning. Paris is about to leave when Capulet calls him back and makes what he calls “a desperate tender of my child’s love”.Capulet says he thinks his daughter will listen to him, then corrects himself and states that he is sure Juliet will abide by his decision. He promises Paris that the wedding will be held on Wednesday, then stops suddenly and asks what day it is.
Scene 5
Just before dawn, Romeo prepares to lower himself from Juliet’s window to begin his exile. Juliet tries to convince Romeo that the birdcalls they hear are from the nightingale, a night bird, rather than from the lark, a morning bird. Romeo cannot entertain her claims; he must leave before the morning comes or be put to death. Juliet declares that the light outside comes not from the sun, but from some meteor. Overcome by love, Romeo responds that he will stay with Juliet, and that he does not care whether the Prince’s men kill him. Faced with this turnaround, Juliet declares that the bird they heard was the lark; that it is dawn and he must flee.