As the saying goes, “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” In this play, one lie leads to another, and to another, and to another. But it seems to all work out in the end (even though it’s a tragedy) because the family feud between the Montagues and Campulets comes to an end. But right at the beginning, the Chorus tells us that Fate plays a huge role in this drama:
“A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.” (Prologue, 6-8)
Another theme highlighted in this play is the theme of Light turning to Dark. The beginning of the play contains a lot of Light imagery which changes to Dark after the middle of the action passes.
This family feud is what the sad story of Romeo and Juliet revolves around. Act one begins in the streets of Verona where a fight is begun by servants of the Montagues and Capulets and is broken up by Prince Escalus who says that the next person, who kills someone because of this feud, would be put to death. Enter the “hero” of the story, Romeo telling his friend Benvolio the reason for his sorrow: He is in love with a woman who doesn’t love him, Rosaline. He thinks she is the most beautiful creature in the world, using personification to describe her: “One fairer than my love! The all-seeing sun/ Ne’er saw her match since first the world begun.” (I, ii, 97-98)
Back at the Capulet manor, Lord Capulet explains to Count Paris that his daughter, Juliet, is too young to marry, but invites him to the party he is throwing that evening to see if he might like some other young beauty. Meanwhile Lady Capulet and Nurse talk to Juliet about marriage and the proposition of marrying Paris.
Then, Benvolio convinces Romeo to attend the Capulet party in order to see other beautiful women to get his mind off Rosaline. Romeo, Benvolio and Mercutio amongst others, head for the Capulet ball, on the way discussing dreams and love. Shakespeare uses foreshadowing throughout the whole play, but in Act one, Romeo kind of sums up his own demise talks of Fate in the stars and which directs his path when he says,
“For my mind misgives
Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars,
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night’s revels, and expire the term
Of a despised life closed in my breast
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.
But he that hath the steerage of my course,
Direct my sail.” (I, iv, 82-89)
Tybalt notices Romeo crashing the party. Romeo and Juliet notice each other and they instantly fall in love. Romeo thinks Juliet is the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen, “She doth teach the torches to burn bright” (I, v, 42) comparing her to Light. Once Juliet notices Romeo, their first dialogue uses metaphoric language comparing their hands and lips to devoted palmers on a holy pilgrimage:
“If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.” (Romeo, I, v, 95-98)
“Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this,
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.” (Juliet, I, v, 99-102)
