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1!!As the play is OlderThanSteam and most twists in Shakespeare's plots are now [[ItWasHisSled widely known]], all spoilers on this page are [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff unmarked]].
2
3[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dicksee5.jpg]]
4[[caption-width-right:300:Parting is such sweet sorrow.]]
5%%
6->''"What's in a name? That which we call a rose\
7By any other word would smell as sweet..."''
8-->-- '''Juliet Capulet'''
9
10''Romeo and Juliet'' is one of the most famous works of Creator/WilliamShakespeare and by extension one of the most famous pieces of fiction in the English language. The outline is thus:
11
12->''Two households, both alike in dignity,\
13In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,\
14From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,\
15Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.\
16From forth the fatal loins of these two foes\
17A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;\
18Whose misadventured piteous overthrows\
19Do with their death bury their parents' strife.''
20
21In other words: BoyMeetsGirl. It's LoveAtFirstSight. But Boy and Girl are members of FeudingFamilies. [[FourthDateMarriage Boy secretly marries Girl]]. Boy's friend is murdered by Girl's cousin, so Boy kills Girl's cousin in a fit of rage, then skips town. Girl agrees to [[FakingTheDead dangerous plot]] to avoid an ArrangedMarriage set up by her parents. Plot [[GoneHorriblyRight goes horribly right]]. Boy, [[PoorCommunicationKills hearing of Girl's "death,"]] returns to town and [[DrivenToSuicide kills himself for real]] at her grave. Girl, [[MissedHimByThatMuch waking and discovering this]], kills herself in turn. [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone Grief-stricken]] families reconcile. TheEnd!
22
23The play is a simple one and doesn't feature any of Shakespeare's famous side plots or other distractions. It's titled ''Romeo and Juliet'', and dammit, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin that's who we're going to be watching]].
24
25Despite the heavy subject matter, there are many lighter moments (as in most of Shakespeare's works). This, combined with the impression that some have of the title characters as immature and selfish, has led to [[{{Applicability}} productions of different moods]]. Quite a few directors have made comedic productions which can, in the right hands, become BlackComedy at its finest.
26
27Has been adapted for the silver screen numerous times, perhaps most famously by the Italian director Creator/FrancoZeffirelli in 1968 and Baz Luhrmann's zany 1996 adaptation which moved the story to a modern setting. For more works based on the play, see the [[DerivativeWorks/RomeoAndJuliet Derivative Works page]].
28
29One of the most notable meta-textual features of the play is the way ''most'' of it fits comfortably in an author's arsenal of SmallReferencePools. That is, the vast majority of the English-speaking world knows that Romeo and Juliet are icons of passionate, youthful love... but not everyone might be aware that their story ends tragically, nor that their much-celebrated love was actually their downfall.
30
31Note: The play's full title is ''The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet''. No one uses it, though.
32
33----
34!!A Trope, by Any Other Word . . .
35* ThirteenIsUnlucky: Juliet is two weeks away from her 14th birthday and does not live to see it.
36* AgeLift: In the original poem, Juliet and Romeo were both about 16, while in the Bandello novel, she was 18 and he was 20. The play knocks Juliet's age down to 13, but most adaptations bring her back up to 16.
37* AnAesop: Don't hold a grudge. The Montagues and the Capulets end up getting multiple members of their own families killed for this. Related to this is the message that "parents will pass on their mistakes to their children." The prince points out how it was ultimately the feud that drove Romeo and Juliet to the grave.
38--> See what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
39--> That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love;
40--> And I, for winking at your discords too,
41--> Have lost a brace of kinsmen: all are punish’d.
42** Love in moderation. Extremes in anything, love or hate, can lead to tragedy. For so fiercely did Romeo and Juliet love each other that both were willing to commit suicide and be TogetherInDeath upon believing the other was dead.
43** Do not jump into things you're not ready for. Romeo's failure to learn this lesson after pining for Rosaline results in the deaths of his best friend, his cousin-in-law (at his own hand!), the love of his life, and himself (by suicide).
44* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: The Nurse (who is more of a mother figure to Juliet than Juliet's own mother). In particular, her story of Juliet's weaning. Juliet's comment, "Stint thou too, I pray thee, Nurse," should be translated as, "Dang it, will you please stop telling stories about the embarrassing things I did when I was three?"
45* AndCallHimGeorge: Romeo and Juliet muse on wishing that he were a dove belonging to her until she predicts that this would happen.
46* AntiVillain: Paris is Romeo's rival for Juliet's hand, and he does express eagerness to not only marry but sleep with the thirteen-year-old Juliet during a time period when that was considered ill-advised at best. That being said, he can certainly be played as a decent man, and even at worst, he's no worse than many other characters.
47* AnyoneCanDie: Mercutio, Tybalt, Paris, Lady Montague, [[ForegoneConclusion Romeo, and Juliet]] all kick the bucket. Of the younger generation of characters, only Benvolio survives.
48* ApothecaryAlligator: Mentioned in the description of the apothecary's shop in Act V Scene I.
49-->'''Romeo:''' And in his needy shop a tortoise hung,\
50An alligator stuff'd, and other skins\
51Of ill-shaped fishes
52* ArtisticLicenceMedicine: Juliet usually stabs herself in the heart holding the blade vertically, instead of between her ribs. In a real person, getting it through the ribcage like that would require a lot more physical strength than she seems to exert.
53* AttackAttackRetreatRetreat: Act III, Scene 5 opens with Juliet (presumably still sleepy) begging the now-banished Romeo to stay awhile since it can't be morning already. Romeo acquiesces and stays, but then Juliet realizes that it really ''is'' morning, and that Romeo needs to get the heck out of Dodge, at which point she switches to shooing him out of her room.
54* BadassBoast: Tybalt before dueling with Benvolio.
55-->'''Tybalt:''' Turn thee, Benvolio. Look upon thy death.
56* BalconyWooingScene: The TropeCodifier. The Balcony Scene, in which Romeo woos Juliet from the ground while she is at her window, has heavily influenced other versions to the point that other iterations may steal dialogue from this play. The name itself is a case of BeamMeUpScotty, as the word "balcony" does not appear in the text and [[https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/10/romeo-and-juliets-balcony-scene-doesnt-exist/381969/ did not exist in the English Language at the time]]. This was instead popularized by later adaptations.
57* BarefootSage: Friar Lawrence is often portrayed as this (justified, since Franciscan friars often went barefoot). However, as "sagacious" as he is, he still makes a fatal mistake.
58* BettyAndVeronica: Juliet's decision between her two suitors. Paris courts her in the 'proper' way, by asking her father's permission. Romeo falls in love with her, marries her in secret, and kills her cousin.
59* BewareTheNiceOnes: Romeo is known as a "noble and well-governed youth," according to Lord Capulet. But kill someone close to him (Mercutio, then Juliet), and he will ''[[UnstoppableRage snap]]''. Don't bar him entry to where his beloved is interred either, lest you tempt a desperate man.
60* BigNo: Some productions have Juliet utter a brief one when the watch arrives at the Capulet tomb following a failed attempt to follow Romeo by poisoning herself before she spies Romeo's dagger on his person.
61-->'''Juliet:''' Yea, noise? ''No!'' ''[looks around frantically and finds Romeo's dagger]'' Then I'll be brief.
62* BilingualBonus: "ill-shaped fishes" feature in Romeo's description of the apothecary's shop where he buys the poison. The French for fish is 'poisson'; 'ill-shape' it and it becomes 'poison'.
63* BlackComedy: Sometimes performed this way.
64** Mercutio provides some as he dies.
65-->'''Mercutio:''' Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man.
66* BlackComedyRape: Act I Scene 1 is filled with rape jokes.
67* BlasphemousPraise:
68** Romeo begins his famous "But soft ... " speech comparing Juliet to the sun and moon and ends by straight up calling her an angel.
69--->''"O, speak again, bright angel, for thou art\
70As glorious to this night, being o'er my head,\
71As is a winged messenger of heaven\
72Unto the white-upturned wond'ring eyes\
73Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him."''
74** Later, when he has been exiled, Romeo laments that "Heaven is here, where Juliet lives!"
75* BloodKnight: Tybalt lives for fighting.
76* BreakTheCutie: Both of the lovers, but especially Juliet.
77-->'''Juliet:''' Alack, that Heaven should practice stratagems\
78Upon so soft a subject as myself!
79* BromanticFoil: Mercutio to Romeo.
80* BusCrash: Lady Montague, who has an important role in the first scene, then disappears almost entirely until the last scene where Lord Montague mentions she died offstage. Her death serves to even the death toll to two from every house -- Romeo and Lady Montague, Juliet and Tybalt, and [[HufflepuffHouse Mercutio and Paris]], who belong to the prince's family.
81* CargoEnvy: From Romeo:
82-->'''Romeo:''' See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!\
83O, that I were a glove upon that hand,\
84That I might touch that cheek!
85* TheCassandra: No one ever listens to pragmatic pacifist Benvolio.
86-->'''Benvolio:''' I pray thee, good Mercutio, let's retire:\
87The day is hot, the Capulets abroad,\
88And, if we meet, we shall not scape a brawl;\
89For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.[[note]]They don't, and [[FiveSecondForeshadowing within half an hour]] Mercutio has been slain in a duel.[[/note]]
90* CharacterFilibuster: Mercutio's "Queen Mab" speech. Romeo calls him out for babbling.
91-->'''Romeo:''' Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace! Thou talk'st of nothing.
92* ChekhovsGunman: Balthasar, a servant who has a small appearance in the first scene, ends up indirectly causing Romeo's suicide in Act V with his ignorance of the Friar's plan and thus genuine belief that Juliet is dead.
93* TheChessmaster: Deconstructed. Friar Lawrence only agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet in order to stop the feud, and puts their lives at risk in the process. Tragedy ensues.
94* ChildMarriageVeto: Juliet refuses to marry Paris. She's already married to Romeo, but her parents don't know that...
95* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: As in the prologue, the internal revelation that strife was reconcilable comes too late. The entire back half of the plot is also avoidable if Romeo and/or Juliet disclose their marriage. Their families may not ''like'' this, but this is Italy and marriage is a Catholic sacrament, which is irrevocable. Shakespeare's audience likely found this to be character blindness as well. The Church of England existed with Catholicism banned as a consequence of the latter's doctrine of marriage.
96* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Benvolio, one of the main characters in the first three acts, does not appear in the fourth or fifth. Nobody seems to notice this, even though he's the only significant member of the younger generation left alive at the end.
97* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: Most modern adaptations have the various houses wear outfits of the same color to help the audience keep track of who they belong to. For instance, the Capulets wear red, the Montagues wear blue, and the prince’s house wears either earthen colors, yellow, or purple.
98* ConflictingLoyalty
99** Once Romeo marries Juliet, he is tied to both houses. This makes for an awkward decision when Juliet's cousin Tybalt, now '''''his''''' cousin by marriage, challenges him to a duel.
100** The Nurse fails Juliet in the end because of her conflicting loyalties to Juliet and to Juliet's parents.
101* CosmicPlaything: Romeo laments being one after he kills Tybalt.
102-->'''Romeo:''' O, I am Fortune's fool!
103* CourtlyLove: Subverted. Romeo abandons his courtly love for Rosaline as soon as he meets the much more open Juliet.
104* CrazyEnoughToWork: Faking Juliet's death wasn't quite crazy enough.
105* CycleOfRevenge: What is perpetuating the feud.
106* DarkAndTroubledPast: Mercutio's bawdy misogyny and bitterness toward love imply a past relationship that did not end well.
107* DatingWhatDaddyHates: A lot of scholarly ink has been spilled on the question of, how much of Romeo and Juliet's love is real love, and how much of it is the lure of the forbidden? This trope is downplayed in the ball scene, because Lord Capulet acknowledges that Romeo has a good reputation.
108* DeathByDespair: Lady Montague, who died after learning of Romeo's exile. Also, the presumed cause of Juliet's first "death" by those who don't know about the friar's potion.
109* DeathIsDramatic:
110** Mercutio dies offstage, but goes out with a bang:
111--->'''Mercutio:''' [[DyingCurse A plague a' both your houses!]] They have made worms' meat of me. I have it, and soundly too. Your houses!
112** By contrast, Lady Montague, a much less important character, [[DroppedABridgeOnHim gets a couple lines for her offstage death]] in the very last scene. [[DeathIsDramatic "Basically, the spectacle involved in a character's death is proportional to the importance of the character to the story."]]
113* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The discussions around Juliet's young marriage are meant to show how far the Veronans had fallen:
114** While it's true that wealthy girls were generally married off young, the marriages were largely not consummated until they were older. "Younger than she are happy mothers made" is the way the play puts it. Having children that young was widely seen as detrimental to the girl's health and that it could render her infertile, especially since girls started menstruating a lot later than they do (at least in the developed world) today. The most famous aversion of this was Queen Elizabeth's great-grandmother, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Margaret_Beaufort Lady Margaret Beaufort]], who was still fresh in the populace's memory. She gave birth four months shy of her fourteenth birthday and was never able to have another child. Even at the time, this caused a huge outrage and was generally avoided from there on out.
115** Additionally, marriage of teenagers was '''''not''''' the norm in Elizabethan England; popular health manuals and observations of family life (Elizabethan English folk generally lived in nuclear family homes rather than in multigenerational homes) led to the common belief that motherhood before age 16 was dangerous and that early marriage and its consummation permanently damaged a young woman's health, stunted a young man's mental and physical development, and thus created stunted children. Few Elizabethan noblewomen were married younger than 16. The common English people were usually at least 20 when they first married, with 25-26 as the most common age of for grooms (around the time that apprenticeships ended) and about 23 as the most common age for brides, almost a decade older than Romeo and Juliet. A couple could only marry without parental consent if both the bride and groom were aged 21 and older. The idea of an underage female secretly marrying without her family's consent was scandalous to Elizabethans, who pressed for very public engagements and weddings because of fear of clandestine weddings. Apprenticeships and service jobs were a way to keep young people from marrying and setting up house before they could properly support themselves.
116** Shakespeare might have lowered Juliet's age to just short of 14 as a kind of joke to emphasize the ridiculousness as well as the danger of marriage at such an early age, like he is arguing that ''"Young people can't be trusted to make wise decisions about such things!"''
117* DiabolusExMachina: Repeatedly. The line about "star-crossed lovers" in the opening narration is a LampshadeHanging; the stars -- meaning Fate -- are going to make sure everyone ends up miserable. (Specifically, the final tragedy plays out only because the friar is temporarily detained by a plague quarantine, and thus is unable to get to Romeo and tell him the truth about Juliet's fake suicide.)
118* DidTheyOrDidntThey: Many productions take Lady Capulet's [[ExcessiveMourning disproportionate grief]] over Tybalt's death to imply that the two have been romantically involved. After all, the two are closer in age than Lord and Lady Capulet, and the LoveTriangle can justify some of the malice between Lord Capulet and Tybalt, Lord Capulet and Lady Capulet, and Lord Capulet and Juliet when she disobeys him. The Hong Kong Ballet version of the play has them outright having an affair.
119* DiedInIgnorance: One of the most famous examples in history, Romeo commits suicide by ingesting poison believing that Juliet is dead, not knowing that Juliet was only FakingTheDead as part of a plan for the both of them to finally be together. When she uncovers this, she despairs with a [[CreatorThumbprint lengthy monologue]] and kisses Romeo hoping some of the poison will still be on his lips with the ambition to be TogetherInDeath. When that fails, and she hears people coming, she stabs herself with Romeo's dagger, and ''that'' does the deed.
120* DisproportionateRetribution: Tybalt's initial response to Romeo's showing up at the party is to call for his sword and announce that he's going to kill him.
121* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The death scene is rife with sexual imagery. The bit where Juliet welcomes being penetrated by Romeo's dagger is still pretty clear to modern audiences, but it's only the tip of the iceberg. The cup that Romeo drinks his poison from is supposed to be a symbol of femininity, and furthermore, Shakespeare often used "die" as a euphemism for "orgasm".
122* DoubleEntendre: Almost every one of Mercutio's lines, overlaps with GetTheeToANunnery. Romeo, Juliet, the Nurse, and even Lord Capulet all get in on the action at some point.
123* DownerEnding: There is a glimpse of a BittersweetEnding, as the rival families finally reconcile their differences, but two statues raised in pure gold above Verona are poor compensation for the loss of their children. Some adaptations do away with the reconciliation altogether and end with both families simply feeling guilt over the tragedy without actually ending their feud.
124* DramaQueen: Romeo literally throws himself on the ground sobbing at one point.
125* DramaticIrony: When the Prince banishes Romeo for killing Tybalt, he states that if Romeo returns to Verona, he will die. Come Act V, [[DrivenToSuicide that's exactly what happens]].
126* DramaticallyDelayedDrug: Inverted. Juliet takes a sleeping draught to make herself appear dead so she can run off with Romeo, but it doesn't wear off until just after Romeo has killed himself with poison in the belief that she's dead. Had Romeo taken a few minutes longer to set his affairs in order, she could have stopped him.
127* DrivenToSuicide: The two main characters, who are just kids (Juliet is ''13'' in the play -- Romeo's age isn't given, but he's most likely in his mid-to-late teens), take their own short lives for each other.
128* DueToTheDead: Romeo honors Paris's request to lay him beside Juliet, after having killed him because Paris thought that Romeo was coming to do the evil version of this trope.
129* DyingCurse: Uttered by Mercutio while dying as a side effect of the house feud.
130-->'''Mercutio:''' A plague on' both your houses!
131* {{Elopement}}: Romeo and Juliet run away to Friar Lawrence to get married. After Juliet's arranged marriage to Paris is announced, Friar Laurence plans to help them run away for good. It doesn't work.
132* EmoTeen: Romeo is this at first, moping around and reciting emo poetry because of his unrequited love for Rosaline. He improves upon meeting Juliet, but when he has to be separated from her, he gets even worse than he was at the beginning. It is also worth noting that the metaphors Romeo uses to express his infatuation with Rosaline were ''very'' overused cliches in Shakespeare's time. But as soon as he starts describing Juliet, his poetry gets far more original and interesting.
133* EnterStageWindow: Probably the UrExample.
134* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep:
135** The Prince and the Nurse. (Although [[AllThereInTheScript on the character list]] the prince's name is given as "Escalus", and Lord Capulet calls the Nurse "Angelica" at one point.)
136** Averted for the Nurse in the Polish translation, where she goes by the name Marta.
137* ExactWords: When Abram, one of the Montagues' servants, approaches, Sampson quibbles with Abram:
138-->'''Gregory:''' I will frown as they pass by, and let them take it as they list.\
139'''Sampson:''' Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them; which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it. ''[Sampson bites his thumb]''\
140'''Abram:''' Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?\
141'''Sampson:''' I do bite my thumb, sir.\
142'''Abram:''' Do you bite your thumb ''at us'', sir?\
143'''Sampson:''' ''[to Gregory]'' Is the law of our side if I say ay?\
144'''Gregory:''' No.\
145'''Sampson:''' No sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir; but I bite my thumb, sir.
146* ExtremelyShortTimespan: From the lovers meeting to getting married to their inevitable deaths, the entire play takes place in a little less than four days.
147* FatalFlaw: Arguments can be made for a wide variety for each protagonist.
148* FauxDeath: Juliet. Unfortunately, it's shortly followed by actual, self-inflicted death.
149* FeudingFamilies: The Montagues and the Capulets.
150* TheFightingNarcissist: Mercutio's description of Tybalt's ornate fighting style implies that Tybalt may fit this trope. Given Mercutio's [[{{Hypocrite}} tendency to criticize others for flaws in himself]], he could easily be one as well.
151* FoeRomanceSubtext:
152** Between Romeo and Tybalt. "The reason that I have to love thee," indeed...
153** While evidence in the original text is scarce, many adaptations portray Tybalt and Mercutio this way, often with sexual taunting, sometimes with a TakeThatKiss, and once in a film from Quebec, even a BDSM sex scene that leads to Mercutio's death.
154** Some productions play up this aspect between Tybalt and Benvolio as well. Again, there's not a lot of evidence for it in the text but the fact that Tybalt specifically targets Benvolio in the first brawl and even seems to single him out among all other Montagues ("What, [sword] drawn and [you] talk of peace? I hate the word, as I hate Hell, all Montagues, and thee [Benvolio]!") has garnered some speculation as to why that might be.
155* {{Foil}}:
156** Rosaline and Juliet. Rosaline is aloof, and quiet, sworn off marriage and the pleasure of the flesh, and is uninterested in Romeo, while Juliet is talkative, interested in Romeo, and wants a relationship with Romeo right after she met him.
157** Paris to Romeo. He is from nobility; has traits the Capulets find desirable for marrying their daughter and follows the rules of society. Romeo ignores normal standards and approaches Juliet directly rather than through family and could not fall in love with Juliet because he is a Montague. They also both have different reasons for wanting to be with Juliet, with Romeo wanting to be with Juliet because she’s attractive and Paris wanting to marry Juliet to have connections to money and power.
158** Nurse and Lady Capulet. The Nurse is strict, loving, warm, and encourages Juliet to make her own choices, while Lady Capulet is not close with Juliet, stiff, cool towards Juliet, and only cares about how Juliet will make the family look to others.
159** Tybalt and Benvolio: Tybalt: Tybalt is prone to act fast/violently if felt dishonoured. Benvolio tries to soothe his temper, is calm, and is a mediator.
160** Romeo and Mercutio. Romeo falls in love constantly, and keeps to himself more, while Mercutio is witty, outgoing, and cynical about love.
161** Lord and Lady Montague are this to Lord and Lady Capulet. Lord and Lady Montague are close to Romeo and care about him and do not seem to force him to do things he does not want to. Lord and Lady Capulet are not close to Juliet, abuse and manipulate her, and threaten to disown her if she doesn't comply with what they want. Lord Montague is a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, who may be an aggressive chap, but still, a loving father and husband, while Lord Capulet on the other hand is FauxAffablyEvil and is for the most part rotten on the inside.
162* ForegoneConclusion: Even if by some strange power, you've never heard the plot of this thing, it's stated in the very beginning that the title characters die on line '''six''' of the Prologue, to be precise.
163* ForgottenFallenFriend: Romeo is heartbroken about Mercutio's death... for as long as it takes him to kill Tybalt in a revenge-fueled rage. After Tybalt dies, Mercutio is forgotten, and Romeo expresses far more grief over Tybalt's death than Mercutio's.
164* ForcedSleep: To get out of the wedding, Juliet drinks a drug that puts her into a deep sleep for "two and forty hours".
165* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Romeo (melancholic), Juliet (sanguine), Mercutio (choleric) and Benvolio (phlegmatic).
166* FourthDateMarriage: The titular characters get married less than 24 hours after meeting and plan their marriage the night they meet. The entire plot unfolds over all four days.
167* FreudianTrio
168** Romeo - passionate, intensely emotional, and romantic (Id).
169** Mercutio - cynical, snarky, explosive, and driven (Ego).
170** Benvolio - levelheaded, keeps the others in check (Superego).
171* TheFriendsWhoNeverHang: Juliet reacts to the news of Tybalt's death with heartbreak and tears over her beloved cousin. The Nurse exclaims that Tybalt was her best friend. Tybalt never spent time on stage with either of them. This could be explained with the theory that Tybalt and the Nurse were originally played by the same actor.
172* GallowsHumor: Most of Mercutio's dying speech.
173-->'''Mercutio:''' Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a [[PungeonMaster grave]] man.
174* GardenOfLove: The iconic second encounter between Romeo and Juliet takes place in the Capulets' garden.
175* GenderedInsult: When Romeo is weeping after he's sentenced to exile and then says he'll kill himself over it, Friar Lawrence rebukes him, saying "Art thou a man? Thy form declares thou art--thy tears are womanish!"
176* GenreBusting[=/=]GenreShift: Unusual for its time in combining comedy and tragedy. A typical comedy contains bawdy humor, farce, and young lovers who live HappilyEverAfter, despite the interference of the older generation. A typical tragedy contains unquiet political figures, and drama, a TragicHero who makes [[TragicMistake mistakes]] and dies in the end, despite his best efforts. ''Romeo and Juliet'' explores all of this, [[{{Dissimile}} except]] [[DownerEnding the happily-ever-after part.]] Mercutio's death in Act III marks the definitive shift from comedy to tragedy.
177* TheGhost: We hear ''quite'' a lot about Rosaline, Romeo's unrequited love at the start of the play, but she never makes it onscreen. According to the guest list, she attends Lord Capulet's feast, and some productions make her a more obvious presence there.
178* GoneHorriblyRight:
179** Benvolio decides that the only way to cure Romeo's pining for Rosaline is for the two of them (plus Mercutio) to crash Lord Capulet's party in the hopes that Romeo will realise that there's other fish in the sea. The plan works perfectly, and Romeo ends up completely forgetting about Rosaline. Unfortunately, it's because the party allowed him the opportunity to meet Juliet, thus setting in motion all the tragedies that follow.
180** Juliet wakes up from her potion ''right'' on schedule. If she'd woken up five minutes later, then the Capulets and Montagues would have discovered her alive in time to comfort her. If she'd woken up five minutes ''earlier,'' Romeo would have come upon her awake. It's because he didn't get the message that he doesn't know about the potion.
181* {{Greed}}: Romeo makes the point when he's paying the poor apothecary that money makes more people die than poison, and is just as bad, if not even worse, for the soul than poison is for the body.
182-->''"There is thy gold, worse poison to men's souls,\
183Doing more murder in this loathsome world,\
184Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell.\
185I sell thee poison. Thou hast sold me none."''
186* GreyAndGrayMorality: Both families seem equally responsible for keeping the feud alive.
187* GutPunch: Mercutio's death, up to which everything is played like a romantic comedy.
188* HairTriggerTemper
189** Tybalt, as everyone around him knows. He reacts to catching Romeo at the Capulets' feast by calling for his rapier.
190** Lord Capulet, despite admonishing Tybalt for the same trait during the feast, has an explosive, violent reaction to Juliet's ChildMarriageVeto.
191* HanlonsRazor: The tragic heroes die because of a problem with the post. Not much malice against them from anybody except Tybalt, who proves fairly ineffectual.
192* HaveAGayOldTime:
193** Some of the archaic uses of the word "ho" become a tad awkward in this day and age. Such as Lord Capulet saying "Fetch me my long sword, ho!" Even funnier because at this point in the play, his wife is trying to ''stop'' him from jumping into the fight. Or the Nurse calling for "[[INeedAFreakingDrink Aqua Vitae]], ho!", and getting a response from Lady Capulet.
194** When Romeo asks who Juliet is, the Nurse's answer ends with her saying "he that can lay hold of her shall have the chinks." What she means is that whoever marries Juliet (gets hold of her) would be rich and have fancy porcelain, which is what "chinks" is referring to. But nowadays it's only seen as a racial slur against east Asians.
195** Romeo talking about his "Well-flowered pump." "Pumps" were shoes, which would be adorned with flowers at dances and other gatherings. Of course, this scene is built on {{Double Entendre}}s.
196** Lord Capulet to Tybalt: "You are a saucy[[note]]i.e. insolent[[/note]] boy."
197** Lady Capulet tells her husband, "You are too hot," meaning "angry."
198* TheHeroDies: Both Romeo and Juliet at the end. [[CaptainObvious It's called a "tragedy" for a reason.]]
199* HotBlooded: Mercutio exists in a state of constant, violent enthusiasm, whether reveling, [[CharacterFilibuster soliloquizing]], or dueling to his own death.
200* HufflepuffHouse: There's actually a ''third'' clan -- the prince's family (historically, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaliger Scaligers]] or Della Scala -- the prince's name, Escalus, is a Latin version of this), consisting of the prince himself, Mercutio, and Paris. The prince loses his two relatives over the course of the play too, leading him to say in the final scene that he has also been punished for the violence in Verona alongside the Capulets and Montagues.
201* HurricaneOfPuns: Both the start of Act I Scene 1 (between the Capulets' servants Gregory and Sampson), and the middle of Act II Scene 4 (between Mercutio and Romeo).
202** From Act I, Scene I:
203-->'''Sampson:''' Gregory, o' my word, we'll not carry coals.\
204'''Gregory:''' No, for then we should be colliers.\
205'''Sampson:''' I mean, an' we be in choler, we'll draw.\
206'''Gregory:''' Ay, while you live, draw your neck out of the collar.
207* {{Hypocrite}}:
208** Mercutio is all over the place.
209*** He disdains Romeo for being a victim of love, even though much of Mercutio's own dialogue implies he is himself bitter over past hurt.
210*** He accuses Benvolio, the famous pacifist, of having a HairTriggerTemper, of which his own actions later in the scene are more suggestive.
211*** He blames his own death on the pointless feud between the houses, despite having enthusiastically inserted himself into Romeo and Tybalt's conflict.
212*** He rants at length about how dangerous a swordsman Tybalt is and how Romeo wouldn't stand a chance against him, then takes personal offense when Romeo declines to fight Tybalt.
213** Lord Capulet as well. He chides the "saucy" Tybalt for his [[HairTriggerTemper dramatic reaction]] to Romeo's infiltration of the feast, yet explodes in an even more dramatic fashion when Juliet declines the marriage he arranged for her.
214* IdiotBall: Friar Lawrence fails to consider the one most likely factor interfering with Juliet's faked suicide -- Romeo perhaps not getting the message. This is ''exactly'' what happens.
215* IdleRich: Romeo is the heir of a rich merchant family. Mercutio is a noble, as well.
216* IgnoredConfession: Juliet confesses to her mother that she wishes to marry Romeo rather than Paris, but Lady Capulet assumes that Juliet just means she is so opposed to wedding Paris that she rather would marry anyone else, even her cousin's killer.
217* ImpededMessenger: Due to the plague sweeping through Europe, a priest carrying a vital message to Romeo never reaches him. Many places would close their doors to priests, who were believed to carry the plague as they visited those with it for religious ceremonies.
218* INeedAFreakingDrink: Whenever the Nurse asks for "aqua vitae", it's this.
219* InformedFlaw: Mercutio describes Benvolio as [[HairTriggerTemper hot-blooded]], willing to start a fight for any reason at all. Considering that we have only ever seen Benvolio try to ''stop'' other people from fighting, it seems more likely that Mercutio is conflating Benvolio with Tybalt or [[{{Hypocrite}} himself]].
220* InLoveWithLove: Romeo, particularly with Rosaline, and it is implied she's just the latest girl he's crushing on. Though he has better luck with Juliet, herself an example as she just doesn't want to marry Paris, it's clear to the audience he didn't learn his lesson, and this time he pays with his life.
221* InspirationNod: In Act II, Mercutio sarcastically disses several mythical {{Love Interest}}s, including Thisbe, the heroine of ''Pyramus and Thisbe'', a much older version of the ''Romeo and Juliet'' story.
222* KnowWhenToFoldThem: This is essentially how the Nurse feels about love. She was all for Romeo and Juliet being together for most of the play, especially after meeting Romeo and confirming he's a good egg and seeing how happy he makes Juliet. But after he gets banished, and after Lord Capulet forces Juliet into the arranged marriage and won't listen to her, she sees no other alternative than to tell Juliet to just make the best of things with Paris. Juliet takes this badly, to put it mildly.
223* LargeHam: Mercutio ''loves'' to make dramatic speeches.
224* LaserGuidedKarma: In the final scene, the prince considers all of the tragedies that befell the Capulets, the Montagues, and himself to be their just deserts for their failure to stop the ancient grudge:
225-->''See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate\
226That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.\
227And I for winking at your discords too\
228Have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punish'd.''
229* LetMeAtHim: During the opening riot, Lords Capulet and Montague are first introduced demanding to be allowed to join the fray and fight each other while their wives try to dissuade them. Lord Montague, in particular, is explicitly being held back by Lady Montague.
230--> '''Lord Capulet:''' What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!\
231'''Lady Capulet:''' A crutch, a crutch! Why call you for a sword?\
232\
233'''Lord Montague:''' Thou villain Capulet-- Hold me not, let me go.\
234'''Lady Montague:''' Thou shalt not stir a foot to seek a foe.
235* LostAesop: If ''Romeo And Juliet'' was intended as condemnation of hormonal teenagers who think their first relationship is true love and then try to ''prove'' it despite receiving plenty of advice otherwise, it [[MisaimedFandom failed horribly]].
236* LoveAtFirstSight: The title characters fell in love like this. Or at least, they think they did.
237* LoveHurts: But Mercutio challenged Romeo to hurt love back, challenging him multiple times to forget the mercurial Rosaline and look elsewhere to quench his desire for love, perhaps setting the gears of the plot into motion:
238-->'''Mercutio:''' If love be rough with you, be rough with love. Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.
239* MaidAndMaiden: TropeCodifier, The Nurse is the Maid who plays SecretKeeper for Juliet the Maiden as she tries to get with Romeo.
240* MandatoryMotherhood: Romeo laments that Rosaline, who is determined to "live chaste," is wasting her beauty by refusing to pass it on to future generations.
241* MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: By their times' standards. Romeo is the one with emotional reactions for better or worse, whereas Juliet is more practical and stages their doomed escape. Romeo kills himself with poison, which is considered a feminine way to commit suicide, whereas Juliet uses Romeo's dagger, which was a weapon used typically by men.
242* MasterSwordsman: Tybalt, whose devotion to ornate classical fighting styles drives Mercutio ''crazy''.
243* MasqueradeBall: Lord Capulet holds one, which is where Romeo and Juliet fall in LoveAtFirstSight.
244* MatronChaperone: The Nurse.
245* MatureWorkChildProtagonists: Juliet is written as 14 years old (though is rarely cast with an actress that young) but gets engaged and married before killing herself.
246* MeaningfulName:
247** Tybalt/[[InconsistentSpelling Tybert/Tibert]] is the name of the hot-blooded prince of cats from the folk tales of Reynard the Fox. Tybalt is frequently made fun of for this and is indeed hot-blooded.
248** Benvolio means "Goodwill" and he is the most reasonable of the Montagues.
249** Mercutio:
250*** Related to ''mercurial'', meaning changeable, which Mercutio certainly is.
251*** ''Mercurial'' itself is derived from the name of Mercury, the messenger god of the Roman pantheon. As a relative of Prince Escalus, who disapproves of the public fights, Mercutio is at least poised to serve as a messenger between the warring houses.
252*** Although it is unlikely that Shakespeare knew the element mercury by that name, it connects in several ways: mercury is notable for its liquid state at room temperature -- neither a solid nor a gas (neither a Montague nor a Capulet); it is used both to measure temperature and to form highly reflective surfaces, just as Mercutio's mood measures and reflects the current state of house tensions; and it is toxic after prolonged exposure -- like Mercutio.
253** Escalus sounds like "scales", relating to his attempts to restore justice and order throughout the play.
254* MemorialStatue: Lord Montague announces at the end that he'll raise one for Juliet, as a gesture of reconciliation between the families.
255* MirroringFactions: The titular characters are from "two houses, both alike in dignity" and standing in society. While they hate each other viciously, they're pretty clearly inclined to the same type of behavior, down to ignoring their children so thoroughly the two are pushed to suicide.
256* MistakenDeathConfirmation: Romeo enters Juliet's tomb, finds her drugged to look as though she's dead, and believes her to be truly dead and kills himself.
257* NameAndName: No points for guessing the main characters of this play.
258* NeverMyFault: Mercutio blames his death on the feud between the houses, despite having eagerly stepped forward to take Romeo's place in his conflict with Tybalt.
259* NiceGuy:
260** Benvolio is a generally inoffensive pacifist.
261** Paris, although how nice he is depends on the staging.
262* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Friar Lawrence's well-intentioned intervention instead leads to the death of both protagonists. Not that it's his fault, as his plan was but thwarted by a plague quarantine and the relevant authorities refusing to take any chances.
263* NoAntagonist: Tybalt acts as an antagonist for a while, but he dies in Act III of a five-act work. Lord Capulet can be seen as the antagonist, as he would be when the play is a comedy, but it's ultimately implied that the feud and pointless hatred themselves were to blame for the play's conflict rather than any one person.
264* NotSoAboveItAll: Benvolio acts as though he is above the housing conflict and will not takes sides. But in his account of the duel in Act III, he makes it sound as though Tybalt challenged Mercutio, when in fact it was the reverse, which has a significant effect on the prince's judgment on the affair.
265* NotSoDifferentRemark: Despite the grudge between Houses Capulet and Montague, they have more in common than not, as pointed out in the very first line: "Two households, both alike in dignity ..."
266* OhCrap: Friar Lawrence gets one when Friar John returns with his letter in tow, realizing that his plan to get the lovers back together just went to hell in a handbasket.
267* OutlivingOnesOffspring:
268** Both of the titular characters died with surviving parents.
269** The nurse herself mentions having a dead daughter.
270* PaperThinDisguise: Romeo, Benvolio, Mercutio, and the other Montague revelers waltz into their arch-enemy's ball--wearing masks. No one is recognized save Romeo, and then only because he talks.
271-->'''Tybalt:''' This by his voice should be a Montague!
272* ParentalSubstitute: The Nurse to Juliet, whose mother is herself in her twenties and unequipped to be the guiding influence Juliet needs.
273* PayEvilUntoEvil: After Romeo kills Tybalt, Lord Montague protests that, since Tybalt had just killed Mercutio, Romeo was merely expediting justice. This, along with the fact Mercutio was [[ItsPersonal his cousin]], likely contributes to the Prince's decision to banish Romeo rather than execute him.
274* PluckyGirl: Juliet, especially considering the time period it's set in. She disobeys her parents, follows her heart, and braves disownment and being trapped in a tomb to stay true to the man she loves.
275* PoorCommunicationKills: This is one of the major things that contributed to Romeo and Juliet's deaths. Most notably, the reason the whole play ends in tragedy rather than with a happy reunification of the lovers is that Friar Lawrence isn't able to warn Romeo that Juliet is only '''''feigning''''' death before he hears about it from someone else.
276* PopCulturalOsmosis: Probably the main reason people think Romeo and Juliet are the models for a good relationship, and probably the reason a surprising number of people forget the ending in the prologue. Ironically, the title has become a kind of shorthand for idolizing the very behaviors it can be argued to make fun of.
277* PrinceCharmless: Sometimes Paris is played as this, making the audience sympathize more with Juliet for not wanting to marry him.
278* PungeonMaster: Goddammit, Mercutio.
279-->'''Romeo:''' Pardon, good Mercutio, my business was great; and in such a case as mine, a man may strain courtesy.\
280'''Mercutio:''' That's as much as to say, such a [[UnusualEuphemism case]] as yours constrains a man to bow in the hams.
281* ReasonableAuthorityFigure
282** Prince Escalus can be played as such. He wants to stop the two families from fighting in the streets of his city, and it's explicitly stated he's showing Romeo mercy by banishing him instead of having him executed for Tybalt's death. However, it can be argued that his [[ThreateningMediator intervention]] has in fact [[{{Pun}} escal-ated]] the conflict.
283** Lord Montague, as opposed to Lord Capulet, [[NiceGuy is never shown to be bad in any way]] and shows genuine concern for Romeo in the first scene.
284* TheReliableOne
285** Benvolio (notice a pattern to his tropes yet?)
286** The Nurse to Juliet -- [[EtTuBrute until]] [[ConflictingLoyalty she isn't]].
287** Friar Lawrence to Romeo -- [[AdviceBackfire until he isn't]].
288* ReplacementGoldfish: Juliet for the nurse's deceased daughter. Also, probably Tybalt for the Capulets' deceased children, and/or the Capulets for Tybalt's dead parents. While never explicitly stated to be dead, his parents never show up, and when he dies himself, Lord and Lady Capulet do all the mourning for them.
289* RiddleForTheAges: It's never explained why exactly the Capulets and Montagues are at each other's throats, and indeed, that's the point: the cause of their feud is forgotten to time so they're just continuing it for the sake of tradition, resulting in several senseless deaths.
290* RightForTheWrongReasons: After Tybalt's death, Lady Capulet is right that Benvolio's "affection makes him false; he speaks not true." But it wasn't because Benvolio's affection for Romeo made him invent an excuse to kill Tybalt; it was his affection for Mercutio that made him downplay Mercutio's aggression against Tybalt.
291* RoaringRampageOfRomance: Romeo and Juliet's romance causes six deaths:
292## Mercutio: Killed defending Romeo when Tybalt demands a duel and Romeo refuses.
293## Tybalt: Killed by Romeo in a duel to avenge Mercutio's death.
294## Lady Montague: Died of sadness because of Romeo's banishment.
295## Paris: Killed by Romeo for trying to arrest him and deny him access to the Capulet tomb.
296## Romeo: Killed himself after learning of Juliet's "death" by ingesting poison he bought in Mantua.
297## Juliet: Killed herself by stabbing herself with Romeo's knife after finding him dead in her tomb.
298* RomanticFalseLead: Paris shows up asking for Juliet's hand before she meets Romeo. Or, if Juliet is the protagonist, Romeo shows up besotted with [[TheGhost Rosaline]] before he meets Juliet.
299* RunawayFiancee: The FauxDeath set up by Juliet was an attempt to get out of marrying Paris.
300* SacrificialLion: Mercutio and Tybalt die in Act III, after which the play begins to take shape as a tragedy.
301* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: One could say that this is Friar Lawrence's intention (although it's more like "screw societal tradition" than "screw the rules"), although he ends up failing miserably.
302* SecretRelationship: The root of the tragedy. Romeo and Juliet marry in secret because [[FeudingFamilies their families are feuding]], Juliet wants to avoid an ArrangedMarriage, and the Friar tries to help by [[FakingTheDead faking Juliet's death]], but due to a plague quarantine, his message to an exiled Romeo about the faked death is returned to sender and Romeo genuinely thinks Juliet is dead, buys some poison, unknowingly kills Juliet's suitor for barring him access to her body, and after he dies, Juliet wakes up, sees Romeo dead, and stabs herself when there's not enough poison left for her.
303* SentencedWithoutTrial: In every version of the play, Romeo is banished from Verona without a trial after killing Tybalt. This was mercy on the part of Prince Escalus, because the other alternative was to put him to death for continuing the violence of the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets by killing Tybalt, and the main reason that Romeo wasn't executed was because he was seeking revenge for Mercutio's death at Tybalt's hands, not for anyone on his family's side.
304* SerialRomeo: Romeo's object of hopeless affection changes on a dime in the play, and it's implied he's done this sort of thing before. He knew Juliet for about a ''minute'' and was already making out with her.
305* ShooOutTheClowns: After Mercutio's death, the play turns into a tragedy.
306* SmallRoleBigImpact: Gregory and Sampson, two servants of the Capulets, only appear at the very start of the play, but they rile up the feud by taunting the Montague servants, and the ensuing brawl leads Prince Escalus to declare that further breach of the peace will be punished by death. A third nameless servant whom Lord Capulet sends to invite people to his house for supper ends up crossing paths with Romeo and Benvolio and unwittingly invites them to attend; Benvolio drags Romeo to the party in the hopes of weaning him off Rosaline (who will be attending) but then Romeo ends up meeting Juliet, and it's all downhill from there.
307* SnicketWarningLabel: The prologue tells the audience, ''barely six lines in'', that the play will be a tragedy and the star cross'd lovers will take their lives.
308* SparedByTheAdaptation: The play never reveals what happened to the apothecary, but the source story ends with him being sentenced to death.
309* StarCrossedLovers: Romeo and Juliet are kept apart by a string of misfortunes. However, it's also an UnbuiltTrope, since it shows how reckless and foolish the lovers were to rush into things.
310* TagTeamSuicide: Juliet uses Romeo's dagger to kill herself after Romeo kills himself by ingesting poison, though that was only because Romeo unknowingly failed to leave enough for her.
311* TakeAThirdOption: Lady Capulet demands that Romeo be executed for killing Tybalt. Lord Montague protests that, since Tybalt killed Mercutio, Romeo was acting justly. The prince compromises by subjecting Romeo to exile from Verona with [[DramaticIrony the threat of the death penalty if he comes back]].
312* TakeThat: To the Catholic Church, personified by Friar Lawrence. Zigzagged as he's one of the more sympathetic characters and is even SparedByTheAdaptation, which was actually kind of daring for a play written in Protestant England.
313* TemptingFate: Romeo, just before his wedding:
314-->'''Romeo:''' Do thou but close our hands with holy words,\
315Then love-devouring death do what he dare\
316It is enough I may but call her mine.
317* ThreateningMediator: In Act I Scene 1, The Prince of Verona enters in the middle of a brawl that includes servants from Houses Capulet and Montague, the hot-blooded Capulet heir Tybalt and his cronies against the Montague youths, and the heads of the houses. The prince commands them to stand down, "on pain of death." At the end of the scene, he makes it clear to the heads of the houses that if another brawl erupts, punishing their servants won't be enough: the Lords themselves will be executed.
318* TogetherInDeath: Romeo and Juliet, who actually end up lying side by side (or at least sufficiently close) in the middle of the Capulet mausoleum. Both killed themselves with this trope in mind, Romeo thinking Juliet was already dead, and Juliet finding his body after awakening from an induced coma.
319* TooDumbToLive: Between the FeudingFamilies making each other and themselves miserable, impulsive teenage lovers, and [[PoorCommunicationKills poor communication]], it's probably easier to list the characters who ''don't'' act like complete idiots.
320* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth:
321-->When he shall die,\
322Take him and cut him out in little stars,\
323And he will make the face of heaven so fine\
324That all the world will be in love with night\
325And pay no worship to the garish sun.
326* ATragedyOfImpulsiveness: The entire romance is a string of acting on impulse, and the plot really starts to go south when Romeo kills Tybalt without thinking first.
327* TragicHero: It has been argued whether or not, Romeo, Juliet, or both are this.
328* TragicMistake: Romeo's killing of Tybalt in vengeance for Mercutio, leads to his banishment. Everything goes straight to hell for both lovers because of it.
329* TranslationConvention: The play is set in Italy. Bar two scenes in Mantua, the rest takes place in Verona.
330* TraumaCongaLine: From Mercutio's death to the discovery of the dead lovers is a chain of deaths, suicides, and murders. Tybalt, Lady Montague, Paris, Romeo, and finally Juliet die in very quick succession (it's sometimes implied that Benvolio has too). When it's all over, the Prince tells both families that there has been quite enough death over this feud and it's time to bury the hatchet.
331* UnbuiltTrope: The story is nowadays shorthand for StarCrossedLovers, especially of the teenage/young adult romance variety or "Romeo and Juliet + X" high concept. The romance itself in the story is very thin, immature, and ultimately quite tragic due to the extremely young ages of the characters and the ExtremelyShortTimespan. Almost all modern works invoking the tropes or backbone of the story develop much greater depth and a greater focus on the merits of the impossible romance rather than the tragic car wreck of it.
332* UnstoppableRage: Mercutio's death imbues Romeo with so much vengeful fury that he manages to defeat MasterSwordsman Tybalt. Later, after Juliet's supposed death, Romeo kills Paris, the ''prince's cousin'', when he tries to deny Romeo entry to the tomb and arrest the poor boy. "Tempt not a desperate man" indeed.
333* UnusualEuphemism: Shakespeare occasionally uses ''die'' as slang for ''orgasm'', particularly in Juliet's wedding-night soliloquy.
334* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom:
335** Romeo's servant Balthazar tells Romeo that Juliet is dead, oblivious to the fact that the death has been faked. Romeo takes this '''badly'''.
336** Friar John is another unwitting instigator, although, ironically, this stems from his ''being prevented'' from delivering a letter. He doesn't know what it contains.
337* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Tybalt sees Romeo as this; when Tybalt tells Lord Capulet that Romeo has come uninvited to the Capulet masquerade ball, Lord Capulet lets it slide because Romeo has a decent reputation (not to mention Lord Capulet didn't want any trouble). Conversely, the entire Capulet household is fiercely devoted to Tybalt, the play's apparent antagonist.
338* WeddingDeathJuxtaposition: In the scene after [[StarcrossedLovers Romeo and Juliet]] marry in secret, Juliet's cousin Tybalt challenges Romeo to a duel. Because Romeo chooses not to fight him, knowing Tybalt is now his family, Romeo's friend Mercutio defends his honor and is killed instead, followed shortly by Romeo killing Tybalt in vengeance. This kickstarts a string of events that will lead to the deaths of three more people, including Romeo and Juliet themselves.
339* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Where the hell does Benvolio go after Mercutio dies? This could be explained by the first quarto, in which Lord Montague offhandedly mentions that Benvolio died. Benvolio's death could be foreshadowed by Benvolio's last line in the play, "This is the truth or let Benvolio die," which he says after bending the truth a little to protect the images of Mercutio and Romeo while framing Tybalt as a bully. Additionally there is the possibility that in the original production of the play, the actor playing Benvolio could have doubled for a role more critical to the second half of the action.
340* WhatTheHellHero: Friar Lawrence's speech to Romeo in Act III in which he calls Romeo out for crying like a baby, not realizing how lucky he is that he's not dead as a result of his idiocy, and for generally not manning up.
341* WomenAreWiser:
342** Juliet is far and away the more sensible and level-headed one of the title duo. Also, when a street brawl breaks out, Lords Montague and Capulet try to fight, and their wives have to hold them back.
343** Even between the Nurse and Friar Lawrence, this trope is applicable -- although in a darker way. Friar Lawrence sets about making tons of risky plans that, although well-intentioned, have a thousand ways to go wrong. The Nurse tells Juliet to be sensible and marry Paris, and give up Romeo for dead because it involves less risk and heartache. She's also looking after Juliet's well-being, because if she was impregnated by Romeo, she may pass the child as Paris's.
344* TheWorldsExpertOnGettingKilled: Mercutio gives a very detailed description of how skilled a swordsman Tybalt is. He later starts up a fight with Tybalt himself and ends up getting killed by him.
345* YoungLoveVersusOldHate: The young lovers come from families that have been at war with each other for generations. The hatefulness of the older generation eventually led to the death of both characters.
346* YouthIsWastedOnTheDumb: The fights are often portrayed as this.
347
348----
349
350[[folder:Productions and adaptations add examples of:]]
351%%apart from those with their own pages
352
353* AmbiguouslyGay: Mercutio, in some modern productions in which he's in love with Romeo.
354* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Very commonly seen to distinguish the two families and highlight how irreconcilable they are. In the 2013 film adaption, the Montagues wear red, and the Capulets wear blue.
355* CompositeCharacter: Many adaptations, such as the 2013 film, have Benvolio take the role of Balthasar in the final acts since otherwise, he disappears without explanation.
356* DanceOfRomance: Though Juliet off-handedly mentions that Romeo doesn't like to dance, some renditions have the duo dance together before they exchange dialogue.
357* DemotedToExtra: Most adaptations seem to forget Paris. His death is one of the most frequently omitted sequences, even though it makes nonsense of the prince's "I have lost a brace of kinsmen" lines. (This may be because Romeo murders him, which is odd coming from the hero.)
358* TheDyingWalk: Some adaptations of the story have Mercutio doing this after or while he's uttering his DyingCurse.
359* RaceLift: The Hong Kong Ballet version obviously makes all the characters Asian, except for Paris, who remains white.
360* RelationshipUpgrade: The Hong Kong Ballet version adds in a subplot of Lady Capulet and Tybalt having an affair.
361* SettingUpdate: The Hong Kong Ballet version transports the action to 1960's Hong Kong and makes the two warring families warring triads as well.
362* SparedByTheAdaptation:
363** Some film versions and some productions leave Paris and Lady Montague alive since their deaths have little impact on the plot.
364** In the SpaghettiWestern adaptation, ''Film/TheFuryOfJohnnyKid'', the characters based on Romeo and Juliet live -- but everyone else dies, mostly by each other's hands (with a lone gunslinger cleaning out the rest).
365[[/folder]]
366----
367->''For never was a story of more woe''\
368''Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.''

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