Romeo and Juliet.

What was Romeo and Juliet? That's what you are about to find out. There are many good tragic love stories. When you say tragic love stories there's one story in particular that comes to mind, "Romeo and Juliet." This play was written by William Shakespeare and is a beautifully written love story with the sad and tragic ending of the death of these two "star crossed lovers". (Prologue. 6) Capulet and Montague, the two families from which they come. It is they, the families, which I blame for the demise of these two lovers.

The brawl between these two families is made clear in the firs two lines of the play:

"Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona, where we lay out scene from ancient grudge to new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean," (prologue. 1-4)

Montague, from which the handsome young Romeo came, does not try to stop this war between the two families.

Mass-produced colour photolithography on paper for...

Romeo and Juliet with Friar Laurence

Romeo and Juliet, Act I-Scene_3. Lady Capulet and ...

Which then forces Romeo to go to drastic measures to see his one true love, Juliet. Because of the civil brawl between the families he knows that if he is caught with Juliet or it is found out that he loves her he will be dead. "Is she a Capulet? O dear account! My life is in my foe's debt." He is forced to hide his love of Juliet in order to protect himself because of his family name of Montague. He does not wish to fight Tybalt for he and Tybalt are now related if not by blood but by marriage and this leads to the death of both Mercutio and Tybalt himself. Tybalt was belonging to the Capulet family that is the reason why Romeo wished not to fight him.

Juliet, who is part of the Capulets, realizes how wrong it is to love Romeo when she realizes that he is a Montague:

"My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown, and known to late! Prodigious birth of love it is to me that I must love a loathed enemy" Juliet's family is trying to force her to marry Paris. They try even harder after Tybalt's death because they want to raise the spirits of everyone:

"Marry my child, early next Thursday morn the gallant, young, and noble gentleman, the Count Paris, at Saint Peter's Church, Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride."

This pressure from her parents to marry someone after she had already married Romeo made her extremely mad. Juliet was not able to tell her parents that she was married to Romeo both because he was a Montague and the Capulets hated them so. This drove Juliet to fake her own death to make Romeo come and wait for her to awake so they could run away together. The plan did not follow through and they both died in the end.

As much as the Montague's and the Capulets loved their children they could not know how much trouble they were putting Romeo and Juliet through with the hatred between the two families. All Romeo and Juliet wanted to do was love each other and be together but their families led them both the their grave. Even if it is the family of the two lovers there is always someone to blame in great tragic love stories.

English: Woodcut "Verona" from "Romeo and Juliet" ...

Frederic Leighton's 1850s painting depicting Count...

Representing the famous balcony scene from romeo a...