Romeo and Juliet summary

Two Capulet servants, Sampson and Gregory, pick a fight with the Montague servants Abram and Balthasar by biting a thumb at them. Benvolio tries to part them, but Tybalt arrives and attacks him. Prince Escalus rides in and warns both houses that the next disturbance will be punished by death.

Romeo is not in the fight. He is wandering a grove, sick with love for Rosaline, who has sworn a vow of chastity. Lord Capulet, meanwhile, tells Count Paris to wait two years before asking for Juliet.

A Capulet servant who cannot read asks Romeo to read the guest list, and Romeo, seeing Rosaline's name, decides to go to the masked feast. Mercutio delivers the Queen Mab speech on the way, and Romeo feels a heavy sense of fate.

At the party Romeo sees Juliet and forgets Rosaline at once. They speak in a shared sonnet, kiss, and learn that they belong to enemy families. Tybalt recognizes Romeo's voice, but Lord Capulet forbids a fight.

Romeo climbs the Capulet garden wall, hears Juliet speak his name aloud from her balcony, and they exchange vows. She asks him to send word the next day if his intent is marriage.

Friar Laurence agrees to wed them, hoping the match will end the feud. The Nurse carries messages and brings a rope ladder, and the couple marry that afternoon in the Friar's cell.

Tybalt challenges Romeo, who has just married his cousin and refuses to fight. Mercutio takes up the sword in his place, and Tybalt stabs him under Romeo's arm. Mercutio curses both houses and dies.

Romeo kills Tybalt in rage. Prince Escalus spares his life because Tybalt killed Mercutio, but sentences him to exile. Romeo spends a night with Juliet and leaves for Mantua at dawn.

Lord Capulet, thinking marriage will cure his daughter's grief, promises Juliet to Paris. When she refuses, he threatens to disown her, and the Nurse tells her to give in. Juliet goes to Friar Laurence, who gives her a sleeping draught that will make her seem dead for forty-two hours, and promises to tell Romeo.

Juliet pretends to obey her father and drinks the potion. She is found on the wedding morning and the family mourns.

Friar John, carrying the Friar's letter, is stopped by a plague quarantine. Romeo hears only from Balthasar that Juliet is dead, buys poison from an Apothecary, and rides to Verona.

At the tomb Romeo kills Paris, who tries to stop him, then drinks the poison and dies. Juliet wakes, finds him dead, and stabs herself. Capulet and Montague clasp hands over their children and promise golden statues of them. The Prince ends the play with the words that a glooming peace has come.