Question

INTERPRET: An important THEME, or message, in Romeo and Juliet is the struggle against fate, or forces that determine how a person’s life will turn out. Explain how Act I’s Prologue establishes the fate of the main characters and introduces the struggle they will face.

Answer 1

Here’s the prologue

Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents’ strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love,
And the continuance of their parents’ rage,
Which, but their children’s end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend

Answer 2

Notice how the prologue spells out exactly what happens in the story (Romeo and Juliet, two lovers from rival houses, fall in love, end up taking their own lives, and end the family’s feud). Specifically, two phrases stand out to me: “star-crossed” and “death-marked” which both suggest that their story is fated to end badly. Star-crossed refers to the idea that their fate is written in the stars (astrology), death-marked means they’re both destined for death.

Answer 3

hey max :D