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Act 1 Prologue

Act 1Scene 1begins with a prologue that basically gives the ending away. Of course who in the modern world doesn’t know how Romeo and Juliet ends? This reminds me of a funny story. One time when my daughter was in high school, The Passion of the Christ had just come out and my daughter and her friends were talking about it. One of the girls got all pouty and threw a total tantrum because they spoiled the end of it. Seriously? Are you kidding me? Hey girl read the book. It’s called THE BIBLE. Sheeeesh.... Anyway, as far as Romeo and Juliet goes, I’m pretty sure the prologue doesn’t ruin the ending for too many people since there are perhaps 3 people who live under a rock somewhere who may not know how this particular play ends. That being said, there is no reason for me to interpret the prologue either, so on to Act 1 Scene 1.

 

Act 1 Scene 1

Interesting story. Everybody knows that this story is about the Capulets and the Montagues and their feud right? Let’s see a show of hands….how many of you knew the play started with their servants fighting? I mean COME ON. While I’ll freely admit to being a bit of a slacker, I don’t think I’m the only one who has never felt that much loyalty to any of my employers. Who is so loyal to their employer that they’d fight for them?

 

Anyway back to the play, the servants are out in the streets fighting when the Capulets and Montagues themselves hear all the commotion and come running out into the street. Mr. Capulet decides to join the fight but his wife calls him a stupid old fool and tells him he’s too old to fight, so being the good henpecked husband that he is, he stops fighting. Then the Prince comes up and he is ticked off royally (pun intended), he says he is sick and tired of all of this garbage and that they need to grow up and stop acting like spoiled rotten children and they better not fight in public again. This totally dampens the mood so they all go their own way when Mr. Montague starts looking for his son (that would be the famous Romeo, or infamous depending on your interpretation). His servant tells him that Romeo has been wandering around town pouting. He’s done nothing but mope for days now. Montague says that Romeo refuses to talk to him about his problems (ok how many of us confided in our parents when we were teenagers and had a crush?). The servant guy talks to Romeo and Romeo tells him that some young hottie has his undies all in a bunch. He’s mooning around for her and she’s totally rejecting him, my guess is it’s because he wears tights. Ben something or other, the servant guy tells Romeo to forget about her, that there are plenty of fish in the sea, but Romeo says no way, there are no fish as awesome as the fish he wants.

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