The question still doesn’t appear to make any sense: Romeo’s problem isn’t his first name, but his family name, Montague. And the line, when we stop and consider it, is more than a little baffling. The line is spoken by Juliet: ‘Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?’ Of course, ‘wherefore’ doesn’t mean ‘where’ – it means ‘why’.īut that doesn’t exactly clear up the whys and the wherefores. The play’s most famous line references the feud between the two families, which means Romeo and Juliet cannot be together. Precisely why the families are in a feud with one another is never revealed in Shakespeare’s play, so we are encouraged to take this at face value. In Dante’s early fourteenth-century epic poem, the Divine Comedy, he makes reference to two warring Italian families: ‘Come and see, you who are negligent, / Montagues and Capulets, Monaldi and Filippeschi / One lot already grieving, the other in fear’ ( Purgatorio, canto VI).
Meanwhile, Lady Capulet asks her daughter Juliet whether she has given any thought to marriage, and tells Juliet that a man named Paris would make an excellent husband for her. Benvolio tells Romeo he should attend, even though he is a Montague, as he will find more beautiful women than Rosaline to fall in love with. A servant appears with a note, and Romeo and Benvolio learn that the Capulets are holding a masked ball.
He claims he loves Rosaline, but will not return any man’s love. Romeo appears and Benvolio asks his cousin what is wrong, and Romeo starts speaking in paradoxes, a sure sign that he’s in love.
Benvolio tells them that Romeo has locked himself away, but he doesn’t know why.
Everyone leaves except Old Montague, his wife, and Benvolio, Montague’s nephew. Old Montague and his wife then show up, and the Prince of Verona, Escalus, arrives and chastises the people for fighting. When Benvolio, a member of house Montague, arrives and clashes with Tybalt of house Capulet, a scuffle breaks out, and it is only when Capulet himself and his wife, Lady Capulet, appear that the fighting stops.
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