The Impossible Love

The Impossible Love: Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is probably the most famous romantic story in the world. There have been thousands of productions of the play and many different versions of the film.

In the story, the two families of Capulet and Montague are at war with each other in the city of Verona in Italy.

A boy of the Montague family (Romeo) and a girl of the Capulets (Juliet) fall in love. As their families hate each other, they know they will not be allowed to marry. But, they are so much in love they marry in secret instead. But they do not live happily, and after a bloody and complex story, they each take their own lives.

The themes of Romeo and Juliet are various but the most salient feature of the story is the theme of love. The play presents the most famous love story in the English literary tradition. But although love is naturally the play's dominant and most important theme, other themes, such as: fate and chance, light and dark, or time, are also present throughout the events.

Click here to do a matching exercise on the plot: Romeo and Juliet

Balcony Scene

In Capulet's garden Romeo sees Juliet come to her window. He is entranced by her beauty and listens as she tells the night that she loves Romeo and wishes that he had another name. Romeo surprises her by offering to take another name for her love.

Match the sentences of the original text (left) with a modern version of those sentences (right)

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