When Romeo is heartbroken by Rosaline, Benvolio urges him to look elsewhere for a woman. This leads to Romeo gate- crashing Capulets party, where he immediately falls in love with Juliet. It is a case of love at first sight.
Capulet makes a promise to Paris that if Juliet consents, he will be able to marry her. Talk between them is very amicable and Capulet treats Paris as a member of the family. This creates a dilemma for the audience, as they know Juliet will meet Romeo in true, not courtly love soon. Again this event in the first act makes the audience anticipate that there is certain tragedy to follow later in the play. They know the triangle of lovers will succumb to fate.
Capulet sends a slow-witted servant out to deliver the invitations for his party. The illiterate servant is given a list of names. As he talks to Romeo he mixes up workers and their tools. He asks Romeo to read the names out. As Romeo does this he discovers that Rosaline is invited. Benvolio, Romeo’s brother urges him to attend, hoping that Romeo will meet different women.
Lady Capulet talks to Juliet about marriage to Paris and Juliet agrees to marry him. Doubt is now introduced, as the audience know Juliet will fall in love with Romeo, but she has caused a predicament by agreeing to marry Paris.
During the Capulets traditional party Tybalt, Capulets son sees Romeo and is outraged that he has dared to gate-crash the party. Capulet scolds Tybalt for wanting to pick a fight. Tybalt threatens vengeance. This is a prophecy because there is a big fight the next day that takes Tybalts death.
Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time, not realising that they are from opposing families. When they are told they are from conflicting families Romeo looks upon it with dismay, whereas Juliet looks upon it ironically “My only love comes from my only hate”. It is this part of the play that the audience wonder what will be the outcome. The fact that they are in love means that the audience fear for their future.
On the Sunday the feud and brawl in the streets, followed by prince Escales’ speech leads to the banishment of Romeo from the city of Verona. Act 3 takes place on the Monday and Juliet suspects Romeo has died. She utters a prophecy that if she dies she would lie beside Romeo. She soon learns that Romeo has only been banished.
Romeo realises the potential for disaster if he goes ahead and attends the party. He is encouraged by Benvolio, who believes he will see women more beautiful than Rosaline, at the party. On meeting Juliet his life takes a dramatic turn.
Paris is promised Juliet by Capulet and Juliet reluctantly agrees to the marriage. This leads to the marriage beings brought forward to Thursday. This acts as an impetus for Romeo and Juliet to be married quickly and from then on everything deteriorates.
It is chance that a servant delivering Capulets party invitations asks Romeo to read the name out to him. This leads to Romeo going to the party for the sole reason that Rosaline was also invited.
Juliet has agreed to marriage prior to meeting Romeo. This leads to her taking the sleeping potion under Friar Lawrences help, because she realises she is not in love with Paris. The audience is aware of this loveless agreement to marriage, and the fact it is just a sleeping potion. Juliet is full of doubt, about the Friars honesty, if she wakes before Romeo arrives and if she will go mad with dread. In this Juliet speaks of her own fate in prophecy.
During the party Tybalt sees Romeo and tries to pick a fight with him. Capulet scolds Tybalt which makes him seek vengeance. This leads to a fight the following day (Monday), where Mercutio is killed by Tybalt. In an act of revenge Romeo kills Tybalt. This key event leads to the banishment of Romeo, which means the failure of communication regarding Juliet’s sleeping potion. Romeo thinks Juliet is dead and takes his own life. And so the tragedy unfolds.
Romeo and Juliet meet and fall in love at first sight on the Sunday evening, prophetically Romeo says “Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear”.
Gradually Shakespeare cleverly gives away to the audience what is going to happen at the end of the play but keeps them in suspense until the very end. This proves very effective. He does this through linking key events in the first act to events later in the play. Through the characters he uses prophetic language to give the audience an inkling of what is going to happen later. He explores many themes throughout the play, including many types of love: courtly, familial, artificial and genuine. Events in the play highlight that there is an even balance caused by free-will and fate. This balance makes the audience think how certain events could have been prevented, because +++++++++++++++++of the element of failure of communication.