Analysis

The prologue is also a sonnet, a popular form of 16th-century love poem that often explored such themes as love in conflict. Shakespeare chooses this poetic form to outline the play’s main issues of love and feuding and to present another major theme: how true love ultimately triumphs because the deaths of Romeo and Juliet end the feud between their families.

Glossary

dignity rank, or title.

fatal loins fateful, unfortunate, offspring.

star-cross’d lovers lovers destined to an unhappy fate.

misadventur’d unlucky.

piteous overthrows their end or death, which arouses or deserves pity or compassion.

death-mark’d doomed from the outset; fated.

two hours traffic the usual duration of a play.