Time Span

The plot of Romeo and Juliet spans only five days.

Day 1 Sunday  In the morning Abram and Balthazar run into Sampson and Gregory in the street, and they start antagonizing each other.  Benvolio enters the scene and tries to stop the four men from fighting, but when Tybalt arrives, all six men end up in a full blown battle.  The entire town ends up in the battle including Lord Capulet and Lord Montague. The Prince enters and puts a stop to it. He threatens the Montague and Capulet families that if they continue to fight then they will be killed as punishment for all the trouble they have caused in Verona.  Juliet's family is hosting a costume ball that evening, and the invitations are delivered by Peter.  Lord and Lady Montague are concerned about their son, Romeo. They know he is upset about something, and they send Benvolio to discover what is wrong.  Romeo tells Benvolio that he is in love with Rosaline Capulet (Juliet’s cousin), but she doesn’t share his feelings. Benvolio suggests they go to the Capulet party, so he can meet someone new.  Romeo’s best friend, Mercutio, has invitations to the party, so the three of them can go. As they are heading to the party, Romeo tells Mercutio he has had a premonition about his fate. Romeo’s premonition tells him that if he attends the Capulet party it will lead to his death.  Mercutio tells him to ignore the premonition because it doesn’t mean anything. Romeo however does believe that premonitions are real, but he decides to ignore it and go to the party anyway.  Lord Paris meets with Lord Capulet about arranging a marriage between himself and Juliet. Lord Capulet cautions Paris to slow down because Juliet is so young. He invites Paris to the party, so he can meet Juliet and see if there is any sort of connection between the two.  Juliet meets Paris, and they start to dance. Then she sees Romeo across the room, and it is love at first sight between the two of them.  Juliet’s nurse discovers what is happening and tells Juliet who Romeo is – the son of her family’s great enemy.  When Romeo sees Juliet with the nurse he realizes that Juliet is a Capulet.  Tybalt also sees Romeo at the party and vows to kill him for crashing the party.  At the end of the evening, when Mercutio and Benvolio are leaving the party, they cannot find Romeo, and they think it is because he is with Rosaline. The truth is that he snuck into the Capulet’s garden to see Juliet.  Later that night the two profess their love in the famous "balcony scene." Juliet tells Romeo that if he truly loves her he will marry her. He agrees and leaves to make plans for the marriage. Day 2 Monday  Friar Lawrence, at the church, is visited by Romeo, who is trying to arrange his marriage to Juliet.  At first Friar Lawrence refuses to perform the marriage because he believes it is happening too fast. Romeo was just in love with Rosaline, and now has moved on to Juliet. But in the end, he agrees to marry the two lovers because he believes it will unite the two families and stop the fighting.  The nurse seeks Romeo out to find out the details of the marriage and warns him not to hurt Juliet. The nurse cares for Juliet as if she were her own daughter and is very protective of her.  Romeo and Juliet are married in secret that afternoon. Only the nurse, Friar Lawrence and Balthazar know of the marriage.  Meanwhile, Benvolio and Mercutio are looking for Romeo because they have heard that Tybalt wants to kill Romeo for being at the party the night before. They are worried that Romeo has already been attacked.  Before they can find Romeo, they are confronted by Tybalt, who demands to know where Romeo is. Mercutio defends Romeo and will not listen to Benvolio, who is trying to stop a fight from beginning between Tybalt and Mercutio. Tybalt and Mercutio begin fighting, and all of a sudden Romeo appears.  Romeo, now married to Juliet, considers Tybalt family and doesn’t want to fight him. He offers Tybalt his weapon as a sign of submission.  Mercutio and Tybalt don’t understand Romeo’s change of heart and both see it as weakness. Mercutio steps in to attack Tybalt for Romeo.  Romeo jumps between the two to stop the fight, and Mercutio is stabbed under Romeo’s arm.  Once Tybalt realizes what he has done to Mercutio, he runs away. As Mercutio dies, he curses the Montagues and Capulets for causing his death by saying, “a plague on both your houses.”  In a rage Romeo goes after Tybalt to avenge Mercutio’s death. The two fight, and Romeo tells Tybalt that one or the other or both of them will die and accompany Mercutio’s soul to heaven.  During the fight, Romeo kills Tybalt.  Balthazar finds Romeo and helps him escape before he is caught.  Because Benvolio tells the Prince the whole story of Tybalt’s initial attack on Romeo and Mercutio, and that Tybalt’s death was the result of Mercutio’s death, Romeo is banished from the town for his part in the fighting instead of being killed himself. Romeo essentially carried out Tybalt’s death sentence when he avenged Mercutio’s death.  Romeo goes into hiding at the church with Friar Lawrence. The Friar delivers the news of his banishment as a happy reprieve, but Romeo says that banishment is worse than death because it means that he and Juliet cannot be together.  Friar Lawrence scolds him for being so short sighted. The nurse shows up at the church to see if Romeo is there. She tells them both that Juliet is full of mixed emotions – happiness that Romeo is alive and sadness that Tybalt is dead and Romeo is banished.  Romeo sneaks into Juliet’s room to say goodbye to her and must go to Mantua before morning where he will wait to discover his fate. Day 3 Tuesday  Romeo is heading to Mantua.  Juliet is told by her parents, who are unaware that she is married to Romeo, that her marriage to Paris has been arranged in two days. They believe that this will “cheer her up” after the loss of Tybalt. They don’t realize that she is already married to Romeo.  When Juliet refuses, her father and mother threaten to throw her out if she does not obey.  Juliet goes to Friar Lawrence for help to be reunited with Romeo and threatens to kill herself if he cannot help her.  The Friar comes up with a plan for the two to run away together  The Plan  Juliet will “agree” to the marriage to Paris which will make her parents very happy.  At bed time she will drink a potion that will make her appear dead.  Her family will discover her body and have her funeral.  Her body will be placed in the family tomb.  Friar Lawrence will write a letter to Romeo telling him of the plan.  Romeo will break into the tomb, and the two of them will run away together.  Because Juliet is so desperate to be with Romeo and away from Paris, she agrees to the Friar’s plan.  In order to begin the Friar’s plan, she “agrees” to marry Paris. Her parents are so happy that they move the wedding forward one day. This will cause a problem with the Friar’s time line and ability to get the news of the plan to Romeo.  That evening after she goes to bed, Juliet drinks the potion, which will make her appear dead. Day 4 Wednesday  The next morning, Juliet’s wedding day to Paris, the nurse goes to wake her up and discovers that Juliet is “dead.”  The wedding celebration turns into her funeral. At the funeral Balthazar, Romeo’s servant, sees Juliet’s “dead” body.  Balthazar, who knows nothing about the Friar’s plan, travels to Mantua and tells Romeo that Juliet is dead.  Friar Lawrence sent the letter with details of the plan to Romeo with Friar John, but John got sick and wasn’t able to make the full journey. Because of this, Romeo never receives the letter from the Friar, so he is not aware that this is all part of a plan.  Juliet is interred in the Capulet family tomb.  Romeo decides that he cannot live without Juliet, so he buys poison from the apothecary to kill himself.  Romeo returns to Verona to be with Juliet and die by her side.  Paris is at the tomb to mourn Juliet. He tries to stop Romeo from entering the tomb. Romeo asks Paris to kill him, but in their fight Paris is killed instead.  After he breaks into the tomb, he says goodbye to Juliet, tells her how beautiful she is, and drinks the poison. He dies next to Juliet. Day 5 Thursday

 Friar Lawrence realizes that his plan has not worked because Friar John was not able to deliver his letter to Romeo.  He goes to the tomb to be with Juliet when she wakes up. When he gets there he sees both Paris and Romeo are dead.  When she wakes up, he tries to convince her to leave Verona and become a nun before she discovers that Romeo is dead.  She discovers Romeo’s body and refuses to leave with the Friar, so he runs away to save himself.  First she tries to get the last little bit of poison out of the bottle Romeo is holding. When this does not work she takes Romeo's dagger, stabs herself, and dies next to Romeo.  The Friar is caught by a guard trying to escape and confesses to the two families all that has happened with Romeo and Juliet.  The two families are united in the loss of their children and decide to build gold statues in their honor.