The audience would find it easier to follow the action if they had an outline of the plot. It's sort of like program notes, except out loud.
the chorus was often used to give a plot outline - this is terrible to us modern audiences as it gives away the ending but if the audience didnt like the play in Shakespeare's day they shouted and cursed and threw rotten veg at the actors so the chorus built them up for a good story
The story was already well-known in Shakespearian London: Arthur Brooke's original version - the verse-novel Romeus and Juliet - had been a best seller in the years around Shakespeare's birth.
Shakespeare is taking a story everybody already knows and making it fresh and interesting all over.
The Harry Potter films do the same thing.
The Prologue has the important function of telling the ending at the start. This is less unusual than you might think, especially in film (think Citizen Kane or Sunset Boulevard), and it increases the sense that the end is inevitable. It is a quirk of the human mind that, if you know what is going to happen, it seems like fate, but if you do not, it does not.
Nothing is repeated in Romeo and Juliet. The play starts out with a prologue, a kind of TV Guide summary of what the play is going to be about. Although the play does follow the rough plot summary offered in the prologue, it does not repeat any of its words.
He had already indicated the sad conclusion of the play in the title: The Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.
Dramatic irony is used in the prologue of Romeo and Juliet presents facts to the audience that will be unknown the characters in the play. It is a means of creatingsuspense making the audience member anxious or excited about the upcoming plot.
The prologue tells us so, doesn't it: "do with their deaths bury their parents' strife"? And indeed it appears that Montague and Capulet do reconcile at the end of the play. Montague offers to build a statue of Juliet, and Capulet responds by saying he will do the like for Romeo.
It is not an aside, since there is nobody else on stage, behind whose back the words might be said. Nor is it properly speaking a soliloquy, since it is not delivered within the context of the play. The Prologue is not a character in the play who is delivering his perspective on what is going on, but an external observer giving an objective address to the audience. Compare the prologue of Romeo and Juliet with the similar Prologue in Henry V and contrast it with the soliloquy ( NOT a prologue) which starts Richard III. That soliloquy is given by Richard, one of the characters in the play, and it is given in character.
Romeo and Juliet
If an exposition is the setting out of the context from which a plot or argument is to be developed, the prologue to Romeo and Juliet is such an exposition. In fact, the prologue sets out the entire plot of the play, including the ending. This would not have been much of a spoiler as all tragedies ended with everyone getting dead.when he kisses her.
The prologue of "Romeo and Juliet" sets the scene by summarizing the entire play in a poetic form. It introduces the feud between the Montagues and Capulets, foreshadows the tragic fate of the young lovers Romeo and Juliet, and highlights the theme of love and conflict. The prologue serves as an introduction to the play's themes and prepares the audience for the unfolding tragedy.
Nothing is repeated in Romeo and Juliet. The play starts out with a prologue, a kind of TV Guide summary of what the play is going to be about. Although the play does follow the rough plot summary offered in the prologue, it does not repeat any of its words.
Two hours.
He had already indicated the sad conclusion of the play in the title: The Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.
No, "Romeo and Juliet" is a play by William Shakespeare and does not have a recurring chorus as in a song or music.
The same thing that happens to them in the play, strangely enough: they die.
Dramatic irony is used in the prologue of Romeo and Juliet presents facts to the audience that will be unknown the characters in the play. It is a means of creatingsuspense making the audience member anxious or excited about the upcoming plot.
The phrase "star-crossed lovers" in the prologue of "Romeo and Juliet" gives a clue that the play will have a sad ending because it suggests that their fates are predetermined and doomed by the stars.
In the Act 2 prologue, it is mentioned that Romeo has transferred his love from Rosaline to Juliet. This change foreshadows the intense and passionate love that Romeo and Juliet will share, leading to the tragic events that unfold later in the play.
The prologue tells us so, doesn't it: "do with their deaths bury their parents' strife"? And indeed it appears that Montague and Capulet do reconcile at the end of the play. Montague offers to build a statue of Juliet, and Capulet responds by saying he will do the like for Romeo.