Romeo and Juliet Act 1, Scene 1 Summary

(Click the summary infographic to download.)

• BTW, Lord and Lady Montague say, has anyone seen their son, Romeo?
• Romeo, we find out, has been moping around in a "grove of sycamore," which, by the way, is Shakespeare's way of hinting that Romeo is lovesick or "sick amour." (Get it? Syc-a-more?)
• Not only that, says Benvolio, but Romeo never wants to hang out anymore.
• Montague chimes in, complaining that all Romeo ever does (when he's not skulking around in sycamore groves) is lock himself up in his dark "chamber" (bedroom).
• Yep, sounds like a lovesick teenager to us.
• Benvolio, like any good friend, decides to spy for Romeo's parents.
• Romeo wanders in and willingly tells Benvolio that he's in love with a girl who doesn't love him back. Cue Romeo's sighing, lamenting, and poetic musings.
• Romeo reveals that his unavailable crush has taken a vow of chastity and he boo-hoos about the fact that the still unnamed beautiful girl will never have any beautiful children.
• (It also means that Romeo will never get to make out with her in the back seat of his car, if you know what we mean.)
• We interrupt this program for a tasty brain snack: Romeo has been acting like a typical "Petrarchan lover" in this scene. Petrarch was a fourteenth-century Italian poet whose sonnets were all the rage in Renaissance England. In fact, Shakespeare's own collection of Sonnets is, in part, inspired by Petrarch's love poetry, which was written about "Laura," a figure who was as unavailable and unattainable as Romeo's current crush.
• Now back to our program.
• Benvolio tells his friend to get over it already, ugh. He says Romeo should look at other girls, but Romeo is skeptical. No one will compare. Benvolio disagrees and says he'll make Romeo forget his crush or die trying.