In the Prologue to Romeo and Juliet, the Chorus tells us of an "ancient grudge" between two households of equal dignity that has broken out into a "new mutiny" that will cause blood to flow in the streets of Verona and will ultimately result in the deaths of the "star-cross'd lovers." The Chorus points to the heads of these two families as the source of the strife at hand, the rage of their parents causing …
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showed last 75 words of 1117 total
…ancient lovers takes this to be a sign of reconciliation, rivalry persist between Old Capulet and Old Montague, the latter claiming to have the capacity to give more than his counterpart demands of him. In the end, the deaths of Romeo and Juliet are ordained by the war between their houses, but that conflict is also the result of actions by individual characters, like Tybalt and Mercutio, and inaction by a weak and wavering sovereign.