Miss

The prologue of Romeo and Juliet written by the author himself, William Shakespeare, did not spoil the main events of the play for me but finding it to be an introduction of what was to come. Romeo and Juliet is a well-known play that most people have either read, watched the movie or heard about its story line in general conversation. It helps you to know what to expect and the major themes it is going to bring to its audience. By reading the prologue before the actual play, it leaves you asking how and why does each topic occur.

With a powerful play like Romeo and Juliet, by reading the prologue, it is not affecting the play for you because you have either heard or seen the play in some sort or another e.g. Movie, acted etc. A poet writes a play with meaning and passion therefore by including a well-written prologue. It is not telling you anything more than already know, it is possible that a reader will be intrigued by it and drawn into reading its contents.

Secondly, it helps you to know what to expect and the major themes it is going to bring to its audience throughout the play, the prologue of Romeo and Juliet includes some of the main events that are about to occur, acting as a guided outline of the story even before the play starts. It never mentions how the events occur, thus not destroying the entire story line which, makes you more interested to see how such events happen.

By firstly reading the prologue before the actual play, it leaves the audience asking 'how' do these events occur and 'why' they happen. The audience begins to conspire on how the narrator and actors are going to go about producing such events to its audience.

However, once the audience has begun to read the play, the knowledge of what has been told in the prologue has almost been forgotten. This is due to the emphasis; concentration on reading and imagining the actual play has to its audience.