It recently occurred to me that it would be interesting to see if the three-act structure worked with one of Shakespeare’s plays. After all, the structure has held up when looking at novels and movies of various different genres, but I have yet to use it to analyze anything by Shakespeare. To find out if the framework holds up, I decided to do a three-act analysis of Romeo and Juliet. As you’ll see, the three-act structure not only holds up across hundreds of years, but it also crosses genres from books and movies, now into plays.

Not familiar with the three-act structure? No problem. Check out this article for a detailed discussion on this topic.

Spoiler Alert! Okay, if you haven’t read Romeo and Juliet, or seen the play, or seen a movie based on the play, then be forewarned. This discussion will, of course, contain spoilers because it’s impossible to discuss a story’s structure without mentioning the ending. At the same time, given that this play is several hundred years old (and it’s been made into over thirty films!) I have a hunch you’re already familiar with at least the gist of it.

Okay, let’s dive into our analysis of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

ACT 1: We are introduced to the feud between the Montagues and Capulets. There is a street fight that the Prince breaks up, and he threatens them not to fight again, on penalty of death. The Capulets give a masked ball, and some of the Montagues decide to attend in disguise.

Character(s): We have dual protagonists in this story, and we meet them both in the first act. Romeo is pining for love of Rosaline, who is not interested in him. Juliet’s parents want her to marry Paris (the Prince’s relative) but she does not want to marry anyone at all.
Note that because we have dual protagonists, many of the key “landmark” scenes will have both a Romeo component and a Juliet component.
Voice: Shakespeare writes in a combination of iambic pentameter and prose. The prose passages, however, are not frequent and tend to happen when there’s more back-and-forth between characters in dialogue. Interestingly, the iambic pentameter passages do not always rhyme.
It is only in certain specific—and important—moments where the lines rhyme in quatrains or couplets. For example, Mercutio’s famous Queen Mab speech does not rhyme, while the passage where Romeo and Juliet meet does rhyme.
World: We are in the Italian city of Verona. In this story’s world, there are two feuding families: the Montagues and the Capulets. Romeo is a Montague and Juliet is a Capulet, making them star-crossed lovers.
Problem: The initial problems are twofold: Romeo is in love with someone who doesn’t love him back, and Juliet’s parents want her to marry someone, but she does not want to marry anyone at all. So essentially, they both are unhappy in love. The story becomes all the more complicated when they fall in love with each other and realize that their families are enemies.
Event: The event that kicks off the story is the masked ball given by the Capulets.

PIVOT POINT 1:  Romeo and Juliet meet at the masked ball and instantly fall in love. That is the external event that marks this pivot point. Soon thereafter, they each separately ask someone who the other one is, and they discover that they have fallen in love with their enemy. The internal choice is that they both decide to pursue the romance anyway, despite knowing that their families will not approve.

Note that the passage where they meet and fall in love is written in quatrains where the lines have an ABAB rhyme scheme. The passage begins with each of them taking one full quatrain, then their lines begin to intertwine, still keeping the rhyme. The passage ends with each of them taking half a line, as though they are finishing each other’s sentence.

This use of rhyme scheme and the way that the lines weave together is meant to show the progress of their falling in love. They start the scene as two separate entities, each taking a quatrain to express their thoughts. Then quickly come together, their lines alternating, until finally Juliet finishes the rhyme of Romeo’s line.

ACT 2:  This is where we have the courtship—albeit a lightning-fast one—as well as more feuding between the two families. During this section of the story, Romeo and Juliet each rely on an ally. Romeo has the Friar, who provides a friendly ear and also helps facilitate the marriage between the two young lovers. Juliet also has her nurse, who helps send messages back and forth between them so they are able to be together. After Mercutio and Tybalt’s death, Romeo is banished to Mantua, where he awaits news of whether he can return to Verona or whether Juliet will be able to come to him.

SUPPORTING CAST:  There are several important supporting characters who come into play in the story. These include Mercutio, Tybalt, Benvolio, and Paris. Notice that names are extremely important in Shakespeare’s plays, and many of these characters have names that symbolize their personalities.

Mercutio: His name comes from Mercury, known for speed as the messenger of the Roman gods. This name is fitting of Mercutio, who is quick-witted and very funny. In fact, most of the humor in the play comes from him, and when he dies, the story instantly shifts from comedic to tragic. As one of Romeo’s best friends, he keeps Romeo from taking things too seriously.
Tybalt: His name means “bold people” and comes from the Germanic name Theobald. Tybalt is Juliet’s hot-headed cousin who fights Mercutio in a duel and ends up killing him. He’s fiercely loyal to the Capulets and sees violence as a way to uphold his family honor. He is aggressive and quick to start fights. After Tybalt kills Mercutio, Romeo fights him and wins.
Benvolio: His name comes from the Latin “ben” (good) and “volere” (will), meaning good-natured or well-wisher. Benvolio is a peacemaker who resists fighting and does his best to deescalate conflicts. He doesn’t just try to stop fights before they start, but he also plays a role in explaining what happened after the fact. He serves as a voice of reason throughout the story.
Paris: He is a relative of the Prince and is betrothed to Juliet. This betrothal is part of what precipitates Juliet’s plot to fake her own death. Unlike Romeo, who is respectful of Juliet during their courtship, Paris is possessive and takes liberties with her. For example, he kisses her when she does not want to be kissed (after she is secretly married to Romeo). In the crypt in Act 3, Romeo fights Paris and wins.

W.O.R.S.T.: Throughout Act 2 we also see the W.O.R.S.T. acronym in play.

Want: Romeo and Juliet want to be together.
Obstacle: The obstacle is that their families hate each other.
Risk: Romeo risks death multiple times to sneak into the Capulet orchard to see Juliet. She also risks getting into severe trouble by being with Romeo. The two take the ultimate risk when they decide to get married in secret.
Stakes: What’s at stake if they can’t be together? They’ll be miserable forever. Plus, once they get married, they are now bound to each other. This means if they can’t be together, they will either be forced to be alone and never have love in their life, or they might be forced into a life of sin, if their families make them marry someone else (as is the case with Juliet and Paris).
Transformation: Neither Romeo nor Juliet seem to change much throughout the story. The change that really happens is the transformation in the Montague-Capulet feud. At the beginning of the play, these two families hate each other and are dueling in the streets. By the end of the story, they come together at the tomb, and it appears (from the Prince’s speech) that the two families have learned their lesson, albeit too late.

MIDPOINT: The temporary triumph of the story occurs when Romeo and Juliet get married in secret (Act II, Scene VI). This is a temporary triumph because it seems—for a split second—that maybe they’ll be able to be together. Unfortunately, right after the marriage scene (the marriage itself happening off stage), we have the fight scene between Mercutio, Tybalt, and Romeo, which results in the deaths of Mercutio and Tybalt, as well as Romeo’s banishment.

Mercutio’s death is a pivotal moment of the story because it shifts the story from feeling like a comedy to being a full-on tragedy. To the very end, Mercutio is cracking jokes and making puns. For example, just before he gets carried off stage wounded, he says: “Ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man” (a pun on the word “grave”). This shows his character, always quick-witted and making quips, even at the moment of death. After he dies, the tone of the play quickly shifts.

The moment of self-reflection happens after Mercutio’s death, when Romeo says that his love of Juliet has made him soft. After all, by being married to Juliet, Tybalt is now his cousin, and it was in the moment when Romeo tried to stop the fight between Mercutio and Tybalt that the latter kills his friend. This self-reflection prompts Romeo to fight Tybalt and kill him. The Prince then banishes Romeo from Verona. 

PIVOT POINT 2: After Tybalt’s death, Lady Capulet decides that they should expedite Juliet and Paris’ marriage. Juliet panics because she’s already married to Romeo and begs the Friar to help her. The Friar concocts a plan wherein Juliet will fake her death. She will drink an elixir that will make her sleep as though she has died. Her family will lay her to rest in the family tomb. In the meantime, the Friar will send notice to Romeo to come to her. She’ll then awake after a few days and find Romeo with her and the two can go off together.

At this pivot point, the event is Juliet getting betrothed to Paris and Lady Capulet wanting to have the wedding in short order. The choice is Juliet deciding to fake her own death.

Notice how the Midpoint involves mainly Romeo, while here, Pivot Point 2 focuses mostly on Juliet.

It is not uncommon for dual-protagonist stories to have some landmark scenes that apply to both of them, and then some that relate to only one character. In Romeo and Juliet, most of the important landmarks involve both characters, but there are a few landmarks (like the fight component of the Midpoint or Juliet’s plan at Pivot Point 2) that center on only one of the two protagonists.

ACT 3: Juliet’s fake death goes as planned. She drinks the elixir that the Friar gave her, and it makes her sleep as if dead for several days. Her family, as Friar predicted, bury her in her family tomb. In the meantime, Romeo hears of Juliet’s death and is so distraught, he decides to buy poison so he can kill himself at her tomb.

CRISIS: Paris comes to the tomb first, before Romeo gets there. Romeo then arrives with his servant Balthasar. Paris and Romeo duel and Romeo wins, killing Paris. Romeo lays Paris in the tomb, then says his final soliloquy and pulls out the poison.

CLIMAX: Both Romeo and Juliet die. Romeo’s last words are: “Thus with a kiss I die.” Then Juliet awakes, finds Romeo dead and kisses him. Then she says her final words: “​​Yea, noise? Then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger! [Snatching Romeo’s dagger.] This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die.” 

Ending Type: This is a tragic ending because Romeo and Juliet still want to be together all the way to the end, but they do not get what they want. Instead, they both die.

DENOUEMENT: The Montagues, Capulets, and Prince all arrive at the tomb. The Friar, who has been at the tomb and has seen everything, tells the Prince the whole story. He explains that Romeo and Juliet were in love and were married in secret. He explained the plan he hatched with Juliet to fake her death. Balthazar also adds some details to the story, saying he brought word to Romeo of Juliet’s death. The Montagues and Capulets realize their folly and make peace with each other.

CONCLUSION: In conclusion, I also wanted to share with you a theory I have about this play. This theory boils down to the question: is it a comedy or a tragedy? You see, up until the moment of Mercutio’s death, the play reads a lot like a comedy. We have Romeo in love with one person, then falling in love with another (Midsummer Night’s Dream, anyone?) We have mistaken identities at the masked ball (not unlike Twelfth Night and other such comedies). And we have the quick witticisms of Mercutio tying it all together. But the story ends as a clear tragedy with the protagonists (along with several supporting characters) dead.

According to the Royal Shakespeare Company, Romeo and Juliet was likely composed in the earlier half of Shakespeare’s career, not like some of his more mature tragedies (Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, or King Lear) which were composed later in his life. In fact, along with Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet may likely be one of the very earliest tragedies Shakespeare ever composed. While it’s impossible to pinpoint an exact chronology of when Shakespeare wrote each of his plays, it is clear that many of his earliest plays tended to be histories or comedies.

This is why I think it’s interesting that Romeo and Juliet reads like a comedy-turned-tragedy. In fact, I can pinpoint the exact moment in the play where the tone goes from comedic to tragic: Mercutio’s death. Up until the moment of his death, Mercutio is cracking jokes, and it feels like we are in a comedy. It is only after he dies that the story takes a tragic turn. It’s almost as if Shakespeare said: “Whoops! I just killed off my best character. Welp, might as well kill off everybody else and call it a tragedy.”

Of course, we do have the chorus passage at the opening of the play that foreshadows what’s coming down the line, but that stanza could have easily been added after-the-fact. There’s no evidence that shows Shakespeare clearly intended Romeo and Juliet to be a tragedy from the outset. It could easily have been something he decided to do on the fly because the story took an unexpected turn.

I share this theory with you because as writers, we’ve all had experiences where a character’s arc takes a left turn and throws our story upside down. We’ve all had situations where we discovered things about our characters and had to make changes on the fly. I like to think that Shakespeare had a similar experience with Romeo and Juliet and that the story did take him a little bit by surprise.

This comedy-to-tragedy blip doesn’t make the play any less popular, by the way—in fact, aside from Midsummer Night’s Dream, it’s probably one of Shakespeare’s most performed plays. This theory makes me feel a little better as a writer, because it makes me think I’m in good company. If Shakespeare had a story go sideways on him and he didn’t let that stop him, then maybe all is not lost for regular writers like me.

Until next time, keep writing and keep being awesome!

P.S. For more info on Gabriela Pereira, the founder and instigator of DIY MFA, check out her profile page.
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