At the start of the play , the chorus tells us a little speech of what is going to happen in the play . The line ” A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life” tells us that the 2 lovers (Romeo and Juliet) take their lives away . It is a bit weird to tell us the story line at the start but then for the whole play we want to find out how and why they kill themselves , so we stay tuned and listen till the end because in this story if you miss a bit of the play , you will not understand what’s going on.
October 9, 2012 at 6:15 pm
This is a strong analysis of the effect of the prologue on the audience of Romeo and Juliet. The notion of knowing they will die refers to the development of tension through dramatic irony. Your ‘stay tuned’ idea is what we refer to as ‘tension’ and the audience knowing what is going to happen is an example of dramatic irony – where the audience knows more than characters in the play.
Nice going.