I need help with a Romeo and Juliet essay.

I have to write an essay for English and I need help writing a short summary of Romeo and Juliet?

• Has to be major problem, characters, solution, and setting. And my theme is sometimes people do crazy things for love. Help please.

• Answer:

  As brief as I can be: Romeo and Juliet meet at a ball held by Juliet's family (the capulets). They realise their feuding families will not approve of their marriage. They decided to get married regardless. The cousin of Juliet, Tybalt, fights Romeo's friend Mercutio and kills him. Romeo, in a fit of rage, kills Tybalt and the Prince banishes Romeo on pain of death, never to return to Verona. Juliet is distraught that she cannot see her love and decides to fake her death so she can escape and be with Romeo. Friar Lawrence helps her with this plan and gives her a potion that simulates death. They send a messenger to tell Romeo of the plan. Juliet drinks the potion and everyone weeps because they believe she is dead. She is buried in her family's tomb. The messenger is held up by a plague and one of Romeo's friends (who does not know of the plan) tells Romeo that Juliet has died. He grieves and decides to return to Verona to die with her. He buys poison along the way. He goes to her tomb where Paris (the man Juliet's family wanted her to marry) attacks Romeo, believing he is there to gloat, but Romeo kills him. Seeing Juliet as appearing dead, Romeo drinks the poison and dies. Seconds later, Juliet awakes and sees Romeo dead. Friar Lawrence arrives and begs Juliet to leave before the guards arrive. They are on their way, attracted by the noise of Paris' fight with Romeo. She refuses to leave and stabs herself. Friar Lawrence flees and teh guards arrive. Soon, the families are called to the site. There, seeing their Romeo and Juliet's utter devotion to one another they make up their differences and pledge to build statues of the other's offspring. THE END A great summary that is a bit longer is: http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/romeojuliet/summary.html