<p>Arguably the most famous love story of all time, this play tells the tale of a boy and a girl from warring families who meet and fall in love. Fate is not on their side, however, and they eventually choose to kill themselves rather than live without each other.</p> <p>Because the play has always been popular with audiences, some scholars have refused to take <i>Romeo and Juliet</i> too seriously. They sometimes dismiss it as Shakespeare's trashy blockbuster, not complicated enough to be "high art." It's easy to think the play is nothing more than a tearjerker plot and a collection of pick up lines so cheesy they've become clichés. ("O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo," etc.) But <i>Romeo and Juliet</i> is more than a love story. The supporting characters - Mercutio, above all, but also the Nurse and Friar Laurence - are complicated and morally ambiguous. Through them, the play shows how romance comes in conflict with other relationships. And love itself can't be taken for granted, either. The play actively poses the question of whether the title characters' legendary romance is nothing more than infatuation.</p>