The Chorus, often played by a single narrator, opens Romeo and Juliet with a brief summary of what's to come on stage. Just as the Chorus in ancient Greek tragedies provided a commentary on events in the play for the audience, so Shakespeare's Chorus sets the scene for tragedy by presenting his two young protagonists as the victims of fate whose lives are marred from the outset by the feud between their families: "From forth the fatal loins of these two foes / A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life." Any lack of suspense as to the outcome of the play serves to emphasize the major theme of fate — an omnipresent force looming over Romeo and Juliet's "death-marked" love.
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