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Romeo and Juliet - Zonah Merron

Romeo and Juliet - Zonah Meron

Plot summary by Video SparkNotes

Cast:

Jonah - Romeo

Zach - Juliet

Corbyn - Benvolio

Daniel - Friar Lawrence

Jack - Paris

Eben - Tybalt

Tyler- Mercutio

In the streets of Los Angeles, another brawl breaks out between the servants of the feuding noble families of Herron and Marais. Corbyn, a Marais, tries to stop the fighting but is himself embroiled when the rash Herron, Eben, arrives on the scene. After citizens are outraged by the constant violence beat back the warring factions, Prince Escalus, the ruler of Los Angeles, attempts to prevent any further conflicts between the families by decreeing death for any individual who disturbs the peace in the future.

Jonah, the son of Marais, runs into his cousin Corbyn, who had earlier seen Jonah moping in a grove of sycamores. After some prodding by Corbyn, Jonah confides that he is in love with Rosaline, a woman who does not return his affections. Corbyn counsels him to forget this woman and find another, more beautiful one, but Jonah remains despondent.

Meanwhile, Jack, a kinsman of the Prince, seeks Zach's hand in marriage. Her father Herron, though happy at the match, asks Jack to wait two years since Zach is not yet even fourteen. Herron dispatches a servant with a list of people to invite to a masquerade and feast he traditionally holds. He invites Jack to the feast, hoping that Jack will begin to win Zach's heart.

Jonah and Corbyn, still discussing Rosaline, encounter the Herron servant bearing the list of invitations. Corbyn suggests that they attend since that will allow Jonah to compare his beloved to other beautiful women of Los Angeles. Jonah agrees to go with Corbyn to the feast, but only because Rosaline, whose name he reads on the list, will be there.

In Herron's household, young Zach talks with her mother, Lady Herron, and her nurse about the possibility of marrying Jack. Zach has not yet considered marriage but agrees to look at Jack during the feast to see if she thinks she could fall in love with him.

The feast begins. A melancholy Jonah follows Corbyn and their witty friend Tyler to Herron's house. Once inside, Jonah sees Zach from a distance and instantly falls in love with her; he forgets about Rosaline completely. As Jonah watches Zach, entranced, a young Herron, Eben, recognizes him and is enraged that a Marais would sneak into a Herron feast. He prepares to attack, but Herron holds him back. Soon, Jonah speaks to Zach, and the two experience a profound attraction. They kiss, not even knowing each other's names. When he finds out from Zach's nurse that she is the daughter of Herron—his family's enemy—he becomes distraught. When Zach learns that the young man she has just kissed is the son of Marais, she grows equally upset.

As Tyler and Corbyn leave the Herron estate, Jonah leaps over the orchard wall into the garden, unable to leave Zach behind. From his hiding place, he sees Zach in a window above the orchard and hears her speak his name. He calls out to her, and they exchange vows of love.

Jonah hurries to see his friend and confessor Daniel, who, though shocked at the sudden turn of Jonah's heart, agrees to marry the young lovers in secret since he sees in their love the possibility of ending the age-old feud between Herron and Marais. The following day, Jonah and Zach meet at Daniel's cell and are married. The Nurse, who is privy to the secret, procures a ladder, which Jonah will use to climb into Zach's window for their wedding night.

The next day, Corbyn and Tyler encounter Eben—Zach's cousin—who, still enraged that Jonah attended Herron's feast, has challenged Jonah to a duel. Jonah appears. Now Eben's kinsman by marriage, Jonah begs the Herron to hold off the duel until he understands why Jonah does not want to fight. Disgusted with this plea for peace, Tyler says that he will fight Eben himself. The two begin to duel. Jonah tries to stop them by leaping between the combatants. Eben stabs Tyler under Jonah's arm, and Tyler dies. Jonah, in a rage, kills Eben. Jonah flees from the scene. Soon after, the Prince declares him forever banished from Los Angeles for his crime. Daniel arranges for Jonah to spend his wedding night with Zach before he has to leave for Mantua the following morning.

In her room, Zach awaits the arrival of her new husband. The Nurse enters, and, after some confusion, tells Zach that Jonah has killed Eben. Distraught, Zach suddenly finds herself married to a man who has killed her kinsman. But she resettles herself and realizes that her duty belongs with her love: to Jonah.

Jonah sneaks into Zach's room that night, and at last, they consummate their marriage and their love. Morning comes, and the lovers bid farewell, unsure when they will see each other again. Zach learns that her father, affected by the recent events, now intends for her to marry Jack in just three days. Unsure of how to proceed—unable to reveal to her parents that she is married to Jonah, but unwilling to marry Jack now that she is Jonah's wife—Zach asks her nurse for advice. She counsels Zach to proceed as if Jonah were dead and to marry Jack, who is a better match anyway. Disgusted with the Nurse's disloyalty, Zach disregards her advice and hurries to Daniel. He concocts a plan to reunite Zach with Jonah in Mantua. The night before her wedding to Jack, Zach must drink a potion that will make her appear to be dead. After she is laid to rest in the family's crypt, the Friar and Jonah will secretly retrieve her, and she will be free to live with Jonah, away from their parents' feuding.

Zach returns home to discover the wedding has been moved ahead one day, and she is to be married tomorrow. That night, Zach drinks the potion, and the Nurse discovers her, apparently dead, the next morning. The Herrons grieve, and Zach is entombed according to plan. But Daniel's message explaining the plan to Jonah never reaches Mantua. Its bearer, Friar John, gets confined to a quarantined house. Jonah hears only that Zach is dead.

Jonah learns only of Zach's death and decides to kill himself rather than live without her. He buys a vial of poison from a reluctant Apothecary, then speeds back to Los Angeles to take his own life at Zach's tomb. Outside the Herron crypt, Jonah comes upon Jack, who is scattering flowers on Zach's grave. They fight, and Jonah kills Jack. He enters the tomb, sees Zach's inanimate body, drinks the poison, and dies by her side. Just then, Daniel enters and realizes that Jonah has killed Jack and himself. At the same time, Zach awakes. Daniel hears the coming of the watch. When Zach refuses to leave with him, he flees alone. Zach sees her beloved Jonah and realizes he has killed himself with poison. She kisses his poisoned lips, and when that does not kill her, buries his dagger in her chest, falling dead upon his body.

The watch arrives, followed closely by the Prince, the Herrons, and Marais. Marais declares that Lady Marais has died of grief over Jonah's exile. Seeing their children's bodies, Herron and Marais agree to end their long-standing feud and to raise gold statues of their children side-by-side in a newly peaceful Los Angeles

Author's note: My Upload schedule is two times a week. My school is holding me back.