[Wilson regards Romeo and Juliet as a tragedy of fate involving "two lovers whose destiny it is to be sacrificed to the healing of their families' strife. " Furthermore, the critic claims, the feud is the central concern of the play. Wilson argues that Shakespeare marred this design, however, by making his hero and heroine so attractive that the audience loses interest in the dramatic action once they are dead, thus ignoring the true culmination of the play in the resolution of the feud.]

The tragic conception of Romeo and Juliet is simply stated for us in the opening sonnet-prologue. By thus announcing his theme and describing the central action, Shakespeare prepares us for the method he will follow throughout the play. We are to watch a sequence of events as they move towards the catastrophe in the full knowledge that they are tragic, that the tragic culmination...