We began our study of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet today by my parsing and explaining the opening scene by cross referencing to the annotations. We further studied the prologue with his Elizabethan sonnet form and more critically its reference to "star crossed lovers." I provided instruction on the two common types of tragedies , a tragedy of Fortune or bad luck and a tragedy of character flaw. Based on the prologue, we discussed that this play may be a tragedy of bad luck or Fortune. I noted however, that interpretations differ and we should be watchful of what decisions and actions of the characters affect their tragic end. I further discussed the stylsitc use of puns , and we examined the use of puns throughout the first scene.