Context

• Name a feature of a Greek Tragedy

  Unities, chorus, hubris, harmatica, peripeteia, nemesis, fate, world view of tragedy, the Greek furies, catharsis
• civil war


  the worry of Elizabeth's death without an heir threatened peace at home. Would their be a civil war to find a successor? This fear mimicked the feud- two halves of the same city pitted against each other
• the plague


  There were regular outbreaks of the plague in London- public gatherings prohibited and playhouses shut. 1/10 people killed. Many of the wealthy left London until the plague disappeared. The poor couldn't afford to and were left to likely die. Introducing the plague isn't just a plausible plot device that stops Romeo from getting the letter from the Friar but Shakespeare uses it to heighten the feeling of impeding disaster by tapping into the recent memories of the disaster his audience had just experienced.