"Romeo and Juliet" was inspired on the lives of two real-life lovers who died for each other in Verona, Italy in 1303. Shakespeare is said to have found this sad love story in Arthur Brooke's 1562 poem "The Tragical History of Romeo and Juliet" and reworked it as a tragic love narrative. What's certain is that the play has roots in real life and deals with the themes of love, death, and fate. Romeo is a young nobleman whose family lives next door to the Montagues. He falls in love with Juliet, who is under the protection of her family's rival clan, the Capulets. When Romeo first sees Juliet, she is being held hostage by Paris, a prince who hopes to force her father to give him her hand in marriage. When Romeo fights Paris and wins, he thinks that Juliet will marry him. But when she tells him she does not love him, he kills himself. After his death, she decides to marry the next man who asks her for her hand. Her parents fear that she will soon be married and so they tell her that she can never again wear black or eat food without salt. One night, while sleeping, she is shot by a poisoned arrow that someone has put in her bed. She dies alone and helplessly as Romeo watches over her body. Juliet is a rich heiress whose family lives next door to the Montagues. She falls in love with Romeo after seeing him fight Paris.