A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents’ strife.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Prologue. There is a great deal of foreshadowing in opening Prologue to history’s greatest love story. We learn from the Chorus that the young lovers are fated to bring their feuding families together by the tragic taking of their own lives. This passage speaks to the intensity of the teenage couple’s love. "Star-cross’d" is a metaphor for the higher power of fate that controls human destiny. Shakespeare creates dramatic irony here by telling the audience what will happen to the characters before they know it themselves.