When people try to describe an incredible love story, a beautiful romance, a match so perfect for each other that it seems to have been preordained by fate, they almost always have two names on the tip of their tongue: Romeo and Juliet.

William Shakespeare’s tragic tale of two “unlucky lovers” is virtually synonymous with romance. Which is strange, because anyone who has read Romeo and Juliet (or even just the prologue) knows that these two young lovers will take their own lives at the end of the play. What’s so romantic about that? No marriage, no babies, no “happily ever after.” In fact, all of his romance doesn’t last as long as a nice vacation.

For anyone who has been living under a rock and hasn’t read the play or seen one of the many stage or screen adaptations, a brief summary of Romeo and Juliet: the main characters are from families at war. Audiences never find out why the Montagues (Romeo’s family) and the Capulets (Juliet’s family) don’t get along, and it doesn’t really matter. The reason is probably stupid. Despite the families’ ongoing feud, Romeo crashes the Capulet’s grand elegant party and he and the beautiful Juliet fall instantly in love. They know that a relationship between the two will never work in their hometown of Verona, so they decide to run away together.

Thanks to some interesting scheming on the part of a clergyman and some serious misunderstandings on the part of Romeo, who has been banished from Verona because he killed Juliet’s cousin Tybalt (one of the most memorable minor characters in Romeo and Juliet, and the secondary characters in this play are very different), Juliet takes a potion that makes her appear dead, but Romeo believes that she is actually dead and decides to take her own life in her grave so that they can be together forever in the afterlife. Shortly after he commits suicide, Juliet comes to and sees her dead lover next to her and this time commits suicide for real.

That’s very romantic, right? What couple wouldn’t want those two to like them? If there’s any silver lining to the tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet (who, by the way, aren’t old enough to drive), it’s that their joint suicide sparks a much-needed reconciliation between their two families. Lord Capulet helps close the play with one of the most famous quotes from Romeo and Juliet: “How rich shall Romeo be by his lady’s lie; poor sacrifices of our enmity!” He laments this to Lord Montague, who, in turn, goes out of his way to praise Juliet. After all, what’s a petty fight compared to the tragic suicide of two teenagers in love?

The sad thing is, of course, that these two grown men couldn’t find a way to look past their differences until they realized that their stupid fight resulted in the tragic and untimely deaths of their children. Juliet called Romeo her “only love sprung from [her] they only hate”, and, by the end of the play, it seems that the parents have also learned to love their “sworn enemies”. They just learned it a little late.