Romeo and Juliet's love could be said to be bad because it was forbidden. The Capulets and the Montagues are two feuding families in Verona, and their mutual hatred means that Juliet, a Capulet, and Romeo, a Montague, are off-limits to each other. Their first meeting, when each is smitten with the other, sets in motion a chain of events that leads to their own deaths as well as those of family (Juliet's cousin Tybalt) and friends (Mercutio, Romeo's friend). They are described as "star-cross'd lovers" in the Prologue for precisely this reason. However, if their love is ultimately fatal to them, it also provides the impetus for the end of hostilities between the two families. Maybe their love was "bad," as it did take both of their lives, but it also led to redemption, as they "with their death / bury their parents' strife." In the end, Capulet and Montague realize how foolish and wasteful their old feud has been.
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