William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is about two young people who find themselves in love despite the violent feud that divides their families into rival camps. In the play's opening, a Chorus, a device used by playwrights to establish background and to fill-in narrative, describes this generations' old feud:

Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.

With this, the audience is immediately informed of the context in which Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet will fall in love and eventually die, taking with them to their graves the feud the origins of which had long ceased to matter. Romeo and Juliet established the theme of forbidden love against a backdrop of ancient tribal feuds, and their deaths, at very young ages and in a failed effort at ensuring their futures together, is the catalyst their respective family elders need to finally acknowledge the futility and destructiveness of their conflict. This is why, with both protagonists dead, the reigning patriarchs of the respective clans agree to end their long feud and construct memorials to the young lovers, married in secret by Friar Laurence. Observing the tragedy before them, the Prince of Verona admonishes the two families for their senseless losses:

Where be these enemies? Capulet, Montague,
See what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love! 

Grieving from their losses, and with the prince's harsh words fresh in their heads, Lord Capulet and Lord Montague agree to put aside their differences and to memorialize their dead children:

CAPULET
O brother Montague, give me thy hand. This is my daughter's jointure, for no more Can I demand. 

MONTAGUE But I can give thee more, 

For I will l raise her statue in pure gold, 

That while Verona by that name is known, There shall no figure at such rate be set As that of true and faithful Juliet. 

CAPULET
As rich shall Romeo's by his lady's lie, Poor sacrifices of our enmity! 

So, to conclude, Lord Montague and Lord Capulet, in agreeing to end their feud, pledge to have constructed golden statues of the other's dead child.