What dramatic devices does Shakespeare use in Romeo and Juliet?

There are many examples of dramatic devices in Romeo and Juliet, but I will highlight the use of a prologue and catharsis, as well as foreshadowing, dramatic irony, and tragedy.

Romeo and Juliet famously utilizes a prologue that explains the events that will occur in the play. In this prologue, Shakespeare foreshadows the love and death in the play to create dramatic irony. Dramatic irony occurs because the audience knows things the characters do...

There are many examples of dramatic devices in Romeo and Juliet, but I will highlight the use of a prologue and catharsis, as well as foreshadowing, dramatic irony, and tragedy.

Romeo and Juliet famously utilizes a prologue that explains the events that will occur in the play. In this prologue, Shakespeare foreshadows the love and death in the play to create dramatic irony. Dramatic irony occurs because the audience knows things the characters do not. Romeo and Juliet jump impatiently into their relationship, but the audience knows the consequences of this love. This dramatic irony creates tension. Finally, the end of the play brings about catharsis. Catharsis is a Greek term that describes the emotional response that occurs towards the end of a dramatic structure. A catharsis usually elicits emotional responses like crying. The Friar announces the catharsis and also classifies the events as a tragedy: 

I will be brief, for my short date of breath / Is not so long as is a tedious tale. / Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet; / And she, there dead, that Romeo's faithful wife./ I married them; and their stol'n marriage-day / Was Tybalt's doomsday, whose untimely death / Banish'd the new-made bridegroom from the city, / For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pined" (V.iii.229-236).