A Pair of Star-Crossed Lovers

We have started Romeo and Juliet by: Shakespeare in class! I have to be honest and say, at first, I was not very excited to read this book. I've already read one of Shakespeare's novels before: A Midsummer's Night Dream and let me say, that novel was super confusing. I didn't understand Shakespeare's language, his plot and mostly the whole entire book. I think that's what caused me to have such a negative attitude on Romeo and Juliet. However, I am really enjoying it so far. I may not know all of the story word-for-word but I understand what is happening. I'm so excited to read about Romeo meeting Juliet and read the conflict between the two families.
In our textbook, the pictures of Romeo and Juliet are not how I imagined them to look like, that's why I included this picture to the side because this is how I visualize them. I have some questions about Romeo and Juliet so far. First of all, what caused the families to have such a strong rivalry between each other? And why don't they both just try to mend their problems? I hope we find out more about the history between the two families further into the book. Also, I had a question about Shakespeare's writing that I did not come across through our class research. Why does Shakespeare include comedy in this story when I thought this story was more of a romantic drama? I can't wait to keep reading this story in class. I love when you read a book that you had negative thoughts on and end up really enjoying it.