In the beginning of Act 1 in the play Romeo and Juliet, it is the servants of the Capulet family who initiate an argument with the servants of the Montague family. The argument starts when Sampson, a servant of the Capulet family, bites his thumb at Abraham, a servant of the Montague family, which was considered an insulting gesture at the time. This leads to a verbal exchange between the two groups, which escalates into a physical fight when Benvolio, a member of the Montague family, arrives on the scene and tries to stop the fighting.