This is a pet peeve of mine, and it’s been triggered a lot lateley. Romeo and Juliet is NOT a love story. It’s not. There’s no love in it. It’s a tragedy about the dangers of infatuation and young people making hasty decisions.
Allow me to sum up. We start with a young man who is nearly suicidal because the “love of his life” is not interested in him. Yes, poor Romeo got shot down by the hottest girl in school, and it’s ruining him. We’ve all been there, but it’s not love. Well, to cheer Rome up, his boys take him to a party. At that party, he hooks up with a new chick (boy that love for Rosalyn lookin’ pretty cheap now).
Well, he finds out the girl is his enemy’s daughter, and it’s moping time again. Meanwhile, he runs into her, but she’s cool with him being from the wrong side of the tracks. So they decide to get hitched in secret. (After having known each other for what? four hours? maybe 8?)
So that afternoon, they get married (still having not known each other for 24 hours). Shortly after the wedding, Romeo kills his new wife’s cousin (what a way to get into the family!), and has to split town. Does he take his new bride with him? Nope, he just splits. And she doesn’t really seem to want to go, being pissed that he killed her cousin. Ahh, true love.
Well, eventually they get to thinking maybe they should get back to gether, so does Juliet pack up and move to Mantua? Hell no! She fakes her own death. Well, Romeo doesn’t check his email that day and just gets the rumor that she’s dead. So he goes and finds her, where he kills himself. Then she wakes up to find her husband’s corpse holding her down, so she kills herself for real. Ahhh, love is a beautiful thing.
No, no love here folks. Infatuation at best. Love develops over time and triumphs over all other concerns. When you go from one girl to another in the same day, neither can be love. When you marry someone the day after you meet them, that’s asking for tragedy. There’s no love in Romeo and Juliet, just the infatuatuation that can feel so strong in your youth and can all too often lead to bad decisions. Such as faking your own death…
funny, i’m writing a play about that right now…
the anti- r and j
On the one hand, I agree. That picture of “love” really has little to do with actual love. Anyone over 20 looking at it can’t help but think those kids got shorted in the buffet line of intellect. But.. I think the genius in the play was Shakespeare’s ability to put himself into the mind of a 16 year old in writing it.. to look at the world through emo-coloured glasses. Kids that age are basically retarded, and to them, infatuation is love. That hottie you met four hours ago is your soulmate. FOR ETERNITY. Or at least until something shiny distracts you. There’s something genuine there, even if it isn’t real, if that makes any sense whatsosever. ;P
What I think is even more interesting is how tragedy, and death, are kind of synonymous with romance across all sorts of love stories. Lifelong love and functional couples are few and far between. If you look at the great love stories across time, at the end of the day, most of them really are tragedies (albeit not quite as boneheaded ones as R&J is). And yeah, conflict brings drama and yadda yadda yadda, but in large part, love seems to be defined by its absence rather than its presence.
ha. that is so true i hate that story cuz its so lame!! like to go and kill your self over someone you’ve known not even 4 days!! i hate it cuz ur right NO LOVE AT ALL!!!
I agree that romeo and juliet is not a true story because for the simple fact they fall in love to quickly and the character’s response to the conflicts in the story is just to unreal like the line of lady capulet when she says “talk to me not, for i’ll not speak a word:do as thou wilt, for i am done with thee” what kind of mother would do that to her daughter when her daughter needs her help to get out of a marrage she is being forced into. you only find that kind of mother in fairytales!!!
how do you know its not true? we weren’t there. the long poem came from somewhere, right? Shakespeare took it from there. Most fiction comes from truth anyway. Put yourself in that time period. no one had wiggle room except for rich men. even if she wanted to, lady capulet couldn’t have done anything. the man spoke and that’s final. fear. Or perhaps lady capulet agreed with her husband. and mothers do exist then and now that won’t help. Also, love at first sight does exist, they were hasty and rash yes, but its not all fake. Teenagers then and now act (give or take) the same. (agree with Jen) But I don’t think its our place, the 21st century cynical view, to judge. It is what it is.
It’s not about love, sure. But it’s not about lust either. Both are themes, but it’s truly about innocence — in love and life. The two families are in a cycle of a feud that can only be disrupted by the innocence of these two lusting children who haven’t had their minds clouded by hate. They’re better people for it, in general (refusing to fight Tybalt, etc), but they cannot survive in their world. Hence the tragedy being emphasized over love.