Dear Readers,
I am sorry I have not updated in a while. I have not had much time to update. Since it is Valentines Day I thought I would talk about a love story. Not just any love story though, Romeo and Juliet. Now before all you die hard fans of this novel get over excited I have to admit, I really hate this story. I am sorry but it is true, now please hold your tomatoes and am and let me explain exactly why I hate this story.
William Shakespeare has written hundreds of different stories.
Romeo and Juliet is probably his most well known play to date next to things like
Hamlet or
Othello. Let me first start by saying I do not hate Shakespeare. While like many of my peers, I may have a difficult time understanding the language that he uses in his novel at time, I do not hate his work. I actually enjoyed stories like Hamlet and other works that I have read in school by him. While I do not know if I would ever see a play of him live willingly or read a book outside of the classroom by him, I do not hate him at all. I do however have a large hatred of
Romeo and Juliet.
The story of Romeo and Juliet is one that has been told and or parodied by others in many different ways ( cough cough
West Side Story cough cough), while I feel some parodies or forms of media based off the original play are better than Romeo and Juliet ( cough cough
West Side Story cough cough), we can get into that later. The story for those 2% of you who don't know goes like this, Juliet Capulet is a 13 year old girl who is a Capulet. The Capulet's hate the Montague family and vice versa. Romeo Montague is getting over a girl he loved named Rosaline. Even though he is still pining for Rosaline, he decides to go to a party where he meets Juliet. They instantly fall in love and even after learning of their families feud, secretly meet and decide to get married ( this all happens in a 24 hour period of meeting). Romeo then gets in a fight with Juliet's relative, Tybalt and kills him after Tybalt kills Romeo's friend Mercutio. With Romeo on the run and Juliet wanting to get away from her parents who want her to marry a boy named Paris, they hatch a plan with Juliet's nurse and the friar who married them to help them run away together. The plan is to make people believe that Juliet is dead, even though the poison she will be drinking is fake. Romeo finds Juliet in her comatose position and due to not getting the letter in time that explain the plan to Romeo, Romeo believes she is dead and kills himself to be with her in heaven. Juliet wakes up, finds Romeo dead and kills herself to be with him. The play ends with the two families discovering the bodies, burying them, and realizing to late that their feud was not worth the end results.
There are a few reasons why I hate this story. Lets first start off with the main characters of Juliet and Romeo. Romeo is an older and more mature character age wise, but he also it a bit of a girl hopper from what we are shown. He seems to be so in love with Rosaline and having such a longing to be with her until the second he lays eyes on Juliet. Now you could say that it is love at first sight, but honestly I do not believe in such a thing. There can be lust at first site, but to really have true love with a person's both physical and emotional being, you have to have an actual conversation with that person to really be in love with them. Romeo however, just automatically forgets Rosaline and goes right to Juliet, as if his past feelings of love and devotion for Rosaline mean nothing now. While I can see that possibly being realistic if he had maybe had a conversation with Juliet and then feel in love with Juliet after, throwing Rosaline into a pile of things to never discuss or think about ever again seems to be a bit extreme. Especially, when those feelings are possibly not mutual and when his feelings for Roaline seemed so strong. Juliet, though 13 and a bit naive, has her own character flaws. First of all she is bit selfishly goal oriented. While being ambitious and driven is not a bad thing, Juliet seems to be more narrow and one track minded. She does not seem to think of other options or ideas in which she can be with Romeo or seems to think any of people that she could be hurting in her actions. Not even her own life she seems to think about, because the only thing on her mind it seems is being with Romeo. Which leads me to another flaw in the story.
While it is understandable that Paris is not Romeo and Juliet loves Romeo much more than Paris, Paris is never really a bad guy. He is from a good family and can provide for Juliet a lot. He is not a bad guy, even though some may believe he is.Just because someone is not the main love interest and wants to be with the main character does not mean they are bad or the villain. Paris was never written as the villain, Juliet though seems to act in the play like marrying Paris would be the worst thing in the world. While I do understand that she does not love Paris, Juliet would honestly rather risk having more people die and having her family and friends believe she is dead, just to marry someone she met 24 hours ago. At least she knows Paris and it would not cause a huge controversy if she married him. While I understand wanting to not settle for less than who you loved, there is a bigger picture here. Juliet has seen what has happened and been caused by her wanting to be with Romeo and what will occur later from wanting to be with Romeo. She has seen all the deaths that have occurred and knows how sad her loved ones will be when they discover her "dead," Juliet though only seems to care about her love for Romeo. No one else seems to matter but a boy she met 24 hours ago and married a day after meeting him. While I understand that Juliet is young and not as mature as average adults that get married, I would believe at least she could stop and think about all the horrible events that have taken place or will be taking place if she tries to run off with Romeo.
My last complaint about the story is the ending, the fact that Romeo and Juliet kill themselves is unsatisfying, depressing, and immature. Again, I understand that they are both apparently young in the story, but killing themselves to both be with each other in heaven seems to be a bit extreme and something that even young teens would have second thoughts about. Then again, these teens both seemed to be perfectly fine with making it seems like they were gone forever before, so maybe it is not that surprising. Anyway, the fact that they decide to kill themselves is not at all romantic. Honestly, it is sad, selfish, and stupid. The mature thing to do would have been to move on from each others death and go on like the other person would have wanted them to do. This is why I am a fan of more the based off of Romeo and Juliet stories, rather than the original play. In the musical,
West Side Story, the characters of Tony and Maria are much better and more realistic in portraying star crossed lovers and a situation in which their association with rivalries causes a problem in them being together. In
West Side Story, Maria and Tony do not get married ( though they play pretend and act as though they are going to get married), they do decided to run away together but not by pretending to be dead, and in the end after Tony is killed, Maria does not kill herself. She does what I wish Juliet had done, she gets upset and angry but walks away. She realizes the best way to get through a loss is not to kill yourself, but to move on and try to accept the fate that you cannot change. Maria accepted that Tony is dead and while she is angry she is also understanding of that fact. She gets up, dust herself off, and while sad and grieving she is seen walking away as to symbolize that she has to get on with her life like Tony would have wanted. Juliet does not seem to think of that at all, she thinks of just one thing, being with Romeo no matter what the cost. Even if that cost, is her own life.
Romeo and Juliet are both love struck teens who do things selfishly and on a whim. They do not seem to think of anyone else lives and how what they are doing could be affecting other people. While I do agree that their ages need to be considered, some of the actions that they take to make sure that they get what they want are even extreme for some adults.
Romeo and Juliet is a problematic story about two immature teenagers who put their feelings and actions above other people in the "name of love." While I do believe in being with the one you love and fighting to what you believe in , this story seems to pass that immensely. Some adults have trouble sacrificing careers or their own potential goals to be with people they love, but Romeo and Juliet in all honesty, would lie, run away, kill, and commit suicide just to be with each other. They both seem to go to extremes on a whim. Romeo kills Tibalt because Tibalt killed Mercutio, while it is understandable being upset with Tibalt and wanting to hurt him. The actual actions of Romeo are not thought out at all, he just kills Tibalt because Mercutio is dead. Not thinking about how this could affect his relationship with Juliet or make it harder on himself or anything like that. He just kills because he is angry. Much like how Juliet does not even think about marrying Paris. She does not even see that as a suggestion or a possibility. She just wants to be with Romeo and would literally kill herself to be with him. She does not think about her family or friends or how others could be affected by believing she is dead or her actual death. She just wants to be with Romeo. In a way Romeo and Juliet are maybe perfect for each other in a problematic sort of way. They are both stubborn, selfish, and immature. They could maybe possibly have been a perfect couple, even though I am betting that neither one of them knows very much of anything about the other person except that they love each other, which in reality is not always enough to make a relationship work.
This book is a timeless classic to some and pile of garbage to others, I am in the later category. While the writing of Shakespeare is not particularly bad, the story and characterization as a whole is enough to make me stay far away from this play. While I understand the appeal of wanting to read about star crossed lovers, may I suggest you read a book like
The Fault in Our Stars or
The Notebook if you want to read about star crossed lovers that try to beat the odds, even
The Notebook in my opinion is better than this love story.
- Jessica
