It's Shakespeare Saturday!!!!
Today, we are going to talk about Romeo & Juliet. There will be spoilers, for reasons I will discuss in the first paragraph of the review. If you haven't read it because you're too young, worry not, you'll have to read it in high school anyway and can come back later if you want to. All my reviews are up indefinitely so far. If you haven't read it because you aren't interested, then I'm not really sure my review will make you more interested. It would be cool if it did. Anyway, this play is referenced so often that I'm sure most people know how it goes or won't care. This is also a very popular play, so I feel it is less of a problem right now than if I were reviewing a play by Ben Jonson or Christopher Marlowe.
Romeo and Juliet
Author: William Shakespeare
Genre: Drama ➜ Tragedy
Year: 1597
Synopsis:
In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare creates a violent world, in which two young people fall in love. It is not simply that their families disapprove; the Montagues and the Capulets are engaged in a blood feud.
In this death-filled setting, the movement from love at first sight to the lovers' final union in death seems almost inevitable. And yet, this play set in an extraordinary world has become the quintessential story of young love. In part because of its exquisite language, it is easy to respond as if it were about all young lovers.
Review:
The opening prologue of this play tells you the gist of what is going to happen. A lot of people may even find the opening words familiar, "Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene..." Yes. This is THAT play. If you continue to read the fourteen line long prologue, you will see that it gives away the ending. This is partially because the ending isn't the most important part of the story, but how we got there. Although, I would argue that we don't fully know how we got there...I'll explain about that more in a moment.
As I mentioned in my review of Hamlet, plays were written to be seen performed and not necessarily read. I like to read plays and talk about them, so I will continue to do so. After all, this IS my world...welcome.
Romeo and Juliet is the very first play of Shakespeare's I read. I found it at the library, knew it was popular, and decided to read it. I read it in middle school, on my own, for kicks. After finishing it, I thought Shakespeare might be overrated. Hamlet was the play that changed my mind, but let's leave that discussion back in Denmark and last month's review. First off, let's talk about the general plot of this story.
In the city of Verona, there are two households. There are the Capulets and the Montagues. They don't get along and when their servants and kinsmen come across each other, bloody fights often ensue. The son of Montague is sad because his romantic prospects are not turning out very well so far. His cousin tries to cheer him up by inviting him to see a party where they can look at lots of other pretty girls. This party is thrown by the Capulets, so it probably isn't a good idea. Naturally, they go anyway! The Montague son, Romeo, while sad and pining over one lost love, suddenly sees another girl who he thinks is far prettier, who he instantly loves and has to talk to. Of course, this girl is Juliet, the daughter of Capulet. She thinks he's pretty attractive too, so they fall in love and so begins their tragic love story. Neither is supposed to love the other because they're families hate each other, literally to death.
There you have it. It's very straightforward and it has been rehashed numerous times in movie after movie, referenced in song after song. You know the story, many love it, it's just part of our collective culture now. So let's ask the main question that revolves around these big name plays we are all forced to study in school.
Why in the world has this story lasted for so long?
Well, if you're asking me, then for one thing...people just love romantic stories. We're suckered in continuously with "will they/won't they?" plots. We are intrigued by forbidden love. This is particularly true of teens, when you have parents who forbid you to do something, but you're just so edgy and rebellious that you MUST do it anyway. Maybe at a more mature age, we love the youthful, reckless abandon in a nostalgic way. That or we just love trying to see couples trying to defeat impossible odds, at any age. Some people probably just love the grim tragedy of it all, because those happy-ending romantic comedies are just far too sappy to stomach, so this is far more refreshing.
For another, if literature and entertainment has proven anything, it's that we are fascinated especially by love...and violence. Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, any possible war movie or movie that involves an epic fight scene. We eat it up. There are no higher stakes opposing people than death and violence. So this play has a little something for the ladies, and a little something for the gentlemen, if we play upon gender stereotypes. If you don't believe me when I mention fascinations with violence, ask me about picnics at battle sites in the 1860s and crowd gatherings at public executions in the 1500s. Humans can sure be a morbid bunch.
So you can basically sum up these two points as all things being fair in love and war.
Let's talk about the main two characters. Juliet Capulet initially just appears as young and beautiful, but once she has lines we see that she is also intelligent. Later we see that she is actually a very determined young lady who isn't afraid to get her hands dirty if she sees the need for it. Romeo Montague is a melodramatic fool in love. He hands out romantic lines to pretty girls and hopes to gets his way into their hearts...and their beds, if his conversation with Benvolio about Rosaline is anything to go by. However, no one can fully say he has commitment issues, considering the way this play ends. Once married, Romeo is ready to bite the bullet for love...and actually does it. I could go on and on, evaluating descriptions and actions and analyzing it, but I don't think anyone comes here to read things like that. If you do want something like that, let me know and maybe I'll do a...Shakespeare Revisited kind of thing where we talk about different, more specialized parts of Shakespeare plays. It's all up to you readers out there to let me know if that's something you're interested in, or if it would bore you to tears. I promise that anything I write, I try to make fun, if that helps at all.
The story, like I said is straightforward, but the main characters find their lives spiraling out of control in a series of complex circumstances. Straightforward = boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, boy and girl can't be together but try anyway, boy and girl end up dead. Complex = girl is supposed to marry another guy, girl's cousin wants a fight and finds one, boy is banished, sleeping potions make girl look dead, communications fail, boy ends up dead while dragging other romantic prospect with him because he believes girl is dead, girl isn't dead, girl kills herself to be with dead boy, families repent too late. It's a bit of a rollercoaster with lots of highs and lows and sharp banking turns. I don't guess Juliet was able to pick up a Get Out of Marriage Free card after all, even though she sure tried.
Also, this play lives on because of the words used to tell it. Quotes from this play are used all the time. "But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?/It is the East, and Juliet is the sun." How many times have you heard this line? Or even a joke variation of it? There was even an episode of Hannah Montana that used this line. It can be found so many places. You want more popular lines? "What's in a name? That which we call a rose/By any other word would smell as sweet" and of course, the ever used, "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?"
Quick pause here for a fast Shakespearean English lesson. People love to use this line when they're looking for someone or something, thinking that wherefore literally means where is. This is not true. It has actually become a mild pet peeve of mine only because it is done so often. Wherefore actually means why. Juliet is not asking where Romeo is. She is asking WHY he is Romeo. This actually makes more sense when you look at the full passage, including the rose and name section I just mentioned. She is wondering aloud to herself why Romeo has to have the name of Montague, because given another name, there would be no problems. Roses are roses, no matter what you call them. Call it a car, it will still look the same. Call it a skunk, and it will still keep the same smell it has had since the first rose bloomed that had the aroma. A name, a way to call something, does not fully define something. So in summary: wherefore = why. Thank you for attending my brief lesson on Shakespearean linguistics.
So I guess we can talk now about why I like this play.
As mentioned before, I didn't always. I'm a bit of a fangirl and a sap. I'm a sucker for romance plots with happy endings, and just happy endings in general. I've always been a rather optimistic, look on the sunny side of things person. This also applied to middle school me. I had my personal angst times, but I also loved cute, fluffy romance. I had seen the general story of Romeo and Juliet in various things...my first exposure was probably in an episode of Pokémon. To be more specific, it is the show's 100th episode, entitled Wherefore art thou, Pokémon? It was in the second season, which was titled Adventures in the Orange Islands. The story was about two Pokémon, a male and female Nidoran, who were the companions of two kids. The boy was named Tony and the girl was named Maria (yeah, even Pokémon went the West Side Story route). Naturally, these kids don't get along, but their Pokémon are in love and want to be together. It was cute, it was fun, and I still watch that episode quite a bit since I have several seasons of the show. Elementary school me loved it, and by middle school I still hadn't seen a full production or film adaptation of the story. I just knew it was heralded as one of the best love stories of all time.
I read it, and immediately did not like it. I was bewildered by Romeo moving on from Rosaline to Juliet so fast. I didn't have much to fangirl over regarding the romance. I didn't like that they ended up dead. So at that point, I figured Shakespeare was really just overrated, because what kind of romance is THIS? Years later, I was able to approach it from a more mature perspective, knowing this time that it was meant to be a tragedy. Reading Hamlet made me reconsider Shakespeare's popularity and realize that maybe there was something to it. My freshman year of college, with some of my early English courses, I was actually able to see a lot more nuance and get more enjoyment out of the play. By my second and third Shakespeare classes, I was enjoying it a lot more and ever since, I've had much more appreciation for it. I've also watched many more adaptations of it now, in film and on stage.
So why do I like it? Well, there are humorous moments to me. For example, just how dramatic Romeo is at the beginning. He's a melodramatic, emo dude who likes to wallow in self-pity. He is the epitome of "woe is me" and at this point, I love it because it is just too funny. The beginning exchange between servants involving thumb biting is also hilarious to me. I have days were I'm interacting with friends and family and "do you bite your thumb at me?" is used within average, normal conversations. Why? It is just too much fun. Also, I like how convoluted the plot gets. I feel bad for Juliet being thrown into the position she is, but I highly respect her determination to be with the guy she chooses for herself. You can't really say Romeo or Juliet was not willing to give it all for this relationship. I also really enjoy the language of the time and the poetic presentation of the story.
One thing I have always wondered though, that I will never have an answer to...is exactly why these families have such an ancient feud. It is easy enough to fill in different answers to tell variations of the story. I usually just tell myself that having a concrete reason presented would probably be more underwhelming and less entertaining than any answer readers could come up with. Why are they fighting? Ancient Capulet insulted Ancient Montague's clothes once...or maybe....Ancestor Montague accidentally stepped on Ancestor Capulet's toes and both are too proud to say sorry or admit such a poor reason as the start of quarrel. Maybe their ancestors' wives got into a tiff because they wore similar dresses. Maybe one stabbed and killed a relative of the other in a duel or a street fight. Maybe a business deal went bad. Maybe neither family knows at this point and fighting each other is just a really demented family tradition to uphold. The possibilities for seriousness and silliness are countless and every time you read it, you can change the reason just for fun. For adapting it, this makes the story one of the most pliable. Stories of any genre can find a way to implement it, in any country. I've seen anime from Japan do episodes and shows based on it. You can have street gangs be the opposing forces, or rival schools, countries, cities...macro or micro scale, it's your choice.
Since this is a tragedy, I think its time for a body tally...
Body tally: 6 (a mix of lovers and fighters)..this one is more clear-cut and also smaller than Hamlet.
There are numerous adaptations that can be watched. I personally really like the Zefferelli film adaptation from 1968 and West Side Story (1961). I've also enjoyed the Luhrmann adaptation, Romeo + Juliet, from 1996, but I wouldn't recommend it as the first Romeo and Juliet film to watch. It is more stylized and humorous in a lot of ways, and harder to be serious about watching for the story itself. There is also the kid friendly animated feature, Gnomeo and Juliet. If you focus on the fact that Troy and Gabriella's friends don't want them to be together, because they're in different school activities, then even High School Musical has elements of Romeo and Juliet in it. There are countless versions, but these are the ones I'm most familiar with and enjoy most (plus the previously mentioned Pokémon episode).
In summary, this is a popular play, and as long as you accept it for what it is, it is a great story. There is a lot of room to discuss the romance itself, the decisions of the young couple, and the plan they try to use. Criticizing them and trying to come up with a plan they may have succeeded with can make for a good time too. Thinking about these plays and interacting with them, even at a humorous, non-academic level, can be really fun. Considering the re-readability this play has had for me, the fluid adaptation capability, and the way it has lasted and stayed relevant, I give Romeo and Juliet a Lone Star rating of ✯✯✯✯✯. At first glance, I wouldn't think to rate this play that high, because there are some story components that I think are weak (for example the timeline of R&J's relationship and falling in love), but these are also part of what makes the story so interesting and so debatable. So it really just adds to the experience, instead of taking away from it.
As usual, if you want to read it, I highly recommend the Folger Shakespeare Library editions. I do own the Romeo and Juliet copy from this edition series and I love it. This edition is the one I used the cover from for this post. It is small, easy to carry, and it has the scene summaries I mentioned in my Hamlet review. It is super useful and accessible, because it's very inexpensive and helpful with the additional information provided. It also makes writing essays easier since you can quickly find the acts and scenes you are focusing on, without having to fully skim through each one when doing brainstorming and planning.
This concludes the second Shakespeare Saturday here at The Real World According To Sam, where I bring the books to your screen and even put in my own two cents about them.
If you'd like to see more, let me know! I take recommendations, review requests, and critique!
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