Ah, Romeo and Juliet, We Meet Again

It’s funny how some things, even a Shakespearean play, come full circle.  The first time I read this play was in eighth grade and I hated it.  I had no idea what I was reading and why it was considered one of the most iconic pieces of literature.  I swore I would never read it again.

Then sophomore year of high school we had to read it.  This time it was a little more bearable.  I had an amazing teacher who made learning and understanding the language of the play fun.  But I still swore I was never going to read it again.

Now here I am, my junior year of college, reading the play for the third time.  I must say though, I am much more open-minded about reading it this time than I was in the past.   Maybe it’s because I’ve matured in my English major-ness or maybe it’s because I’m excited to discuss something in class that I actually have a good amount of knowledge about.

I’m a little more than halfway through reading the play again and I’m proud to say that I understand 90% of what their saying.  This is huge for me.

For one, I’ve never been a huge fan of the play.  For years I’ve been indifferent to it all, but now that I’m older and can fully appreciate the story as a whole, I’m really starting to dislike it.

Honestly, I don’t think that it’s a love story at all.  I see it as being more of a lust story.  Two teenagers, both under the age of 18 get married and then kill themselves because they think they can’t be together.

To me it’s all a bunch of rubbish.

Romeo and Juliet are two of the most immature characters I’ve ever experienced in all of the literature that I’ve read.  They drive me insane.  To top it all off, you have the Nurse and Friar Lawrence who willingly enable and encourage these kids to make terrible mistakes that will eventually end their lives.

In relation to pop culture, I have no idea why this has grown to be so popular.  Perhaps it’s the notion of forbidden love or “star crossed lovers” that makes everyone swoon.  But in reality, there is nothing to swoon about.  They both die in the end.

I decided to watch the Baz Luhrman version of the movie last night and let’s just say it was an interesting experience.  I had only ever seen the 1968 Franco Zeffirelli version of the movie, which I really enjoy.  But the Baz Luhrman movie was way out of my comfort zone when it comes to Romeo and Juliet.

The beginning sequence of events is what really threw me off.  The cinematography was really weird, the acting was a little strange, and I just wasn’t convinced that the story could be told from a modern day perspective. 

The movie did have some funny moments though, especially when they managed to incorporate lines from other Shakespearean plays into the dialogue.  During the beginning scene when the Montagues and Capulets and fighting at the gas station, someone (definitely a Montague) says, “Double, double toil and trouble,” referring to Macbeth.

I think the movie made the sequence of events easier to understand, and I have to give credit to Luhrman for taking on such an ambitious project, but I really hated the whole thing.  The fact that the dialogue stayed true to the original play but the setting was modern day really made me hate the movie even more.  I think any play by Shakespeare should be performed within the time period it was written.

Okay, I think I’m done bashing/ranting about Romeo and Juliet for now. 

With that being said, I’m looking forward to discussing both the play and the movie with everyone in class!