As February has Valentine's Day, I chose Romeo and Juliet to commemorate it. Without further ado, the first installment of "Twelve Months of Shakespeare": Romeo and Juliet.
Everybody knows Romeo and Juliet. It's possibly Shakespeare's most famous play and considering the man wrote Hamlet, Henry V, and Macbeth that's saying something. Romeo and Juliet is the archetypal story of a pair of star-crossed lovers. These days people mean 'star-crossed' as a synonym for passion, true love, and other good things, but 'star-crossed' in this context means unlucky; the stars are against them. And when I say unlucky, I mean very unlucky.
I shouldn't have to tell you about Romeo and Juliet's synopsis, should I? Romeo meets Juliet. They both fall in love. Sadly, their families are enemies. A series of unfortunate events happen. Romeo's friend Mercutio and Juliet's cousin Tybalt both dies. Romeo flees Verona. Juliet fakes being dead. Romeo kills himself. Juliet kills herself. The end.
A lot of people think that Romeo and Juliet are very silly. I have to admit, they can be quite dramatic; they had just met literally that evening before they decided to get married. Insta!love is something that I hate in my romance fiction, but in their case I can sympathize. Juliet is thirteen going on fourteen and Romeo is most probably sixteen. They're teenagers. When I was thirteen, my friend locked herself crying in the school's bathroom for an hour because her boyfriend broke up with her. Another cut herself when she broke up with her bf (she got better). Teenagers ARE dramatic; it's their hormones. So I sympathize with Romeo and Juliet. I mean, I still think they're stupid, but I get where they're coming from.
I've heard a lot of people that said this play is actually a thinly-veiled satire. Shakespeare is actually mocking Romeo and Juliet instead of commending them. I do think it's a satire, but not about Romeo and Juliet themselves but about society.
See, Shakespeare does in a way disapprove both Romeo and Juliet's rashness, but he also in a way excuses them since they're both young and don't know any better. They are teenagers! They'll fall in love and do stupid things. It's in their DNA. Shakespeare is much, much harsher on the adults instead, harshly condemning the feud between Montague and Capulet. If they don't put such an emphasis on being enemies, Romeo and Juliet wouldn't have died. If society had let them be silly teenagers exploring their sexuality, instead of freaking out and lashing out when they express interest in each other, they would probably be fine. The deaths of Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio, Tybalt, and Paris was directly in the hands of (a) Montague and Capulet for feuding with each other and (b) the Verona society at large, for letting the enmity between the two families grow. Shakespeare doesn't condemn Romeo and Juliet for falling in love with the wrong person; he condemns society for forbidding their love in the first place.
Coincidentally as I'm reading the play, there's currently a debate going on in my country on whether or not we ought to criminalize homosexuality. It saddens me that we, as human beings, have not improved since the days of Shakespeare. Did Romeo and Juliet not teach you anything, people?
As a coda, one of my favorite Romeo and Juliet adaptation is Baz Luhrmann's 1998 Romeo + Juliet. It transports the setting from 16th century Italy to 20th century California, but the dialogue is mostly intact. As a bonus, it stars young Leonardo diCaprio and Claire Danes!
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