He Know Nothing of Love
He Knows Nothing of Love
Romeo and Juliet
Here is the play with the love story. First, Rand J are supposed to be Italian teenagers. There is nothing Italian about them. He could have had someone mention a fashionable district or corner in an actual Italian town. They are supposed to be teenagers and yet there is nothing physical in their relationship. R never says something about putting his arms around J and feeling her warmth, which would have seemed like a natural thing to do. Modern productions get R and J naked for cinematic purposes but that is a complere rewrite; it is not Shakespeare.
The Balcony Scene
This balcony scene is promoted as some high point of romance. It is not. It is one of Shakespeare's deceptions. R and J jammer on at each other about feelings and such for quite a while. This is not what happens in the real world. This play is supposed to involve teenagers. In the normal real world two teenagers would have stammered and hesitated and mixed up their words and that is what is charming and endearing about teenage love. Shakespeare never lets the real world invade his stage. Ol' Bill has them talk in really long speeches that sound pretty but lead nowhere. A real teenager would be shooting for first or second base at least.
Married, Who Cares?
Somehow these two decide to get married and still nothing happens. They even spend a night together and nothing happens. How do we know nothing happens? We know this because they don't say anything about it. Nothing playful, nothing loving, nothing that remembers a tender physical moment. In all the talk they reveal nothing about a physical relationship. These aren't real teenagers.
The Friar
Here is Shakespeare's strongest arguement against religion. This fool marries two teenagers behind their parents back and then gives them poison to play with. Moral of the story "Listen to the clergy and you die." There is not one bit of advise from the clergy that helps anybody in this play. Also the good friar is a poor liar. Why doesn't this guy die at the end?
The Good Version
A better version of the lovers caught in a feud can be found in "The Adverntures of Huckleberry Finn." When Huck falls in with the Sheperdson and Grangerfords, the lovers conspire in secret. The lovers run away in the middle of the night. The feuding families are left to fight it out. Many family members die. Huck actually cries over the corpse of a friend. In this version, the lovers get away safely and the families kill each other. That is how a love story should work. See love should win, not die.
The Ending
They die. I don't get it. In other plays Ol' Bill has people pining away on couches. These people spend years greiving a lost love. If someone at the end of this play had decided to devote their life to grieving a loss, then surprise they would have discovered that someone else was not dead. With all the talking that goes on in a Shakepeare play these two suddenly become action figures. Oh my she is dead so I will kill myself. Oh my he is dead, so I will kill myself. OK I am thankful that they are finally dead. This ending shows that you get what you deserve. Shakespeare could have had R and J declare their love publicly in front of both families. Then he would either have to kill everyone or have them solve the problem. There are so many ways this play could have gone. We all got robbed by this botched love story.
I have made the mistake of calling this play a love story. It is nothing of the kind. Ask youself, what happens at the end of every love story, even bad ones? It doesn't happen in Romeo and Juliet. Without it you do not have a love story. At the end of every love story, love wins. I am not saying that the couple ends up together. I am not saying that anyone ends up happy. But at the end of every love story, the enduring power of love is clearly present. At the end of R and J we get two dead teenagers and nothing else. If they were actually in love then we end the play without it. At the end of the play we do not have an enduring love, we have dead bodies. There is no one to continue the quest for true love.
The Solution
If they had gotten a couple of horses, a sack of all the jewels they owned, some spices, and ridden to the next town they could have set up a very good life. Unfortunely, they have no training to do work, or they could have thought about starting an import/export business. It's Italy at this time in history and that could have been a successful venture. R and J do not show any sense when it comes to planning their future. If they had planned a life together like real people would do, then they wouldn't have bothered with the fake/real death thing.
This play insults teenagers everywhere.
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