:nofaceplz:
Were Romeo and Juliet really in love?
All over the world, Romeo and Juliet is labeled the greatest love story of all time. In my opinion, however, they were never truly in love. The Capulets and Montagues had been enemies for a long time, constantly breaking into battles in the streets. Juliet being a Capulet and Romeo being a Montague should have kept them apart. Yet on the night the Capulets threw a party, Romeo and a few of his friends decided to sneak in. Upon seeing Juliet, Romeo claimed he was in love, and he pulled her off to the side and kissed her. Immediately, Juliet is taken by him. Nowadays, this is almost the equivalent of going to Las Vegas, getting drunk, meeting somebody, and marrying each other that night. Within 24 hours of having met each other, Romeo had convinced Juliet to marry him, which they did at the church in secret the next morning. It seems Romeo might be classified as a ‘player’ or ‘desperate,’ as when we first meet him, he is trying to get over a girl called Rosaline who had rejected him. Juliet could be described as easy, due to her allowing Romeo to win her over in a matter of minutes. Over the next couple of days, crazy events take place, getting Romeo banished from the city of Verona, and causing both Romeo and Juliet to want to kill themselves. However, Friar Laurence (the one who has been helping them keep it secret), has a plan. This changes constantly, depending on each new curveball thrown at them. On Tuesday, Lord Capulet announces to Juliet that she will marry a man named Paris whether she wanted to or not. This throws Juliet into a temper tantrum worthy of a five-year-old. Eventually, she comes around, and agrees, at which point her father moves the wedding from Thursday to Wednesday. This sends Juliet to initiate the Friar’s plan earlier than he meant, leaving Romeo to receive the wrong news. In a few tragic scenes, Romeo arrives at the tomb at the same time as Paris, the man who was supposed to marry Juliet. Romeo kills Paris, and then drinks some poison, killing himself just moments before Juliet wakes up. It is at this point that the reader looks up from the story and realizes it’s over, after only a five-day duration. Juliet, a 13-year-old girl, just killed herself because she found the guy she loved, who was 3-4 years older than her, dead on the ground. During this time period, rich people often got bored. If anything ever happened that was out of the ordinary, it gave them a chance to be dramatic. Before she had met Romeo, Juliet told her mother and nurse she wasn’t ready to marry, that she wanted to live her young life first.
As you can see, the play was beautifully written. All soliloquies, metaphors, speeches, and analogies were creative and well-thought up. However, if the plot took place over a much longer time, it would be more believable.
~This was written because on our English final, my teacher said there will be a question requiring an 8 sentence paragraph on either 1) who was really to blame for the tragedy, or 2) whether Romeo and Juliet were really in love. Just last night, my mom and I had a huge discussion about how stupid it was. Sadly (not), I don't have to take the English final, but I still wanted to write out my reasons. These are not in a sensible order, and these barely scratch the surface of my though process. That is all.~
