The ending of Romeo and Juliet had me in two grieving stages. The first stage is sadness. I was deeply saddened for the tragic ending of the play. Given the challenges Romeo and Juliet had to face, one would think there would be a happy ending. But you know Shakespeare just love to break people's hearts. I had to give a lot of props to these two people for the amount of love that they've created for each other even though, falling in love in just three days is unheard-of. The other stage is anger. I was very mad that Shakespeare decided to end the lives of these two love birds. Like I mentioned above, the ending would have been much better if both were alive.
The thing my mind seems to be having trouble puzzling together is how can these two be so in love that they kill for each other. Nowadays, you will be lucky if an individual still texts you after you have met for a week, let alone, die for you. However, most of the marriages that were happening back then was arranged, so I guess it is not really surprising that two people can fall in lover in a matter of days. But let's be honest here, Friar Lawrence is mainly responsible for this chaos. First, he put Juliet to sleep with some magic stuff that made Romeo think that the girl is gone, when he could have just hide Juliet until contact with Romeo is made. Second, the letter containing what was happening never got to poor Romeo. If only Friar Lawrence went with the USPS priority flat mail to get that letter to Romeo.
Now, let's talk about the real reason Romeo killed himself. I've developed a wild theory to why my man Romeo decided to kill himself. Most people have the notion that Romeo ended his life because of the love he had for the beautiful Juliet. However, I think Romeo got tired of love itself. Earlier in the play, Romeo was rejected by a girl name Rosaline. Now, that rejection made Romeo destined to find love. So, when the beautiful Juliet showed interest in my man, he was probably saying to himself "no way I'm letting this one go." That’s the real reason why Romeo instantly decided to cuff her. So then, after he thought the girl was dead, he just gave up on love and end his life.
I myself am satisfied by the ending. Though I do not want to say I am 'glad' they died- which would be kind of messed up- I feel it was the best way to wrap things up suitably, considering the nature of the play itself. Were the play actually meant to be romantic and happy, the love between Romeo & Juliet would have ended their parents feud and everything would have ended happily ever after. And technically their love DID end the feud, but only post-mortem- which is exactly how a TRAGEDY should play out; with a bittersweet ending. Romeo & Juliet had to fall in order to bring about the reconciliation between the two families, or the genre of the play would have changed entirely.
ReplyDeleteThat is interesting to think that Romeo didn't kill himself because he couldn't be with Juliet but that he was just fed up with love and searching for it. He seemed pissed about the whole situation and that he didn't want to deal with anything else, and to him, the only way to get out of it was death.
ReplyDeleteI was indeed unhappy about the tragic ending of the story. But, the deaths of Romeo and Juliet did serve in putting an end to the feud between the Montagues and Capulets. That also seems to be a human tread throughout history, some lessons don't seem to be learned unless we make a mistake, or in this case a tragedy. And I guess it took the tragic deaths of two people from both feuding families to put an end to the senseless violence between them and seek a peaceful path forward together. So the lesson appears to show that feuds between anyone, not just families, never ends nor resolves in any good way, people should consider the consequences of any actions they take or may take and try to resolve what ever dispute peacefully rather than violence first.
ReplyDeleteAs far as tragedies go, I was satisfied with this ending, but only because it's a tragedy. In all honesty though, it really sucks that Romeo and Juliet killed themselves. It's sad, especially thinking that they were so young and still had quite the life ahead of them.
ReplyDeleteBut as for what you said about Romeo ending his life because he got tired of love, that's actually really interesting. I hadn't thought about that. We're told that Romeo kills himself because Juliet died and he's heartbroken, but he could be heartbroken in more ways than one - that Juliet is dead and that he just can't bear it anymore. We already knew he was depressed, but maybe he actually had Depression? Good catch.