If you love this story, I'm sorry...

This is my fourth time reading this story, and honestly…every time I read it, I become less and less amused. As is stands in Scene 5, Juliet is believed to be dead, and Romeo wishes to kill himself to be with her (which had me thinking, “Ionow bout all that” the whole time he was talking about it). The one problem I have with this story is the pacing and the underlying reason for all the drama that unfolds throughout the play. Like the posts from last week, the feud between the Montague and Capulate families is completely unknown. I mean…assuming there is some legitimate reason for their feud, Shakespeare does nothing but let this feud be known (no one has done anything to harm the other family). It serves only to further push the plot. In the previous act, Juliet seeks to fake her death by drinking a sleeping potion, so everyone will believe her to be dead, so she can be with Romeo. This is dumb af. She couldn’t leave a note or think of any solid plan to let this man know that she isn’t actually dead? She knew this was a possibility, but she just decides to deal with it later, only to find out that—surprise—Romeo killed himself. A lot of the actions taken in the play are very impulsive. I was told that Shakespeare may have been trying to convey to the reader that love causes people to do dumb, impulsive things. Cool. I just think it’s interesting how this is viewed as a romantic love story or relationship goals or whatever. Another thing that seems really wild is Romeo’s dream. He dreamt that she found him and kissed him awake…from death. Did he not think to run this dream by anyone else first? He walked into the suicide poison store and very condescendingly talked to the apothecary about life like he’s got his shit together, buys an illegal poison (this also begs the question of why the apothecary even has an illegal poison to begin with), and rides off to kill himself. The subjectively irrational decisions made by various characters in the story is just…annoying. Like if everyone had like one or two people to give a second opinion, I think this story would have been very different. However, if you like melodrama, then strap the fuck in.