Romeo and Juliet: Acts 1&2

     I must say, the story of Romeo and Juliet has never been my favorite and definitely not the best example of a love story. I read this story and watched the film in my freshman year of high school, and I still remember my facial expression of pure confusion. I was really interested in the story line because it was set in a different time and it was nice to compare today's plays with any Shakespeare story. However, I did read Othello my senior year and I do believe that Othello is a better choice than Romeo and Juliet because it touches on more serious present day topics such as racism.
     The two main topics that I got from this play are love and power. Let's face it, the Capulets and the Montagues were fighting and killing each other because they wanted some kind of control over one another. They despised each other so much that they would do anything to see the other suffer. That sounds quite similar to what a specific person values in our present day. Power is something we deal with on a daily basis it seems because people will do whatever it takes to be first or liked by a large amount of people. Don't get me wrong, there is good and bad power but why invest your day to day life into such negativity?
     Now with love, it's hard to explain because love is complicated. It doesn't have to be a girlfriend or boyfriend relationship, it can be with anyone; mom, dad, sister, brother, pet, grandparents, etc. However, this play showed a lack of self-love which is all you hear today from anyone. The famous "you have to love yourself, before you could love someone else" is clearly not what Shakespeare had in mind when he wrote this play, at least to me.
     If I could choose one positive thing about this play it would be to do what you feel is right for you. No matter what anyone says or thinks of what it is you like, it really shouldn't matter to anyone else anyway. Do I want to be in charge of my own destiny? Absolutely, without question. Coming from a culture where family is the core of who you are, there really isn't much room to be able to like anything because in the back of your mind you wonder is this going to make my family proud? Or maybe it's just my way of thinking. America is so diverse that now a lot of the cultures that think this way are becoming more and more Americanized, which makes it seem that the millennials are rebelling. In reality we are just molding ourselves to what is normal for us.
     That is clearly something Romeo and Juliet were doing in a sense. Towards the end, they were beginning to value what they wanted over what they thought their families would think of them. Which is why Shakespeare is still extremely relevant, different time period with the same core issues years later.
   

Romeo & Juliet ACTS 1/2

I know the title sucks, but I sat here for ten minutes trying to come up with something clever and I'm drawing a blank, so I'm just gonna slap something on and get to writing. They can't all be winners, y'know.

So to begin with, I should probably mention I've never actually read Romeo & Juliet. Crazy, right? It's amazing how little Shakespeare I've had to read throughout my life, but Hood's english department is out to fix that it seems. I also have to admit I wasn't particularly looking forward to reading something that is often hailed as one of the greatest love stories of all time, especially when it's totally not a love story.

And, honestly, I'm enjoying it about as much as I expected.

Now, I may not be an expert in love, but boy do I think it's ridiculous that Romeo and Juliet fall in love pretty much instantly and decide to get married without even getting to know each other. News flash, kids; if you marry someone within like two days of first meeting them, chances are you aren't gonna have a very happy marriage. But then again, this is a time period when people marry their fourteen year old daughters off to some guy and they don't even get a say in it, so I guess at least she's choosing for herself...

In addition to that, it's kind of painful to read all the romantic banter between the two. For most of you, I'm sure that's not the case, but that sort of thing has always made me want to gag. I'm not about to spoil the ending for anyone who, like me, never actually read this play in the first place, but let's just say I'm looking forward to getting closer to the ending, when things aren't gonna be quite as sappy and 'I love you, but I just met you, you're so beautiful, blah blah blah'. There's a reason the play is a Tragedy and not a Romance, to give you a hint.

Also, is it just me, or has it not yet been stated what exactly the Montagues and Capulets are at each other's throats about? Maybe I just misunderstood since I don't speak Shakespeare very well, but I'm still at a loss as to why they hate each other so much. I guess the knowledge of what the feud is ABOUT isn't as important to the plot as knowing that the feud EXISTS and is what's forcing them to hide their love, but I'd still really like to know.