romeo who scratches juliet's name into the margins of his poetry book and whispering her name before he sleeps instead of praying and would kiss rocks because they're the same colour as her eyes
Rosaline is genuinely one of my favourite characters in Romeo and Juliet for what she represents.
Once again people have probably talked about this. But I wish to also talk about it so enjoy my massive word vomit ig.
She exists to show that when Romeo loves, he loves hard. He is besotted with her, he loves the idea of loving someone. Very good. Very nice.
Few issues with this, however. Firstly, Rosaline has sworn chastity. Maybe a reason I enjoy her so much is because of the asexuality of it all. But I digress.
I find it interesting how Romeo... just seems to accept it? But also doesn't. Like, he's mourning the relationship. He doesn't understand why this wonderful person wouldn't want to have children, and spread wonderfulness throughout their broken world. But he accepts it. He respects that it's a decision she made, so he won't try and pursue her any further in risk of breaking that. He'll watch from a distance.
Another issue with his feelings. Rosaline is a Capulet. In act one scene 2 it states "my fair nieces Rosaline and Livia" on the guest list, so she's Julie's cousin.
She's invited to the great feast, which is kinda the whole point of Romeo even risking going. So it shows immediately that Romeo doesn't actually care about the feud at all. He still loves a Capulet. While Rosaline isn't exactly the only child to the head of the house, she is still a beloved child of the family. Romeo has always been without bias or hatred towards this family, he thinks the conflict is ridiculous, he doesn't generalise all of them into a mass of hatred. Very nice :)
This is a side tangent, but when I performed in a rendition of this play, Rosaline actually did appear on stage. It was an 80s pop band style thing, and she was a part of a Capulet girl group while also being a soloist in her own right. During the Capulet feast, she sings I wanna dance with somebody. She wasn't actually named as such, but when the guests cheer for her some of them shouted out her name in excitement.
More notably, that was a musical number. A number where Romeo goes to the front of the stage, risking being seen because he wants to get a better look at the masked singer who sounds so very familiar. And in that musical number, guess who else he sees at the front of the stage? A certain young dancer, shining under the lights in white, under the watchful gaze of her parents and suitor.
I love the idea of Rosaline, because she leads Romeo to Juliet. She scatters out the crumbs, even if it's subconscious.
So, once again, I would like to see/do an adaptation exploring an idea. I would like to see it when Rosalind more present. Maybe have her flee the scene during the first battle, protecting her peace. Show her on stage when Romeo tells Benvolio of his love, so the audience can put a face to the name. Wandering across the back of the stage, carrying a bouquet of flowers Romeo left for her. Look over at him sadly as he stands with his back to her, shaking her head softly as she edits.
Have her at the party, rejecting the hands of suitors. Have her dance with Livia and the other Capulet daughters, hair flying, masks tight, keeping each other safe against the crush of bodies. Spilling wine all over the floor and laughing.
Maybe she sees Romeo. Maybe she nudges Juliet, nods to the small group of boisterous masked boys that shouldn't be there at all. Maybe she put some of the flowers from her bouquets in Juliet's hair, so Romeo can see that she knows. So he can see that she's giving her blessing, thanking him for the attention, but look. This is the true one for you, this is the one that deserves your flowers.
I like hearing about aus where she's close with Juliet, but I do think her isolation is so important to her character. So just have her be present, but distant, like the rest of Juliet's family. Have them be the cousins at the bi-annual family gathering that hang out because they're the same age and all the adults are drinking and being stupid. Peak dynamic right there.
And then, right at the end, have her there at the crypt. Following her aunt and uncle, parents keeping her close to their side. Just to make sure their daughter is still safe from it all. Linking arms with Livia, trying to brush back her hair, distracted and sleepy and confused.
Imagine her eyes landing in these people. People her age. Juliet, her sweet and strange cousin, blood pooling on the stone slab. Romeo, the boy that loved Rosaline purely and honourably enough to let her go, lips damp and skin leached of colour, bottle of poison rolling away and shattering on the ground.
I want it to hit her. I want Rosaline to meet Benvolio's eyes, and have them both realise they've each lost two people in the span of a week. First Tybalt and Mercutio. And now the people that had a chance at fixing it all.
I want them have a silent, understanding of grief. They didn't know each other. Benvolio heard his cousin, his best friend, wax lyrical about this girl for hours, but they've never actually spoken. All he knows is this warped version of her, a moon maiden, a muse.
But she's human. Her hair is messy, eyeliner smudging as she rubs her skin, her eyes bruised from lack of sleep. She's probably been grieving Tybalt. Maybe they were close enough for her to inherit his black leather jacket that hangs heavy over her shoulders (yh it's modern now whoopsie I'll always spread the biker vibes).
I'm going back to the sleep thing that I talked about last time as wll. If Rosaline is here she ain't sleeping either. The teens of this town have three wolves in them; partying through night, staying up late crying, and having deep conversations until dawn. None of them get sleep.
In this moment, these two children lock eyes as their uncles suddenly shake hands over cooling corpses. They listen to them discuss monuments and ending feuds in respect of their children's love. And their eyes say it all.
Are you hearing this?
It was never about love, this feud. Rosaline knre that she was right all along. Love hurts. Romance gets you killed. In this city, at least.
The feud ends because the adults fucked up. And now their heirs can't continue the fight for them. They can't just dump it onto the next generation. They have to fix it themselves, so why not still point it on their children?
The adults are idiots. Fools. And I want Rosaline and Benvolio to clock it all in a single side eye.
Sorry this took a turn I originally just wanted to talk about Rosaline cause yay ace lifestyle happy pride y'all. But now I want to propose my sequel to Romeo and Juliet: Rosaline and Benvolio. Okay thanks for coming to my ted talk let's make this sequel happen where they just talk shit about their relatives and it should be similar to And Juliet costume wise :3
Highkey as I write this au and expand (because this is still linked to the sleep adaptation it is every evolving) I just want to perform Rosaline atp dream role frfr.
'romeo and juliet were dumb teenagers' romeo and juliet were raised in a town so genuenly dangerous that they (teenagers) walked around with swords to defend themselves. romeo was so suicidal that he literally talks about killing himself in almost every scene. juliet was taught by her mom to have kids immediately, citing her own pregnancy at TWELVE as a reason. romeo and juliet were both groomed into seeing love as a status rather than an actual feeling, so when they both connected with someone, they felt like they got to be themselves. and when they thought the other died, they killed themselves.
TL;DR:
broke: romeo and juliet were dumb teenagers
woke: romeo and juliet were teenagers held under such immense scrutiny that they felt killing themsleves was the only option
it sort of feels like stating the obvious but sometimes I feel like there isn't a lot of attention given to making the ending suicides feel in character, sometimes they feel like the ending because we all know thats How the Play Ends, not because we've been made to believe the characters would do that.
im personally of the opinion that r&j really hits best when its made abundantly clear that the teenagers involved are: 1. dumb teens, sure, but also a product of the environment. and 2. Not like. doing Good and Normal before the events of the play
so like make the suicidality present the whole time, make it clear in the characters even if its never really said out loud, and this is extremely possible with the original text! Romeo is constantly talking about suicide the whole play. do something with that. Juliet makes violent allusions all the time. do something with that
and you could spread it across the other Main Teen Cast to make it a running theme: im not generally a fan of the "benvolio kills himself post III.i" idea bcs I think its sadder if you make him the horatio character, but you can work that in maybe, or Paris in the tomb. and if you really wanna get silly you can imply some subconscious stuff happening with mercutio (goading people into stabbing him) and tybalt "gameplan: 1.murder in broad daylight 2. profit????" capulet
Rosaline is genuinely one of my favourite characters in Romeo and Juliet for what she represents.
Once again people have probably talked about this. But I wish to also talk about it so enjoy my massive word vomit ig.
She exists to show that when Romeo loves, he loves hard. He is besotted with her, he loves the idea of loving someone. Very good. Very nice.
Few issues with this, however. Firstly, Rosaline has sworn chastity. Maybe a reason I enjoy her so much is because of the asexuality of it all. But I digress.
I find it interesting how Romeo... just seems to accept it? But also doesn't. Like, he's mourning the relationship. He doesn't understand why this wonderful person wouldn't want to have children, and spread wonderfulness throughout their broken world. But he accepts it. He respects that it's a decision she made, so he won't try and pursue her any further in risk of breaking that. He'll watch from a distance.
Another issue with his feelings. Rosaline is a Capulet. In act one scene 2 it states "my fair nieces Rosaline and Livia" on the guest list, so she's Julie's cousin.
She's invited to the great feast, which is kinda the whole point of Romeo even risking going. So it shows immediately that Romeo doesn't actually care about the feud at all. He still loves a Capulet. While Rosaline isn't exactly the only child to the head of the house, she is still a beloved child of the family. Romeo has always been without bias or hatred towards this family, he thinks the conflict is ridiculous, he doesn't generalise all of them into a mass of hatred. Very nice :)
This is a side tangent, but when I performed in a rendition of this play, Rosaline actually did appear on stage. It was an 80s pop band style thing, and she was a part of a Capulet girl group while also being a soloist in her own right. During the Capulet feast, she sings I wanna dance with somebody. She wasn't actually named as such, but when the guests cheer for her some of them shouted out her name in excitement.
More notably, that was a musical number. A number where Romeo goes to the front of the stage, risking being seen because he wants to get a better look at the masked singer who sounds so very familiar. And in that musical number, guess who else he sees at the front of the stage? A certain young dancer, shining under the lights in white, under the watchful gaze of her parents and suitor.
I love the idea of Rosaline, because she leads Romeo to Juliet. She scatters out the crumbs, even if it's subconscious.
So, once again, I would like to see/do an adaptation exploring an idea. I would like to see it when Rosalind more present. Maybe have her flee the scene during the first battle, protecting her peace. Show her on stage when Romeo tells Benvolio of his love, so the audience can put a face to the name. Wandering across the back of the stage, carrying a bouquet of flowers Romeo left for her. Look over at him sadly as he stands with his back to her, shaking her head softly as she edits.
Have her at the party, rejecting the hands of suitors. Have her dance with Livia and the other Capulet daughters, hair flying, masks tight, keeping each other safe against the crush of bodies. Spilling wine all over the floor and laughing.
Maybe she sees Romeo. Maybe she nudges Juliet, nods to the small group of boisterous masked boys that shouldn't be there at all. Maybe she put some of the flowers from her bouquets in Juliet's hair, so Romeo can see that she knows. So he can see that she's giving her blessing, thanking him for the attention, but look. This is the true one for you, this is the one that deserves your flowers.
I like hearing about aus where she's close with Juliet, but I do think her isolation is so important to her character. So just have her be present, but distant, like the rest of Juliet's family. Have them be the cousins at the bi-annual family gathering that hang out because they're the same age and all the adults are drinking and being stupid. Peak dynamic right there.
And then, right at the end, have her there at the crypt. Following her aunt and uncle, parents keeping her close to their side. Just to make sure their daughter is still safe from it all. Linking arms with Livia, trying to brush back her hair, distracted and sleepy and confused.
Imagine her eyes landing in these people. People her age. Juliet, her sweet and strange cousin, blood pooling on the stone slab. Romeo, the boy that loved Rosaline purely and honourably enough to let her go, lips damp and skin leached of colour, bottle of poison rolling away and shattering on the ground.
I want it to hit her. I want Rosaline to meet Benvolio's eyes, and have them both realise they've each lost two people in the span of a week. First Tybalt and Mercutio. And now the people that had a chance at fixing it all.
I want them have a silent, understanding of grief. They didn't know each other. Benvolio heard his cousin, his best friend, wax lyrical about this girl for hours, but they've never actually spoken. All he knows is this warped version of her, a moon maiden, a muse.
But she's human. Her hair is messy, eyeliner smudging as she rubs her skin, her eyes bruised from lack of sleep. She's probably been grieving Tybalt. Maybe they were close enough for her to inherit his black leather jacket that hangs heavy over her shoulders (yh it's modern now whoopsie I'll always spread the biker vibes).
I'm going back to the sleep thing that I talked about last time as wll. If Rosaline is here she ain't sleeping either. The teens of this town have three wolves in them; partying through night, staying up late crying, and having deep conversations until dawn. None of them get sleep.
In this moment, these two children lock eyes as their uncles suddenly shake hands over cooling corpses. They listen to them discuss monuments and ending feuds in respect of their children's love. And their eyes say it all.
Are you hearing this?
It was never about love, this feud. Rosaline knre that she was right all along. Love hurts. Romance gets you killed. In this city, at least.
The feud ends because the adults fucked up. And now their heirs can't continue the fight for them. They can't just dump it onto the next generation. They have to fix it themselves, so why not still point it on their children?
The adults are idiots. Fools. And I want Rosaline and Benvolio to clock it all in a single side eye.
Sorry this took a turn I originally just wanted to talk about Rosaline cause yay ace lifestyle happy pride y'all. But now I want to propose my sequel to Romeo and Juliet: Rosaline and Benvolio. Okay thanks for coming to my ted talk let's make this sequel happen where they just talk shit about their relatives and it should be similar to And Juliet costume wise :3
Highkey as I write this au and expand (because this is still linked to the sleep adaptation it is every evolving) I just want to perform Rosaline atp dream role frfr.
just realized i never posted my hon. english final!! it was to make a playlist for a book we read in class this year. here are some of my favorite sections x
No, you like Romeo Montague because you think he is some dreamy uwu loverboy who’d never hurt a fly. I like Romeo Montague because when Juliet dumps 20-line word vomit on him about how she likes him but she is scared he’s just a fuckboy and how she would totally deny she has feelings for him and play hard to get but he overheard her so she’s not going to, so if he loves her he must swear faithfully but also don’t swear by the moon because she’s such a fickle bitch and actually don’t swear at all or else you’ll totally jinx it...his response is “ah, yes, wife material” and agrees to marry her.
Locked in too hard on Romeo and Juliet again with my current reread of the play. Romeo has no agency within the text unless it's related to love and Juliet has agency no matter what. They're subverting gender roles within the play your honor.
Romeo, who's depicted as a bleeding heart and a deep soul, only actively pursues ideas of love through the play. Violence isn't something he chooses, it's something that happens to him.
He tries to separate Tybalt and Mercutio, and only resorts to killing Tybalt in his grief and love for Mercutio. Despite not loving Leonardo DiCaprio, his acting in this scene during the 1996 version is a perfect example of this. It's the same with his murder of Paris, he doesn't actively want death and violence here (dare I say this is why it's such a footnote within the story itself).
Juliet, on the other hand, has more agency throughout the majority of the play. Her father gives her the option to choose whether or not to marry Paris, at least before this is revoked later, and this seems to be reflected in her nature. While she has less text overall (and is a little harder to understand because of it, imho), she's more levelheaded than Romeo, and takes far more action than he does.
Juliet is the one to send her nurse to find out more about their wedding. Juliet is the one who decides to defy her father and refuse to marry Paris. Juliet is the one who chooses to go to Friar Lawrence to solve her problems.
All of this even gets boiled down to base gender roles in their deaths. Romeo chooses poison, considered feminine within Shakespeare's work due to its indirect nature, but also continues this characterization of Romeo as almost love incarnate. Juliet, however, has death by blade, which is more masculine in Shakespeare in comparison, due to it being more directly involved in violence. There is such a fascinating juxtaposition in their final scene as a whole between the two of them (that really boils down to my prior statement, though).
Anyway enough analysis, I'm horrifically tired and love r&j and all this to say that Juliet is a boy and Romeo is a girl and they're kissing nasty and it's awesome and I love them.
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