Nov 30, 2022
it’s about the shift between meeting them and discovering their youth and their shyness and Romeo saying “I wish I was your bird” and Juliet saying “I can’t remember why I came back” (because she can’t handle looking in his eyes) and Romeo saying “I’ll just stay here forever looking at you until you remember it” and then suddenly remembering the gut punch of the prologue and the ending
#if some random tv showrunner decided to tell this story of two teenagers who kill themselves#because they think they can’t live without each other tbh it would NOt be valid#it takes a master to pull it off without glamorizing or degrading#but Shakespeare is quite literally the master. and the play hits exactly as hard as it should#anyway this is my 4th time teaching it and my 6th time reading it and one of its most powerful qualities#is that you FORGET the ending#like. there is something in the dialogue/story/humor wipes the ending out of your mind#and it just …. it never feels possible. it feels like the farthest thing#and there’s even foreshadowing! and predictions but you don’t feel it#you just feel the sunshine of it and the jokes and the shy teenagers and the crass servants#and then on the OTHER side the clumsy almost grotesque violence of the feud and emotionally you’re just like ‘whatever’#and then suddenly the end of the play hits and it is this EXPLOSION of almost accidental violence#hamlet ends in an explosion of violence but you know it’s coming. it’s inevitable almost#Romeo and Juliet it just …. falls out of the sky#and it is devastating#anyway re-tellings of Romeo and Juliet should change the ending actually#if you’re not Shakespeare make it happy actually#anyway#romeo and juliet#Shakespeare
