Zup wrote:Romeo and Juliet is one of my least favorite of the Bard's plays. None of the characters are particularly likable, and so many people hold Romeo and Juliet up as these paragons of romantic love-- forgetting that the reason why their love is so fierce is because it is CUT SHORT. Don't get me started on those people who say they are looking for their "Romeo" or "Juliet" without regard for their tragic end.
Ugh.
Give me The Tempest any day. Caliban didn't have to deal with this crap.
Exactly, I mean I don't now exactly what Shakespeare hismelf was thinking at the time, but mdoern day it's quite clear Romeo just hops from romantic itnerest to romantic interest. The sadness of the tragedy doesn't come from the fact a love story was cut short so much as the fact that if they'd just been in a more understandable situation and hadn't felt so desperate because of their parents fued, they wouldn't have DONE something as dumb as gotten themselves killed in the first place.
That part of the plot would never work in the era of text messaging.
Never read the Tempest. LKinda liked Othello, though.