A whole lot of DRAMA! That's what this play entailed. None more dramatic than Juliet, closely followed by Romeo. Apparently opposites don't attract...
William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet goes towards my audiobook challenge, mount TBR challenge and Play On challenge.
So you may get the impression that I wasn't crazy about this play. You'd be right. I'm not a big fan of romance and since Romeo and Juliet kind of epitomizes romance, it didn't really sit well with me.
First off, Romeo liked Rosalind first and he was crazy about her and mooning about her and blah, blah, blah. However, then he meets Juliet and suddenly Rosalind is not so hot and Juliet is perfection and he's head over heels for her. Seriously? Don't forget that their parents are feuding so they can't openly love each other.
Then, Juliet speaks to the night about her love for this guy she scarcely met while Romeo listens because he sneaked into her garden to watch outside her window because that's not stalker like at all. Then Romeo reveals himself to her and they declare their undying love for each other, blah, blah, blah. Seriously? Then the next day they decide to get secretly married because they are so in love. Seriously?
Then you know there's the whole thing with Romeo killing her cousin in a duel (which really wasn't exactly Romeo's fault... I'll give him that). So Romeo gets banished and Juliet is more heart broken over that than the fact that her cousin who she was close to was killed. SERIOUSLY??? Than Juliet's parents want her to marry Paris, who is actually a decent guy, so Juliet is in a sticky situation. The friar who married them comes up with a plan to have her fake her own death and than Romeo come rescue her from her tomb. However, there's some issues with communication so Romeo only hears that she's dead... not about the whole plan where she's not dead and he rescues her. So he plans to commit suicide over her grave. SERIOUSLY??? Unfortunately he picks a bad time to as Paris is also visiting her grave then so they fight and Paris is killed. Than Romeo downs some poison and dies over Juliet's grave. THEN, Juliet wakes up from her deathly slumber and sees Romeo lying dead and decides to commit suicide too so she takes his dagger and falls on it, killing herself. SERIOUSLY???
Than their family's show up and the only really good thing that comes out of this mess is that they decide to stop their feuding due to the deaths that it has caused.
I can't say much good about this play. I thought it was entirely over the top and mushy and dramatic and ugh. I've heard from some reviewers that people like me are missing the point of the play so maybe I am. Overall, though I tend to like Shakespeare, I am not a fan of Romeo and Juliet.
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I really hate Romeo and Juliet too.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm not alone! :)
Deletelol funny that I saw your review when it went live as I had just finished re-reading the play xD (I had studied it in high school but as I'm almost finished reading all of Shakespeare's plays, I decided to revisit the ones I had studied before) I guess I'm a little more lenient (??? not sure if that's the right word here) with the way that events transpired/the drama with Romeo, Juliet, and their families; a lot of it could've and should've been avoided but structurally and writing-wise, I thought this was one of Shakespeare's best-written plays.
ReplyDeleteI felt for the Prince the most, haha, always being dragged out to deal with the Capulets and Montagues' mess =D
I would never argue with Shakespeare's writing. He always write well and I would agree that Romeo and Juliet is beautifully written. But no, I have very little leniency for the drama. :)
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