A Review of 'Romeo and Juliet' by William Shakespeare

"Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young 'star-cross'd lovers' whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families.

I was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with Hamlet and Macbeth, is one of his most frequently performed plays.  Today, the title characters are regarded as archetypal young lovers."

I'm taking a class that is all about Shakespeare this semester-- I love it!  I really like reading Shakespeare and feeling capable enough to read and understand Shakespeare!  It's glorious.

I originally read this book for my ninth grade English class, but now I'm back in my second year of college to read this book again.  I'm really glad that I got to read this again.  I understand it much better than I did when I was fourteen/fifteen years old (wow, ninth grade was six years ago... that's weird...).  Upon opening this book again, I realized how annoying Romeo is.  Half the time I wanted to smack Romeo for being so freaking love-sick and mopey all the time.  It was especially frustrating because even when he met Juliet, he was like this when things weren't working out so well.  He's know her for maybe a week or two by the end of the book.  It's a miracle that Romeo's life lasted this long if he falls in love so hard every time he sees a woman.  He's a ridiculous character...

But by the end of the play, I felt more sympathy for him.  I could see that his pain was real.  Sure, maybe he's loved Juliet for less than a week and that's really weird to me, but by the end of the play, his desperation is just oozing out of him.  He sees no way around his suicide.  His speech about going to die is powerful.  I've decided to write my first paper about that particular speech in the context of the rest of the play.

Overall, I'm really happy that I read this play again.  I feel like I have a better understanding of the connections between the characters and of the general plot.  By the time I finished the play, I fell in love with the play-- more than I did in ninth grade.

I give 'Romeo and Juliet':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude