Romeo and Juliet

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Naomi
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Re: Romeo and Juliet

Post by Naomi »

Act 2, Scene 6

Friar Lawrence :

These violent delights have violent ends
and in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
which, as they kiss, consume.

Now that's how you describe passion !! It's words like this that make Romeo and Juliet my favourite Shakespeare play.
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MoonLily
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Post by MoonLily »

Romeo and Juliet is a decent story for the time it was written in, but quite frankly you have to wonder about their common sense and many other factors. It is quite common even now for a young girl to feel she is in love with an older guy. That isn't the problem with that story. It is the severe lack of planning, forethought, and even maturity on Romeo's part and the part of their older friends. It does showcase star-crossed lovers, but I doubt that they would have lasted that long should their families decided to reconcile. It sums up to a forbidden romance and the thrills of that romance before ending due to the sheer idiocy of the two in love. If their parents had spent more time talking with them or their nursemaids or anything, I wouldn't have been wishing for them to just finish themselves off by the end of the play. I felt this way the first time I read it in middle school.

It is fitting for a tragic story of two people who tried to find romance during a family feud only to succumb to pressure. Or fitting for the build up and fall out of the "honeymoon" time of getting to know someone. It is a good play however, but it is not one of my favorites. I actually like MacBeth and Hamlet much more.
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Post by amybo82 »

When I first read Romeo and Juliet, I was first struck by the language and the way Shakespeare used words to create humor and reveal subtleties. However, the story made me roll my eyes a little bit and say, "You dumb kids!" Looking back now, I think the story actually makes more sense. When you're young, you tend to do things without looking toward the future, living in the here-and-now. It is definitely a classic and it will probably continue to be read by high schoolers and made into movies for the rest of time!
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Post by Wind Wise »

This was always one of my favorite Shakespeare plays! Now that I'm older the whole, 'meet, fall in instant love, get married after only knowing each other for like, a night' thing does annoy me, but I just love the language and how beautifully they describe everything. Too bad it had to have such a crappy ending.
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Post by JennaFay »

I do find it really interesting to see people who actually like this play! I suppose it's the one that gets done the most often for a reason. In all honesty, it's nowhere near my favorite of Shakespeare's plays. There's better romances, better tragedies, and even better speeches in others that he wrote. But I will admit that there are some gorgeous passages, and some truly sexy ones as well (when performed correctly). I tend to like it better when the players play up the absurdity and comedy of the situation - just how silly and idiotic these two teenagers are, and how yet their love and their death is poignant and tragic anyway. There's a reason though that we start off with Romeo pining over a breakup with another girl - it shows that he's a guy who falls in love all the time, and it's shallow. It seems to me that the only reason he and Juliet get as far as they do is because Juliet is just as foolhardy, just as eager to fall in love, and just as excited by the idea that their love is forbidden as he is. Their tragedy is not because they're star-crossed lovers, it's that between stubborn, idiotic parents, and the passion of youth overriding common sense, two lives full of hope and promise were extinguished. I do think Shakespeare knew fully well how silly all of this was - Midsummer Night's Dream was first performed in the same year, and the entire last act basically makes fun of Romeo and Juliet.
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Alison_Matthews
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Post by Alison_Matthews »

I am fourteen years old and so far I have never studied this book at school and I hope that I will but anyways I read the Shakespeare to english version of the novel and I thought the amazing thing about this version is that it managed to re-do Shakespeare's famous tragedy in a modern setting while still retaining the original dialogue.
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Post by Sree Chinta »

I am reading Romeo and Juliet too! I've only read one other Shakespeare tragedy, Julius Caesar, before. I've just read Act I Scene I and thought it was better than Julius Caesar. Due to the Elizabethan language being difficult to understand, my English teacher plays the modernized version of Romeo and Juliet starring Leonardo Dicaprio in class before every act so it is easier to understand. The only bad part is that everyone knows what happens at the end...
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Post by Alison_Matthews »

I hope I study it at school one day, I absolutely love it! I have never seen the movie but I would like to because I loved the book.
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Post by Seabiscuit1308 »

Not many people might agree with me,but I think Romeo and Juliet is one of the best pieces I've ever read;and I'm no romance fan.The plot was quite original in its time,and I'm pretty sure 'Shakespearean' teenagers were quite different from today's teen and hence making a comparison would be unfair.Shakespear uses different linguistic devices to really make the story come alive.Yes,i do agree it can get a bit verbose,but it's still a good read-for everyone.
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Post by Dando »

I must agree, I really hated Romeo and Juilet when I read it in school. For a while it really ruined Shakespeare for me, but A Midsummer Night's dream helped me see the light.
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elovesbooks
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Post by elovesbooks »

Romeo and Juliet is one of my favourites! Although it seems simply a cheesy romance play only teenagers read, it teaches life lessons such as the feud between the families. I love Shakespeare's language so I enjoy reading this play many times. Every time I reread it, I learn/realise something new.
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Post by Tayner01 »

I loved Romeo and Juliet because it introduced me to the world of Shakespeare. I guess for that reason it will always be a little bit more special than his other works.
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Post by Serena_Charlotte »

Although this book is a classic, I can't help but smack my head every time I read it. I love how the friar/priest was portrayed in the play and I love how the rash decisions of 13/14 year old girls are showed.
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Literature-Minded
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Post by Literature-Minded »

I thought Romeo and Juliet was a great introduction to Shakespeare and his techniques, including his use of foreshadowing and innuendo. Though I did find the book tiresome and simple, it was a good jumping off point to get a solid base of Shakespeare knowledge before launching into those plays that you have referred to as "deeper."
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Post by David Bowman »

While I never detested Romeo and Juliet as much as others (I think it's beautifully written, too), but I think one major problem for me from the play in general was the story, from beginning to end. Not that it's badly written (not all of it), but it is here where I get to the difference when some major work is "classic" or "famous" and then it becoming "too famous." By this Romeo and Juliet is a perfect example: by the time I had actually got to reading the play (9th grade), it was basically a "been there, done that" kind of experience. Which, to me, is really disappointing. Recently other Shakespeare plays have caught my interest (Othello being one of them), but I never could shake off the feeling of a second-hand experience while reading Romeo and Juliet.

However, this is just me. I wonder if anyone else had this problem while reading "too famous" works like Romeo and Juliet and felt like they knew the whole story before finishing it?
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