Whether or not you’re a Shakespeare fanatic, you’ve definitely heard the tragic tale of Romeo and Juliet. Perhaps you first encountered their love story in a 9th-grade English class, or maybe you simply know all of its heart-wrenching details through pop culture references. Several adaptations of the original Shakespeare play have been adapted to the silver screen, some of the most well-known being: Shakespeare in Love, West Side Story, and Romeo + Juliet. No matter which version of this Shakespeare play you’ve consumed, the story seems to always be the same. In every single alternate timeline, two star-crossed lovers will try to defy family blood feuds, only for their efforts to end in tragic demise. Can a story where they both die at the end really be considered the pinnacle of romance?
With Valentine’s Day having passed, I find myself reflecting more and more on the topic of romance. Admittedly, I’ve probably read more romance novels than is healthy for the average human consumption (okay, sue me, they’re fast paced nature makes them perfect for getting out of a reading slump). That being said, out of hundreds of different stories, Romeo and Juliet seems to lean more into the genre of tragedy than actual romance.
We all remember Juliet on the balcony calling out, “O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?”, but do we remember the series of unfortunate miscommunications that led to the lovers’ ultimate deaths? Most of the time, miscommunication in novels leads to the third-act breakup right before they get back together for a happy ending. This time, miscommunication after miscommunication led down a path of completely preventable deaths. Had any one of the characters not acted on what little information they had, the story wouldn’t have transpired in such an ill-fated manner.
Is Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet really a romance? Not so much as it is a life lesson. Romeo and Juliet serves as a cautionary tale. While it is true that the two were very much in love, it doesn’t change the fact that their passions got the better of them. Their love shone so brightly that it blinded them to anything else. Not to mention the fact that Juliet is canonically only thirteen years old in the original play, leaving the story a little bit more problematic than was first thought. When I think of good romance novels, I think of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and maybe even Jane Eyre. While I do agree that it may be romantic to die for someone you love, nothing makes the sacrifice worth less if it was unnecessary. You don’t have to do the absolute most for Valentine’s Day. As Shakespeare might put it just, “Love all, trust a few, and do wrong to none.”