Everyone has heard the story of Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet. You know, the one that goes, “But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.” Written by William Shakespeare in the 1500s, the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet has been adapted for film and stage alike and has been translated into over 80 languages. Romeo and Juliet has also been referred to in several popular films, in particularly, Letters to Juliet.
The film Letters to Juliet starring Amanda Seyfried was released in 2010, and believe it or not contains some factual information. In the film, Amanda Seyfriend’s character Sophie travels to Verona, Italy with her fiancée Victor (played by the gorgeous Gael Garcia Bernal) and while there stumbles across a peculiar scene. She comes across the fictional location of Juliet’s balcony and there she sees several women writing letters (some sobbing over these letters) and fastening them to the wall of Juliet’s house. Sophie is told that the women there are leaving letters for Juliet – to answer their questions and give advice about relationships and other aspects of life. The letters are then collected and delivered to a group of women who call themselves “Juliet’s secretaries” who respond to each letter that has a return address. It actually turns out that this is based off of a real group of people known as “The Juliet Club.”
“The Juliet Club” is said to have officially started in 1988, even though the keeper of Juliet’s grave and museum started collected and replying to letters in 1937. There are 15 members ranging in age from 20-50 that are mostly women (yes, they have a couple of men too!). In an interview between Helen Earnshaw and Giovanna, a member of “The Juliet Club,” she describes a day in the life of a secretary of Juliet Capulet.
Each day “The Juliet Club” generally receives letters by both e-mail and traditional paper mail. (In the movie they collect the letters off of the wall of Capulet itself). The letters arrive at 11 a.m. and are usually addressed to the actual Juliet Club but sometimes they are simply addressed to Juliet, Verona. The letters arrive in all types of different languages with all types of different types of questions and problems. The letters are distributed to each person to answer based on their “specialties” and their language abilities (each member can speak and read several languages). [pagebreak]
Valentine’s Day is among some of the busiest times for “The Juliet Club.” What a beautiful notion – to get heartbreak advice from the queen of tragedy herself. Writing letters to Juliet is a tradition that will continue to exist as long as there are broken hearts to be mended and advice to be given.
If you would like to write your own letter to Juliet you can send your letters to:
“Juliet” Club di Giulietta – The Juliet Club
via Galilei 3 -37100
Verona, Italy
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Sources:
http://www.goodreads.com/work/…
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt08…
http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/c…
http://www.julietclub.com/en/c…
http://www.gourmantic.com/2010…
Images:
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/645345
http://www.freedigitalphotos.n…