Why I hate Romeo & Juliet

(This rant was previously posted in 2011, it has been revised.)One of Shakespeare’s most known tragedies, Romeo and Juliet is thrust upon us in our high school composition classes and then mercilessly shoved down our throats as a love to which we should aspire.
It is not romantic.


Romeo at Juliet's Deathbed,
Henry Fuseli, 1809

It’s a story about two children who married on a whim and without