Why does anyone like this?

[[deleted user]]

Leah wrote: "I think the people who don't like it don't understand it. They can't grasp that a 17 year old and a 13 year old dating is normal, and they don't think that it's a love story.

Newsflash: this is n..."
1. Wuthering Heights.
2. Pride and Prejudice.
3. Persuasion.
Twilight is a cheap piece of rubbish.

[Leah]

Brooke wrote: "Leah wrote: "I think the people who don't like it don't understand it. They can't grasp that a 17 year old and a 13 year old dating is normal, and they don't think that it's a love story.

Newsfla..."

Agreed

[Cristina]

Honestly I'm a little nutty about the double meanings. Look at Mercutio's speaking parts- he's pretty hilarious

[Listra]

I think it's quite clear that Romeo and Juliet is amazing. I don't like the plot alright. Young lovers die for something that is perhaps no more than puppy love is quite annoying. But the words that Shakespeare used are so smart.

"Out of her favour where I'm in love."
"Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear."
"He jests at scars that never felt a wound."

Juliet is rather an amiable character, better than Romeo, in my opinion. She's even smarter and has more determination than some heroine found in modern literatures.

[[deleted user]]

Cristi wrote: "Honestly I'm a little nutty about the double meanings. Look at Mercutio's speaking parts- he's pretty hilarious"
Ooo yes. :)

[Beverly]

I think if I hadn't seen it before I read it, I would've hated it too.

Watch the Zeffirelli version. What I find with Shakespeare is it takes a few minutes for my ear to catch up to the language, like listening to someone with an accent, and then zoing! it all makes sense. Plus Michael York as Tybalt is hot, and as noted, John McEnery as Mercutio is ridiculously funny.

So much is about the delivery, just like a joke can be hilarious when one comedian presents it, and falls flat when told with bad timing. Or reading a joke on paper, you might be scratching your head and wondering why anyone thinks it's funny.

There's a lot of tongue-in-cheek jokes in Shakespeare, much fun bawdiness, all of which are easily lost in the reading, and as others have noted, so much is drawn from it. West Side Story and Titanic are retellings of R & J with very slight variations.

The Baz Luhrman movie version with Leo diCaprio and Claire Danes is very interesting, too, especially if you watched the two movies back-to-back. If you MUST read R & J for school purposes, DO watch the movie(s), or a live play if you can find one, THEN turn to the printed text. If you are just attempting to read it because you think you *should*, then do move on to something you enjoy more.

[Leah]

Beverly wrote: "I think if I hadn't seen it before I read it, I would've hated it too.

Watch the Zeffirelli version. What I find with Shakespeare is it takes a few minutes for my ear to catch up to the language, ..."

I agree about the movies. They were really good and helped me understand some scenes that I had difficulty understanding when reading the play.

[Hilda]

es un clasico... un principio a los dramas mas intensos e esos tiempos. cada quien tiene su gusto la obra es buena aunque yo en particular me gustan mejores finales, no me gustan esos tan tragicos.

[Robin]

I agree with Hilda!

[Megan]

Not only is Romeo and Juliet a love story, it has that other quality - it is really funny, and Shakespeare cleverly uses other characters in the story to highlight some of the plot absurdities. We are asked to suspend disbelief about the time line - three days - because that suits the dramatic format. But it is a play that is very aware of itself.

I love it when Friar Laurence listens to Romeo wax lyrical about Juliet, when only yesterday it had been Rosaline...

'Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here!
Is Rosaline, whom thou didst love so dear,
So soon forsaken? Young men's love then lies
Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.
Jesu Maria, what a deal of brine
Hath washed they sallow cheeks for Rosaline!
How much salt water thrown away in waste...'

and then...

'Lo, here upon thy cheek the stain doth sit
Of an old tear that is not wash'd off yet'

I can just hear the Friar huffing ironically at young love. Fantastic.

What about Juliet, who shows a real bit of wit, when she is talking to her nurse, as well as the Nurse - one of my favourite characters.

Juliet is impatient for the Nurse to tell her what Romeo has said, while Nurse is recovering from her journey:

Juliet:
I would thou hadst my bones, and I thy news:
Nay, come, I pray thee, speak; good nurse, speak.

Nurse:
Jesu, what haste? can you not stay awhile?
Do you not see that I am out of breath?

(and Juliet impatiently answers)
How art thou out of breath, when thou hast breath
to say that thou art out of breath.
The excuse that thou dost make in this delay
Is longer than the tale dost excuse.
Is thy news good, or bad? answer to that;

But even so, there are some of the loveliest lines in Shakespeare as well, too often taken out of context and shortened - familiarised but not understood or fully known.

Romeo upon seeing Juliet at the window:

But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou her maid art far more fair than she...

and there is so much more. Rome and Juliet was written to entertain, hold its audience in knowing suspense, to frustrate and amuse. And, young love being well known to be intense and dramatic, means that the audience can be both knowing and sympathetic, and enhances the tragedy of the deaths.

[Lisa]

W. Shakespeare was a genius and many of his plays are fantastic. His influence is unarguable.

However, Romeo and Juliet is not one of his best. Aside from the beautifully written prose, the story is nothing more than a ridiculous soap opera.

A beautiful tragic love story? First of all, they are children. Barely 13 years old. I give consensus to the era in which it was written, but by today's standards, it's disturbing to read this knowing they are only children. But that's a minor issue I have with this story.

The romance between Romeo and Juliet is the only part of the story that is worth reading (if you can get past their age).

The rest of it...the overly dramatic feuding between families reads like a bad soap opera. Back and forth, back and forth until you want to just yell, 'Christ, everyone just take a Xanax and chill already'. The miscommunication crap that leads to their deaths feels like I'm reading a dramatized version of Three's Company...and the ending is so contrite it's almost comical.

I love Shakespeare. I have several favorites and I have high respect for his influence on literature. But, even the greats can produce a few stinkers now and then. I feel a lot of people praise this story simply because it was written by Shakespeare. Just because he was a literary genius, doesn't mean everything he wrote, was.

[rose]

I think the reason I enjoyed this was for all of the hidden genius. When you read the notes on the left side, you notice just how many hidden meanings there are behind each word or action preformed.

I can't say I think it's the greatest love story of all time... I'm still not sure why all relationships are compared to Romeo and Juliet. I mean... they killed themselves...out of love, sure. But still...

[Deeptanshu]

Shakespeare has written some truly wonderful plays, however this hackneyed sappy romance, that doesn't even make much sense if definitely not no of them.

[Heidi]

Are you serious!? Romeo and Juliet is THE original love story! It set the bar for all that came after it...I think the true question here should be how can you not love this story!

[Christopher]

Well I'm 4 years late

So Romeo and Juliet is very funny too me but i feel that the characters are over-exaggerated a bit. And literally almost everything in the book happens by chance