Shannon > Status Update

I hated that play. But then I also hate comedies of error

Oh my God. Thank you so much! I love this!

CJ - You Carry On As If I Don't Love You wrote: "I hated that play. But then I also hate comedies of error"

I hate the play AND every movie they've made.

If he'd kept talking for another 2 minutes, she'd have woken up!

Diane wrote: "If he'd kept talking for another 2 minutes, she'd have woken up!"

I really hate that kind of crap too. Kind of like the end of Cujo and The Mist. Just wait a few more minutes, damn it!

Ha, that makes it sound like Natural Born Killers!

I hate Romeo and Juliet. YOU CAN'T EVEN SEE IF SHE'S STILL BREATHING?! AUGH! YOUNG TEENAGE LOVERS ARE STUPID, STUPID AND MORE STUPID!

ALSO! THIRTEEN?!?!?!?!

thank u for this :)
scholars who study Romeo and Juliet don't really see it that way, it is considered satirical, so the play isn't actually ridiculous, the ignorant people who see it as the most romantic book ever written r the silly ones

I don't even mind the age difference. Back in that day, ladies were married at 14/15.

I do care that there was an extreme lack of communication between everyone! IF the Friar had spoken up or the Nurse or if Romeo had waited or if they had run away together originally! The possibilities are endless!!!!!

GAH!!!!!!

CJ - You Carry On As If I Don't Love You wrote: "I don't even mind the age difference. Back in that day, ladies were married at 14/15.

If by "back in the day" you mean the Elizabethan era, ladies could marry at that age (age of consent for women was 12), but they usually didn't. Mid-to-high 20's was the norm. I used to think that Elizabethans married young, too, (props to a college prof for dispelling that myth) and I think "Romeo and Juliet" has A LOT to do with that misconception.

But I'm with you on the communication issue. It's downright frustrating!

I read it, I saw it being played on stage and even several movie adaptations. I still think it was a romantic lovestory, a very tragical one, true, but about great love and stupidity of wars nevertheless. (BTW in those times the people died a lot sooner so a relationship between a 13 and 17 old lovers couldn't be weird otherwise humanity would die out pretty soon. And the story is about two battling families in times when a sword solved everything from retaining honor to theft. Of course there are characters getting killed!)

CSteinert wrote: "CJ - You Carry On As If I Don't Love You wrote: "I don't even mind the age difference. Back in that day, ladies were married at 14/15.

If by "back in the day" you mean the Elizabethan era, ladies ..."

Yes, I did mean that. But yes, to your point, it wasn't something that was done every day. Which, thank god.

To strengthen your point:
"With parental permission, boys are legal to marry at 14, girls at 12, though it is not recommended so early. One comes of age at 21.

Sir Thomas More recommended that girls not marry before 18 and boys not before 22.

In non-noble families, the most common age for marriage is 25-26 for men, about 23 for women. This is because it's best to wait until you can afford a home and children. Also, most apprenticeships don't end until the mid 20s.

Noble families may arrange marriage much earlier. Robert Dudley's sister Katherine, who became the countess of Huntingdon, did go to the altar at age 7, but that was extraordinary.




It's funny that by the Regency period, not being married by 18 was frowned upon (hence the 'being on the shelf' by 25).