There’s a song that’s been on the radio that I hate- not because it’s a bad song, but because it draws on a story and tradition that I absolutely detest. Now, there are few things I can say that I actually actively hate, after all, my momma taught me not to say you hate something unless you really really mean it.
But Romeo and Juliet? My hate burns with the passion of a thousand suns.
Yes. You.
It’s one of two stories that make me angry enough to punch someone- mostly because it is held up as this great story of passion and romance. Here is what all men and women are supposed to aspire to: a relationship where you love someone so much you’re willing to fight for them no matter what, where you’ll stand fast against all your family and friends in their defense, where you’ll even kill yourself because the world is just so depressing without them.
A relationship that is based, we should remember, upon the strong foundation of an acquaintance of about a week.
Here, watch this. This character does exactly what I’ve always wanted to do.
Now, don’t get me wrong, Juliet is awesome. But every time I see this story redone- be it in movie, play, or song, I want to pull her aside and yell at her. Romeo is just so clearly not worth it.
Don’t believe me? Here is a guy who, in the beginning of the play, is completely and utterly in love with a woman that he can’t get- and it’s not Juliet. It’s another woman we never meet: Rosaline. The only reason that he’s at the Capulet’s party in the first place is so that his friends can try to get his mind off of how much he loves her and can’t have her- all because she’s sworn to remain a virgin forever.
“She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow, Do I live dead that live to tell it now.” –Romeo and Juliet(225)
This is all I can see when I think of Romeo Credit
But as soon as he spots Juliet at the party he abandons his former love of his life with scarcely a thought. This is not a love destined to last the ages. And the worst thing? Juliet knows it!
“O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon, That monthly changes in her circled orb, Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.” –Romeo and Juliet(115)
She’s afraid that he’s a flighty, dramatic suitor who will leave her the second he finds someone more lovely- or who is harder to get. Let us not forget that Juliet is fourteen, an age her father has rightly determined is too young for courting (he thinks she should wait two years before he allows the suitors to descend upon her), and the daughter of a rival family who would as soon kill Romeo as look at him. It seems like Romeo loves that which he thinks he can’t have.
I can put aside my hatred sometimes for things like Letters to Juliet which is just a fairly innocuous rom-com that doesn’t praise Romeo too much, but in general this kind of thing really irks me.
Come on people! Can we stop romanticizing stupidity please?
You are so right. I thought I was the only one!