Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is considered to be one of the most classic books written; everyone has heard of it and makes a reference to it once in a while (i.e. “hey Romeo”, Love Story by Taylor Swift or the movie Letters to Juliet). However, what a lot of people do not realize is how the book really ends. We all know Romeo and Juliet are head over heels for one another, but instead of a happy ending it ends in tragedy. Romeo and Juliet’s families are feuding so Juliet takes an herb to fall asleep in an attempt to be able to run away with Romeo. When he sees her he assumes she’s dead so he kills himself. When she awakes and sees what he has done, she kills herself so they can be together.
The whole story turns in to an ironic situation because Romeo and Juliet keep using words like “forever” and “eternity” that they will spend together, but who knew it would end up like that. There are many themes throughout Shakespeare’s play but love and fate are the themes that stuck out to me most. Love was shown through the relationship that aspired between Romeo and Juliet and how it was deeper than anything both of them had felt and obviously, willing to die for. Fate because if Friar John had gotten the message to Romeo a little faster, maybe he would not have killed himself, then Juliet would not have killed herself and they could have figured out a way to make it work. However, because of the poor timing, was it fate that they die for one another?
There is lots of foreshadowing going on in the beginning of the book. For example, Juliet says at one point, “My grave is like to be my wedding bed” and Romeo had a dream of Juliet kissing him while he was dead, which turned in to reality. Throughout the book there is lots of human vs society because Romeo and Juliet have to fight against their parents and other “lovers”. Some tones I picked up on while reading were misery, love, and violence. All three played a major role in making this story unique. There was obvious love between Romeo and Juliet. There was violence between Tybalt and Romeo and between the families. Lastly, there was misery in the sense of Romeo and Juliet not being able to together and not want to live without one another. Also, after they died their families had a sense of misery and put away their feuds for the sake of peace.
Overall, this was a pretty good read. I would recommend it to those who like the 1500’s style writing and a good love story. I think that anyone 13 and older could read it, just because the violence and the suicide may not be suitable for some kids and may spur some ‘ideas’. I personally liked the love story in its entirety and how it turned out nothing like I thought it would. I also had to look at the modern language translation a few times just to understand what was being said. In general, I think this book will be around for the ages.
Word Count: 540
