I see you make your way through the crowd
And say hello, little did I know

That you were Romeo, you were throwing pebbles
And my daddy said stay away from Juliet
And I was crying on the staircase
Begging you please don’t go, and I said

Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone
I’ll be waiting all there’s left to do is run
You’ll be the prince and I’ll be the princess
It’s a love story baby just say yes

I’ve been guiltily indulging in this pop hit lately, to my own chagrin. In speculation, the music is not particularly spectacular, nor is the artist’s vocal skill… In fact, she’s nearly annoying. But…I can’t help but adore the Romeo and Juliet analogy (I love literary references in pop culture music, like, Dorian Grey in James Blunt’s Tears and Rain…..). Which, in this day and age, the appreciation seems to deserve its own judgement…

So, before I explain my appreciation of Romeo and Juliet one more time to someone, I better write it down.

Romeo and Juliet is perceived by the general masses as the archtypal young lovers, whose love is so genuine and pure that they would rather die than live without one another. Its general plot is nothing special. Actually, it screams Pyramus and Thisbe of Ancient Greek literature, but that’s an entirely different story.

But, I believe (as many other critics do, I’m sure…I just haven’t read any on it yet) that Romeo and Juliet is meant to act as a social commentary, not as some fuzzy love story. I believe it criticizes the ideal of true love, and emphasizes little more than the ridiculous and unrealistic pursuit of true love. Gosh!

Imagine the life of the successfully eloped Romeo and Juliet! Assuming they would both be disowned, a modern day Romeo would end up working as a gas station attendant or something equally disenchanting (we’ve already noticed that he isn’t one for delusions of grandeur and nobility), and Juliet would join the ranks of knocked up teenage mothers who squirt out more children than they can keep track of. Typical fluffy stories end with the happily ever after, but Shakespeare realizes that with this love, there will be no happily ever after – just a happy now, but real life will hit and there is doom ahead. So, they have to die to live the dream. Steph’s Shakespeare says: Isn’t this lovely? It doesn’t last. They have to die.

That is what it’s all about! Either they have to die, or their love will die. People say it’s a beautiful story because their love is immortalized in their death – that they loved each other SO much that they would rather die. But it is their fate as honest and eternal lovers that forced the writer’s hand to give them death – it is not their death that sealed their fate as honest and eternal lovers. The tragedy that Shakespeare has written is not in their death, but in the earnest truth and dedication in their designation as lovers that subsequently requires their death.

Let’s look at Shakespeare’s other love stories. Midsummer’s Night Dream. Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius, Helena. They can only find peace in trials of love in the chaotic and comical misdealings of fairies! And, in the end, only one pair’s love is actually real (in that it is without outside/magical influences). But only as strong as a fairy’s magic. Antony and Cleopatra. Both are experienced, previously wed lovers. But a reader will find their antics laughable and comical! Why? Because their love stems from the joy of simply playing each other’s game and the ambiguity of the characters (high profile political players) is exacerbated by the prospect of potential selfish motives! Does it mean they don’t actually love each other? No! But, it does mean that we will never know if they do or not. Yes, like Romeo and Juliet, they die in the end, but it doesn’t matter if it’s true love or not. Their death is overshadowed by so many other innuendos that there is no way that an audience would feel that their love is perpetuated or immortalized through their deaths.

You know I’m onto something here….