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What are readers saying about Romeo and Juliet A Shorter Shakespeare?
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Emily posted a review at 2011-05-13 01:53:47.
(Language: English)
 
Romeo and Juliet did absolutely nothing for me and I love Shakespeare. Romeo is just a whining sod with a love-at-first-site complex and a hormonal monster in his pants. While Juliet is a naive, stupid child that confides in the one person that could get her in the most trouble. Romeo starts out with being madly in love with Rosaline ( a girl who doesn't want anything to do with him, might I add) and then through his impulsiveness, Romeo goes to a Capulet feast because he reads that Rosaline is there. While at this shin dig, Romeo sees Juliet from a distance and INSTANTLY falls in love with her, dropping Rosaline like a plagued rat. If that's not an immature dick of a move, I don't know what is. Romeo next steals a kiss from the naive Juliet, and she falls in love too. After the feast Juliet, with her puppy dog love crush, exchanges vows of "love" with Romeo. He has GOT to be trying to get into her figurative pants. Does anyone else see the impossibilities of this story? It just bugs me.After Juliet and Romeo exchange their vows of love, Romeo goes to his Friar friend and coerces him into marrying him and Juliet. I'm sure everyone knows what happens in the rest of the story.. Not to be a b**** about this most famous play, but Romeo seems like a whiny jerk to me and Juliet doesn't have enough experience in the world to know what she's doing is just stupid. I see exactly why this story became one of the most famous love stories but it could have easily ended in tragedy. If Romeo and Juliet didn't kill each other, the play would have either ended with a war between the Montague and Capulets, Juliet dying in childbirth, or Juliet dying from misery and Romeo's infidelity, and a slew of other reasons. Read Romeo & Juliet just to experience it but for pure joy of reading, I do NOT recommend. 
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-10-28 08:20:45.
(Language: English)
I love this version, i have almost as many notes in margin as there are in the text...and have a line from this tattooed on my chest!But i would generally disagree with people who say it's a great love story, because it's a story of hatred anger and bigotry, that has a love story within it. Many good people die in it solely because of a feud between their fathers. A feud in which children have taken it upon themselves to re-enact on the street. It has comparisons to todays woes and we all know someone whose dad doesn't like someone else's and tells their children that...teaches them hatred. That is wrong. But i do love the story (although my English graduate friends keep telling me it's derived from the ancient greek plays - like the rest of Shakespeare work) and i am fully aware and am non committal on the authorship debate.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-04-18 08:15:01.
(Language: English)
love Shakespeare; Romeo and Juliet is special, not because it is "the greatest love story ever told." I love this version, i have almost as many notes in margin as there are in the text...and have a line from this tattooed on my chest! But i would generally disagree with people who say it's a great love story, because it's a story of hatred anger and bigotry, that has a love story within it. Many good people die in it solely because of a feud between their fathers. A feud in which children have taken it upon themselves to re-enact on the street. It has comparisons to todays woes and we all know someone whose dad doesn't like someone else's and tells their children that...teaches them hatred. That is wrong. But i do love the story (although my English graduate friends keep telling me it's derived from the ancient greek plays - like the rest of Shakespeare work) and i am fully aware and am non committal on the authorship debate.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-01-24 05:02:12.
(Language: English)
The language is (as always) beautiful, but the characters never meet your expectations. Romeo is not all he's cracked up to be, Juliet is just too susceptible, and they are both suicidal previous to the tragic ending. The only character I liked was Friar Lawrence. At least he had his head screwed on right. There's you-know-what innuendo and a couple oaths. At the end, even though everything is overdone, the emotion is pretty well played out, and in a weird way it was my favorite part-- but still too discombobulated how the Capulet/Montague feud ends. Overall, one word sums it: disappointing
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-03-23 04:09:30.
(Language: English)
I know it's Shakespeare, I know it's THE love story de tutti love stories, and I know that it inspired a ton of great music. Even so. I really can't stand Romeo and Juliet. I like Shakespeare's Italian period less than his other stuff (Julius Caesar, weirdly, isn't Italian, and is perhaps my favorite of his plays), I prefer Troilus and Criseyde (or for that matter Griffin and Sabine) as far as romances go, and it inspired a thousand pining 14-year-old girls for every Tchaikovsky.Ultimately, their great love is writ as a childish infatuation that has more to do with upsetting their parents than finding each other (and I'm usually in favor of both childish infatuations and upsetting one's parents). The resolution, as my friend Laura has rightfully pointed out, could've come from a lazy sitcom writer: the whole tragedy could've been avoided if people had just paused to communicate their plans or motivations at nearly any point. And people point to the richness of the background and subplots and to the fantastic minor characters as signs of the play's greatness, but to me that's one of the frustrating things about this play: the life and death of Romeo and Juliet are far and away the least interesting thing about the story. This play has murder, revenge, dancing, battles of steel and wit, politics, intrigue, rebellion -- and we keep abandoning all that to hear recited aloud the contents of a 16th-century Yahoo! chat. If someone were to do for Mercutio what Stoppard did for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, or Orson Welles did for Falstaff, I'd be a fan for life. As it is, I trot R&J out occasionally for the trivia that the girl who played Juliet in the 1968 film version was prohibited by law from seeing the film in theatres because of her own nudity, and otherwise like to forget it exists.
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A Reader posted a review at 2012-08-28 08:31:29.
(Language: English)
Tragic love... also have it on DVD starring Leonard Whiting. Its awesome.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-06-19 04:37:24.
(Language: English)
In my opinion one of the worst tragedies of Shakespeare. Plot looks like taken from some cheap brazialian novel, only that without happy ending. 2 hating each other families and concept of lovers, who were "victims" of family's issuses. But in my opinion Juliet was 12 year old idiot, who had no idea what love was. She saw Romeo, who was in love with every woman who was pretty and fell in love. Romeo, next hopeless moron. Firstly, madly in love with beautiful Rosaline, then he saw Juliet's beauty and started being mad about her. What love is it then? 2 immature kids, who were together mainly because in this age you do everything, whats contrary to parens' opinion. World seen by teenagers' eyes only, where only their love is good and all rest of people who are against are bad.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-06-18 10:00:58.
(Language: English)
I'm not a believer in love at first sight, so I always thought the premise was a bit silly. I didn't come to love this play until I taught it to a group of ninth graders during my semester of student teaching. I had read the play in school, but was never given the opportunity to do more than merely read it. My students were encouraged to act it out and to watch clips from several versions to see how a different director's perspective could change the story. The most fun day was when the class divided up into Montagues and Capulets and hurled Shakespearean insults at each other. People get scared of the language, but that's really the best part of Shakespeare. Revel in it!
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A Reader posted a review at 2012-11-18 08:38:34.
(Language: English)
Read it decades ago
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A Reader posted a review at 2011-06-20 04:52:51.
(Language: English)
I read this for my English higher, and totally fell in love with this book. The language is very Ye Auld English, and hard to understand. But when you start to it unlocks this world of hatred and love in which I just found myself lost in. I could never put this book down and fell head first into the romance of it all. And for those who hate the word romance that is not primarily what this book is about, it is about hatred, violence, there is even a secret romance/wanting in there also if you look hard enough. This is the original which hollywood still copies to this day. I love this book dearly, even now I find myself grasping at the end even though I have read it around twenty to thirty times. A excellent read.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-05-28 12:40:42.
(Language: English)
Romeo and Juliet was my first introduction to Shakespeare, as a grammar-school first-former thirty years ago. Each class had to perform a scene or two from whichever play they had been assigned, and I won the glorious prize of Best Actor for being killed as Mercutio in Act 3 Scene 1. That was also the year the BBC started its run of the complete Shakespeare with Romeo and Juliet (where incidentally Jacqueline Hill played Lady Capulet, Alan Rickman was Tybalt and Anthony Andrews was Mercutio). Apart from catching a few minutes of the Leonardo DiCaprio/Claire Danes version, I don't think I've seen or read Romeo and Juliet since Cambridge days. So I come to it now with a certain nostalgia, but also having gone through the previous nine plays. So a couple of things strike me now in a way that was lost on my ten-year-old self. First, this is the first play with a proper framing narrative from the Chorus - The Taming of the Shrew has the incomplete and unsatisfactory Christopher Sly bit, and the others as far as I remember we take directly. The fact that we are told right up front what is going to happen doesn't detract from the drama; if anything, it makes it easier to swallow the rather compressed timeline of the narrative; we can't say we haven't been warned. Second, this is the first time Shakespeare has built a play around a really convincing love story between sympathetic characters. The Tamora / Aaron relationship in Titus Andronicus comes close, but both are decidedly villains; the four-way frolicking in Love's Labour's Lost is not, and though Antipholus of Syracuse and Adriana are sweet they are not the central plot dynamic in Comedy of Errors. Indeed, the realism of Romeo and Juliet is an extraordinary leap forward from Love's Labour's Lost. Apart from that, the play retains its magic for me. The lines are great, the plot is remorseless, the deaths poignant (and much less cartoonish than Titus Andronicus), and the moral timeless. Arkangel, given such good starting material, have pulled off an excellent production. The two leads are good - Romeo is Joseph Fiennes (who was Shakespeare himself in Shakespeare in Love) and Juliet is Maria Miles (Elfine in Cold Comfort Farm). But both are somewhat overshadowed by three excellent supporting performances: Clive Swift (who has been in Doctor Who three times over the years) doubling up as both Friar Laurence and the Chorus; Elizabeth Spriggs (who was, among other things, one of the cannibalistic old ladies in Paradise Towers) as Juliet's Nurse... ...and best of all, in the role in which I trod the boards of Rathmore Grammar School's assembly hall in 1979, Mercutio is played, in his native Scottish accent, by David Tennant. This is the third role (and sixth play) of the series that I've heard Tennant in; it's the first time he has played a character who is not especially nice (Antipholus of Syracuse and Henry VI are both good guys) and he does it very well. Is it coincidence that he plays the good guys - Antipholus, Henry and indeed the Doctor - in an English accent? The music is generally excellent too, apart from a couple of OTT dramatic chords in the first scene.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-12-26 06:12:35.
(Language: English)
Of course everyone knows the story of Romeo and Juliet. The rivalry between the Montagues and the Capulets, the story of the teenage doomed lovers. It has become so much a part of our culture that we no longer think about what it meant to the Elizabethans, or the message that Shakespeare was trying to convey. We have projected our own views onto the story, Feminists have by turns exalted and villified Juliet. Much depends on the interpretation of her character, one could portray her as an irrational femme fatale, or as a rebel who defies her unreasonable parents in the pursuit of love. Unfortunately though neither of these portrayals does her character justice, these are the only two ways in which Juliet is played in professional productions, at least that I have seen. Her character is far more complicated than this, but most professional actresses seem incapable of portraying a complicated character,but I do not blame them, I rather blame our culture, which does not reward complicated women. In the book Juliet is often actually the stronger character of the couple, although not always. Although she is weaker physically, her mind is actually superior to Romeo's, she can actually outthink him, as evidenced in the Capulet's party scene, where Romeo and Juliet first meet, which attracts him. Also her courage matches if not succeeds Romeo's. Although she shows a meek face to the world, Romeo sees a tigress within her. She has the rare kind of courage, courage stronger than the fear of danger, stronger than self-preservation, to put her own life on the line in order to be with the person she loves. While this could be seen as being irrational, it could also be seen as taking a calculated risk, she carefully weighs the pros and cons, and examines the situation logically, before she decides to carry out the Friar's scheme. She is not desperate, and she is not irrational, her logic is perfectly sound. But I am ranting, in short, if you want to see the true Juliet it is necessary to read the words for yourself. As with all Shakespeare's works, you may find that you are in need of a dictionary or thesaurus, despite the wonderful annotations provided by the folks at the Folger Shakespeare Library. But it is well worth the read, as this is one of Shakespeare's greatest masterworks.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-10-24 08:25:49.
(Language: English)
L'azione si svolge a Verona dove da anni due grandi famiglie, i Montecchi e i Capuleti, sono consegnati ad un odio inestinguibile (di cui si ignorano peraltro le cause). Romeo, figlio ed erede della famiglia Montecchi, è innamorato della bella Rosalina e non teme di affrontare a questo riguardo gli scherzi dei suoi amici Benvolio e Mercuzio. Capuleti, il capo della famiglia rivale si prepara a dare una grande festa per permettere a sua figlia, Giulietta, di incontrare il Conte di Parigi. Quest'ultimo, in effetti, l’ha richiesta in matrimonio ed i genitori di Giulietta sono favorevoli a quest'unione. Romeo - che crede di trovarvi Rosalina - si autoinvita con gli amici Benvolio e Mercuzio a questo grande ballo mascherato. Scorge Giulietta e resta folgorato dalla sua bellezza cadendo follemente innamorato di lei; è il colpo di fulmine reciproco. Le si avvicina e l’abbraccia due volte quindi si ritira. Romeo e Giulietta scoprono adesso la loro identità reciproca. Disperati si rendono conto di essersi innamorati ciascuno del proprio peggior nemico. Al cader della notte, Romeo si nasconde nel giardino del Capuleti. Quindi si avvicina sotto il balcone di Giulietta e le dichiara il suo amore. Tutti e due fanno a gara nel pronunciare dichiarazioni d’amore appassionate. Perdutamente innamorato, Romeo si confida il giorno dopo con fra Lorenzo, il suo confessore. Inizialmente incredulo, fra Lorenzo promette tuttavia a Romeo di aiutarlo e di celebrare il suo matrimonio, nutrendo anche la speranza di riconciliare Capuleti e Montecchi. Tebaldo cugino di Giulietta, sfida Romeo a duello. Ma il giovane - al colmo della felicità e pieno di una simpatia "fraterna" per l’aggressore - rifiuta di battersi. Mercuzio, il confidente ed amico di Romeo, giovane coraggioso e brillante, si affretta a sostituirlo battendosi contro Tebaldo. Quest'ultimo lo ferisce a morte. Mercuzio muore maledicendo il litigio delle due famiglie nemiche. Romeo vendica la morte del suo amico ed uccide Tebaldo. Romeo ormai ricercato deve fuggire in esilio. Giulietta è in preda al dolore. Suo padre, reso inquieto dallo stato d’animo della figlia, decide di accelerarne il matrimonio con il Conte di Parigi. Il matrimonio avrà luogo il giorno dopo. Giulietta si rifiuta. Suo padre la minaccia: o sposa il Conte, o la disereda. Lei corre da fra Lorenzo che le propone di bere un filtro che può darle l'aspetto della morta per quaranta ore: credendola morta la chiuderanno nella tomba del Capuleti. Fra Lorenzo verrà allora con Romeo a liberarla. Il frate promette di informare Romeo dello stratagemma. Giulietta accetta il piano. Rimasta sola nella sua camera, beve il filtro. La mattina del giorno dopo la governante la scopre inanimata. Tutta la famiglia piange la morte di Giulietta. Fra Lorenzo fa sì che tutto si svolga secondo i suoi piani. A Mantova, dove Romeo è in esilio, riceve la visita di Baldassarre, suo servo, che gli annuncia la morte di Giulietta. Ha soltanto un rapido pensiero: procurarsi del veleno e ritornare a Verona per morire accanto alla sua Giulietta. Durante questo lasso di tempo, fra Lorenzo apprende che un intoppo ha impedito al suo messaggero di informare Romeo del suo stratagemma. Decide di recarsi alla tomba del Capuleti per liberare Giulietta. Ma il dramma precipita. Romeo si reca sulla tomba di Giulietta e vi incontra il Conte di Parigi venuto a portare fiori alla fidanzata morta. Un duello ha luogo tra i due giovani e il Conte, morente, chiede a Romeo che accetta, di adagiarlo vicino a Giulietta. Romeo contempla la bellezza luminosa di Giulietta e l’abbraccia prima di bere il veleno e morire a sua volta. Fra Lorenzo è sconvolto nello scoprire i corpi di Romeo e del Conte di Parigi. Assiste al risveglio di Giulietta e tenta di convincerla a seguirlo e andarsi a rifugiare in convento. Ma Giulietta che scopre il corpo di Romeo mortogli vicino si pugnala con la spada del suo amante e muore al suo fianco. Il principe, Capuleti, e il vecchio Montecchi si recano al cimitero. Fra Lorenzo narra loro la storia triste degli "amanti di Verona". I due padri sfiniti dal dolore deplorano quest'odio, causa delle loro disgrazia. Si riconciliano sul corpo dei loro figli e promettono di erigere alla loro memoria una statua d'oro puro.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-06-10 04:24:54.
(Language: English)
Romeo and Juliet is an early tragedy by William Shakespeare about two teenage "star-cross'd lovers" whose "untimely deaths" ultimately unite their feuding households. The play has been highly praised by literary critics for its language and dramatic effect. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently performed plays. Its influence is still seen today, with the two main characters being widely represented as archetypal young lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a tradition of tragic romances stretching back to Ancient Greece. Its plot is based on an Italian tale, translated into verse as Romeus and Juliet by Arthur Brooke in 1562, and retold in prose in Palace of Pleasure by William Painter in 1582. Brooke and Painter were Shakespeare's chief sources of inspiration for Romeo and Juliet. He borrowed heavily from both, but developed minor characters, particularly Mercutio and Paris, in order to expand the plot. Believed written between 1591–1595, the play was first published in a quarto version in 1597. This text was of poor quality, and later editions corrected it, bringing it more in line with Shakespeare's original text.Shakespeare's use of dramatic structure, especially his expansion of minor characters,use of subplots to embellish the story, has been praised as an early sign of his dramatic skill. The play ascribes different poetic forms to different characters, sometimes changing the form as the character develops. Romeo, for example, grows more adept at the sonnet form over time. Characters frequently compare love and death and allude to the role of fate.
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Astrid posted a review at 2012-07-11 09:13:33.
(Language: English)
I LOVE the story of Romeo and Juliet! A personal favorite of mine :)
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Andrew posted a review at 2009-09-27 02:08:19.
(Language: English)
Write your review WORST PART OF HIGHSCHOOL!!!! Why did I have to read Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear, Rome and Juliet, and A midsummer nights dream? What was the fucking point of that? I never read any, not one. Some cliff notes, a bit of spark notes, a C+ on the test and I learned nothing absolutely nothing. Please stop teaching this pointless shit in school. Cant you fuckers teach us something usefull. Read books with pscho-babble that are still easy to read. I wouldnt mind if it was tied in with watching the actual play. But I dont know how much time was wasted reading this stuff. Yeah, shakespheare was fucking brilliant, get over it. Yeah, the Beatles were awesome but I dont need to listen to their entire discography to get the hang of them.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-16 12:44:49.
(Language: English)
I’m Back!’’Oh Romeo, Oh Romeo, Wherefore Art Thou Romeo?Deny thy father, and refuse thy name, if thou will not,be but sworn my love, and i shall no longerbe Capulet.’’I remember having to utter these words when i was cast for the part of Juliet in my last ever school production. At that time, i had no idea what power was in the script of this plot by William Shakespeare.Now, as i sit at home, all on my own, i have nothing else to do but turn to the books that gave me comfort in the past when i needed it. I haven’t been granted leave from my course to go to India and to drown off my sorrows, so my life remains etched in Newcastle among memories that are best forgotten, thoughts which are best left behind and words which are best unspoken. Before, i continue with this review on Romeo and Juliet, i would just like to thank some of my close friends on MS who have supported me through this tough stage of my life through my last review....Tanmay, Chandra, Ektaa, Suketu, Ali, Sneha, Anusha, Neha, Nidhi, Sweety and Milind just to mention a few. Thank you so much for your support and your kind words. I am not over things, but i find writing gives me something to do, something to fill up the lonesome days.So sorry, my reviews are definitely not up to scratch, but i’m trying my best...Romeo and Juliet is probably one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies. The plot focuses around two families, both alike in dignity, one named Montague and one named Capulet. Basically. they’ve been fighting over something so ’’ancient’’ that they can’t remember themselves. Tybalt, the kinsman of Capulet is always at loggerheads with Mercutio, friend of Montague.Then something happens between these two feuding families. Love happens. That treacherous thing called love occurs. Love takes place between Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet. They do not know that they are from rival houses, and when they do, they are already too much in love to stop it. Its impossible to stop love. It just completely takes over. The line that really gets to me is when Romeo finds out, he describes himself as ’’fortune’s fool.’’ It just shows you how nothing’s in human hands. Its all up above.Romeo and Juliet then meet in the mesmerising balcony scene. Many people think that ’’Oh Romeo, Oh Romeo, Wherefore art tho Romeo?’’ means ’’Oh Romeo, Oh Romeo, Where Are You Romeo?’’, whereas it actually means ’’Why are you Romeo?’’ Juliet is asking why he is Romeo, what’s in a name? Just because he’s from the enemy side, she still loves him. Love has no control. Romeo and Juliet meet and then decide to get married the next day...Romeo and Juliet get married through Friar Lawrence.. However, in other parts of the city of Verona, things are not looking good. Tybalt sends a note to Romeo challenging him to duel. Mercutio responds instead. Romeo tries to stop this duel, but Tybalt fatally injures Mercutio who dies with the mesmerising line ’’a plague on both your house!’’ Romeo then kills Tybalt, forgetting that he is Juliet’s cousin. Romeo is banished from Verona, and goes to spend his last night with Juliet.Romeo awakes from his last night with Juliet, and almost immediately has to leave. Juliet’s mother comes bustling into the room to give her the ’’good news’’ that her father has arranged her marriage with Paris, a young gentleman. When she refuses to marry him, an angry scene follows between her and her father. Her father then leaves telling her she will marry Paris, and soon after her mother leaves. The Nurse tries to convince her to marry Paris.This is the part where i really feel for Juliet. She is now all of her own. She can’t be older than 14. First Romeo left her. Then her dear father left her. Then her mother left her. Now, even the Nurse with whom she shared all her secrects has turned her back to her. She is truly and utterly alone in this world.So, what will happen? Will Romeo and Juliet meet? Will they live happily ever after? Will the Montagues and Capulets forget their feud and wed the two lovers? Will Romeo’s banishment end? Will the story have a lovely ending which brings a smile to your face, not tears to your eyes?I can’t tell you what happens after, because sadly the answer to all the questions about is NO. As we all know, Romeo and Juliet die, and then their family feud finishes. It seems quite a big price to pay. Two young lives to end a family feud.Was it fate? Was it luck? Was it their rush into things? Was it their parents? Was it the stars? The gods? The families? Unfortunately, none of these questions can be answered......When life gets me down, i read this book. I dunno why, i just do. When tears refuse to come into my eyes, this book brings them out. When my heart turns to stone, this book turns it back into gold. When i feel all hope is lot, this book brings me hope. I don’t know why, seeing as its a tragedy, but somehow the lives of Romeo and Juliet teach me to live life to the fullest. We never know when its gonna end. We never know when all good things will turn their back to us. We never know when or if they’ll ever come back. So just live it....Thank you, sorry its been such a boring review....
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-06-29 04:33:31.
(Language: English)
This play, as is common with Shakespeare, deteriorates greatly towards the end. His comedies are my favorites--don't give up on him if you haven't yet read "A Midsummer's Night Dream," or "The Taming of the Shrew," although I would recommend perusing through a copy that has explainations of some of the terminology--it makes the jokes easier to comprehend. This, however, is one of my least favorites. Romeo is a flop the entire way through. Juliet starts out as a decent character, with her wit and resourcefulness, but she soon transforms into a pathetic preteen. The character who was my favorite was actually Mercutio--he was so much more interesting. If you ever get the chance, I would actually recommending seeing the movie version "Romeo + Juliet" (produced in the late '90s, I believe) with Claire Danes. It's set in modern America, but they keep to the original script, and they actually do a decent job with it. Plus, Mercutio is amazing. All the other movies I've seen were worthless. All in all, hardly my favorite of the reknowned Shakespeare's plays. He's done better.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-10-31 02:56:51.
(Language: English)
The story may be somewhat implausible. I remember making a time line of the plot once and the entire story takes place in less than a week. They are married to each other in less than three days. They really only have actual contact for a few days and yet they commit suicide over one another. However, what makes this play so special isn't the story itself, it's the language. The poetry used throughout almost every single scene is simply breath taking. It's not the profound soliloquies of Hamlet or the word play of some of his comedies, but more innocent, endearing, and bittersweet. The balcony scene, when she waits for him in her bedchamber, when they depart, and of course when he finds her in the tomb...all AMAZING writing. That is, of course, why we love Shakespeare; and that is why Romeo and Juliet is special, not because it is "the greatest love story ever told." (Because West Side Story was stupid....)
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-01-03 02:39:41.
(Language: English)
sorry, but im one of those people who didn't like romeo and juliet. yes, i analysed it (wich didnt help me like it, yes i read it in old english and yes i saw all of shakespears cool little foreshadowing a metaphors and all that other stuff and yes i know this is about star crossed lovers and yes i know stefanie meyer bassed twilight off this but no i did not like it! i can't get over the fact that these two KIDS (yes, i said kids because if you read it, they were really young) run into eachother and instantly get infatuated w/ eachother, sleep together after barely finding out the others name(remind anyone of something along the lines of one night stand? at 13?) then randomly decide to get married and the what gets me the most is that throught a series of stupid misunderstandings everyone gets confused and the kids kill themselves. in other words two people randomly meet and then randomly kill themselves. WHAT THE HECK.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-06-16 10:05:27.
(Language: English)
Pretty much drek. It's a favorite of pre-teens who think they're in love or whatever. The characters basically just make a bunch of ill-advised decisions in the name of love... and they're both like 14 years old. Overly dramatic. I found myself slightly annoyed at the way Shakespeare romanticizes the puppy love (and terrible decisions that follow). It's what you can expect from Shakespeare: lots of dramatic and situational irony, idle wordplay that adds nothing to the story, lots of melodrama, and, my favorite, relying on the use of random chance and misunderstanding as plot devices rather than real character motivation. Not impressive. Probably not in his top 5 best works, though it's debatable that he actually wrote all of "his" plays.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-10-31 09:21:43.
(Language: English)
What could I possibly add to a review of R&J! A beautiful story of two star crossed lovers! I have read the book so many, many times. Seen many more productions from the BBC, RSC to local school productions...the language seduces me, instantly, here are two of my favourites lines... "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." xx "Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night And pay no worship to the garish sun." xx...The perfect love tradegy!...xx
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-06-08 07:27:11.
(Language: English)
I love the language of this play. I mean, Romeo could just say "Hey you're hot, let's get together." But since it's Shakespeare, we get "What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east! and Juliet is the sun. Rise fair sun and kill the envious moon, who is sick and pale with grief that thou her maid art far more fair than she". I could read the balcony scene over and over again. Also, I really love that he leaves most readers on the edge of their seats at the end.. will the friar make it in time?? Will Juliet wake up before Romeo offs himself? And really, it's incredible that Shakespeare pulls this suspense off, espcially since he tells us right at the beginning that they die!
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-03-19 04:34:02.
(Language: English)
William Shakespeareis one of the greatest poets and writers the English Drama, is the most influential figures in world literature that was not highlighted at all. Shakespeare has had a considerable impact in the ethics of all nations at all, affected by all the writers, poets and writers in all countries and all ages, on the European continent and in the Americas and other continents in the nineteenth century and the eighteenth century and nineteenth centuries in particular, and in other centuries. This book is belong to his second phase of literary production, which the researchers divided into four stages: the historical stage, stage music, stage plays fiercely tragedy, the fourth phase, a phase that ended his life by the art and which included the plays "Henry VIII" and "Storm" and "the story of winter "and the two registers." I am not writing as a professional but as a hobby. My view about this book that it is not a romantic novel or it is about death or love but it is about how the taster, hatred,differences of class, racism,....can destroy other life even the most loved persons to your heart. who you wish for them all the happiness and even sacrificed with everything to make them just smile and feel happy. from my reading to Shakespearian literature I see how he use the symbolism in his works to reform,and rebuilding a new world full of love and justice and more than that he dreamed by the yateba of Aflaton so the death of heroes, not refer to romance event or romance choice but it symbolize how the hate ..... can destroy and kill very easily and in a very tragic ways the persons you care about them.The novel is calling for love each other and get rid of hate.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-10-09 10:59:03.
(Language: English)
Of course everyone knows the story of Romeo and Juliet. The rivalry between the Montagues and the Capulets, the story of the teenage doomed lovers. It has become so much a part of our culture that we no longer think about what it meant to the Elizabethans, or the message that Shakespeare was trying to convey. We have projected our own views onto the story, Feminists have by turns exalted and villified Juliet. Much depends on the interpretation of her character, one could portray her as an irrational femme fatale, or as a rebel who defies her unreasonable parents in the pursuit of love. Unfortunately though neither of these portrayals does her character justice, these are the only two ways in which Juliet is played in professional productions, at least that I have seen. Her character is far more complicated than this, but most professional actresses seem incapable of portraying a complicated character,but I do not blame them, I rather blame our culture, which does not reward complicated women. In the book Juliet is often actually the stronger character of the couple, although not always. Although she is weaker physically, her mind is actually superior to Romeo's, she can actually outthink him, as evidenced in the Capulet's party scene, where Romeo and Juliet first meet, which attracts him. Also her courage matches if not succeeds Romeo's. Although she shows a meek face to the world, Romeo sees a tigress within her. She has the rare kind of courage, courage stronger than the fear of danger, stronger than self-preservation, to put her own life on the line in order to be with the person she loves. While this could be seen as being irrational, it could also be seen as taking a calculated risk, she carefully weighs the pros and cons, and examines the situation logically, before she decides to carry out the Friar's scheme. She is not desperate, and she is not irrational, her logic is perfectly sound. But I am ranting, in short, if you want to see the true Juliet it is necessary to read the words for yourself. As with all Shakespeare's works, you may find that you are in need of a dictionary or thesaurus, despite the wonderful annotations provided by the folks at the Folger Shakespeare Library. But it is well worth the read, as this is one of Shakespeare's greatest masterworks.
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