Romeo and Juliet Isn't the Love Story You Think It Is

Ah, Italy...

Ah, Italy. Young, attractive Italians and the instant love they have for one another.

You'd have to be some kind of cynical bastard or monster to hate Romeo and Juliet.

And yet I do.

But, in the spirit of Sasha's challenge, I'm going to explain why by talking about what I actually love about it.

As is the case with the vast majority of Shakespeare's writing, Romeo and Juliet is beautifully written and showcases the Bard's deep understanding of what it takes to be human, flaws and all.

I suppose the biggest reason I can write positively about this play is that most of my issues aren't really with Shakespeare's work itself. They're with the way it has been recontextualised over the centuries since it was first written and performed.

Ask people to name the greatest love story ever told and many of them will instinctively answer Romeo and Juliet.

Therein lies the first problem.

It's certainly a story in which love is central, but it isn't the greatest romance ever written in the way people often mean it. It's a tragedy. In fact, Shakespeare tells you that before the play has really begun. The full title is The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. The clue is right there, yet it's amazing how often that part gets forgotten.

It's a bit like watching Dracula and deciding it's really the story of a misunderstood antihero searching for eternal love. It isn't. Dracula is a monster through and through, and Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy about hatred, violence, family feuds, youthful impulsiveness and the devastating consequences that follow.

The romance is real.

The tragedy is the point.

Romeo Wasn't the Romantic Hero People Think He Is

The lovebirds weren't simply victims of fate. They were pushed towards one another by the hatred, mistakes and stubbornness of their families. That's a far more interesting story than simply reading it as "the greatest romance ever told."

Young puppy love exists. We all know that.

Sometimes it grows into something lasting because the couple grow alongside one another.

Romeo and Juliet never get that chance.

What they experience feels far more like infatuation, obsession and illicit desire than mature romantic love. Part of the attraction is surely that they're forbidden from being together. The feud doesn't just keep them apart—it makes being together irresistible.

Juliet is young, impressionable and caught in the middle of a conflict she didn't create. Romeo is equally impulsive, acting first and thinking later. They're children trying to navigate a world poisoned by the bitterness of their parents.

That's what makes the play so powerful.

It's less a love story than a story about inherited hatred.

The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children. The grudge between the Capulets and Montagues corrupts everything it touches, forcing Romeo and Juliet into increasingly desperate and ultimately fatal decisions.

That's why I think Romeo and Juliet works best not as an idealised romance, but as an anti-violence, anti-feud tragedy.

Love may be the spark.

Hatred is the fuel.

Shakespeare's Understanding of Human Nature

Something often said about Shakespeare by critics far greater than I is that he possessed an extraordinary understanding of the human psyche and experience. In my mind, that's an irrefutable point, and it's on display throughout Romeo and Juliet.

A close reading reveals Juliet's confusion about why their families fight and charts her growing infatuation with Romeo. Shakespeare understood the devastating cost of inherited hatred and tribalism. Tribalism, on its own, isn't necessarily a bad thing. But when generation after generation inherits the prejudices of those who came before, it becomes fertile ground for more hatred.

That was a failing of imperfect humans long before Shakespeare walked the earth, and it remains one today. Many forms of prejudice, including racism, are passed down rather than born within us.

Shakespeare understood that.

High-Quality Writing

Another irrefutable fact is Shakespeare's command of language.

Despite my dislike for elements of the play, some of the most beautiful words ever written are found within Romeo and Juliet.

Whether it's the opening prologue, the famous balcony scene or the shared sonnet between Romeo and Juliet when they first meet, Shakespeare's brilliance is impossible to deny.

Cultural Impact

The fact that I am writing this piece—that centuries after it was written and first performed we're still discussing it—speaks volumes about its importance.

Even if I don't consider it one of the Bard's very best, it continues to resonate with audiences across generations.

So perhaps I'll never love the recounted events in fair Verona as much as Macbeth or several of Shakespeare's other plays.

But after writing this essay, I have to admit something.

Perhaps I was wrong to judge it through the lens of a romance when Shakespeare had already told me it was a tragedy.

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Thanks for reading!

This is one of two entries in the BookClub community for Sasha's challenge.