Hopeless Romantics?

This Spring term, I took an Introduction to Shakespeare class and the professor had us write essays comparing the plays to modern television, movies, or anything happening in society. Towards the end of the semester, we were reading Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, which is one of the well-known love stories in literature. And I begin thinking that all forms of media try to emulate the same so-called “romantic” teen-angst forbidden love story. One movie I’d say that remotely relates to play, in terms of the concept of eternal love and death is the Twilight Series. Now, I wasn’t into it at the time of its hype, but the main couple does reflect Romeo and Juliet. The story is even mentioned a few times throughout the series. I officially read Romeo and Juliet in my first year of high school and that was around the time the movie series was becoming mainstream. I never read the books and I only saw the movies just to see what the big deal was. I don’t want to make this sound like a tirade, but this is my honest opinion after analyzing this over and over and comparing it with what I consider the worst teen romance ever written and adapted to screen.

At the beginning of both plots, there is the main protagonist who starts to notice and become deeply infatuated with their love interest, in which case, Bella Swan would be considered Romeo, falling in love with Edward Cullen, who would be Juliet, at first sight. Interesting switch-up. Not too soon after meeting that they realize that they can’t be with the one they “supposedly” love. Romeo, who is a Montague, finds out that Juliet is a Capulet; In Twilight, Bella finds out that Edward is a vampire. But they decide to go against the odds. Romeo and Juliet secretly marry, and Bella gets caught up with a clan of vampires called the Volturi who fear exposure of their kind; as well as a new love interest who is a werewolf and are rivals with the vampires.

Now, I want to point out that I don’t believe in love at first sight, so these kinds of couples already lose my support. I was never into that pining, poetic passion unless an actual relationship was established with real-life feelings. Now, if there was a twist in the tale like, when Romeo and Juliet realize who their families are, they would secretly make a marriage pact to bring peace and then eventually would fall in love with each other. But in this case, it's all hormonal. As they are teenagers, the characters' love for each other is lead by their lust. In Twilight, Bella’s love is more of an obsession. Upon meeting, Bella becomes so captivated by Edward’s existence. Edward makes it clear to Bella from the beginning that she should have nothing to do with him but then he becomes “protective” of her and “can’t seem to stay away”. When he reveals to her that he’s a vampire and that he wanted to kill her, Bella doesn’t give it a single thought. There are too many red flags that define this as a toxic relationship. And then, the Jacob Black character comes in, and then there was this Team Edward or Team Jacob debate and whom will she be with? At this point in the series is where I don’t see the fanaticism in these relationships. I should point out that there is no notable third love interest in Romeo and Juliet. The character Paris was not significant enough to pose any real threat to Romeo and Juliet’s relationship so I cannot compare Jacob to anything related to the story.

So now, how would death work into these stories? Death seems to be the deal-breaker in romance, whether it’s being together in this life or for an eternity in the next. Vampires are mythically known as the undead. Beings who are reanimated by the life force of another being, such as a demon or vampire. Bella becomes so infatuated with Edward that she worries about her mortality and presses Edward to turn her into a vampire herself so she could love him for an eternity. In a way, till death. Edward is hesitant because he sees himself as a monster and he doesn’t want that for her. The second installment, New Moon, shows their unhealthy dependency on each other. When Bella cuts her finger, Edward's foster brother, Jasper, gets overwhelmed by the scent of blood and attempts to attack her. Believing that he and his family are putting Bella's life in danger, Edward ends their relationship and he and his family leave town, leaving Bella in a severely heartbroken and depressed state. She soon figures that if she is in any kind of danger, that Edward would come back so she tries multiple attempts to risk her life. Through a series of miscommunications from Edward's sister Alice, Edward believes that Bella killed herself by jumping off a seaside cliff. Distraught, Edward travels to Italy to ask the Volturi to end his life, after exposing himself to humans during a festival. This is where the similarities between Romeo and Juliet come in. This couple was willing to give up and end their lives because they couldn’t live without each other. And there’s still the issue of Bella still wanting to become a vampire. She is negotiating with Edward when he will change her, and he only agrees to do it if Bella marries him and it isn’t until the end of the first part of the final installment, Breaking Dawn when Bella becomes pregnant and dies from childbirth. The same element falls with Romeo and Juliet, After they are married, Romeo is banished for killing Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt, after he killed Romeo’s friend, Mercutio; and Juliet is forced to marry Paris. She seeks help from the friar and helps her plot to fake her death by poison but when Romeo hears about it, he buys poison to die with her. As I said before, these characters lead with their actions without any thought. This plotline is too extreme for a couple of teens who can’t stand to be apart. It could have been as simple as running away together but this is a tragedy. It is never idealistic to kill yourself over love.

Around the time I was in high school, a lot of girls my age thought that this was romantic. I always thought that they just thought the actor, Robert Pattinson was attractive and that he was portraying some form of a bad boy that was attracted to a seemingly meek, beautiful young girl; and apparently, it also helped the series that he and Kristen Stewart ended up dating. Without the mythical creatures and unnecessary love triangle, this could have been simple and more tolerable for me. These types of romantic stories are not my cup of tea but everybody else seems to be into them. Maybe some people today may not be into Romeo and Juliet, but they were going crazy with the Twilight fandom. It may not be so much the storyline but more about the actors. Other films with the same concept would follow with young teenage girls crushing after some new on-screen heartthrob, who portrays some character in some form of a forbidden or intensely passionate relationship. Some have good plots; others are just trying to appeal to female viewers. They could make them feel anything just because they are at that age if you know what I mean.