|
After having been in love with Rosalie and after having suffered a heart break Romeo immediately falls in love with Juliet after he sees her, sounds like rebound to me. I am not stating that Shakespeare "stole" nor "copied" Cleopatra and Mark Antony story, however I am suggesting that this was an inspiration to Shakespeare's play. Couple of the reasons I do not find Romeo and Juliet to be the greatest love story is due to Juliet being sort of a "rebound" to Romeo's affairs. But does anyone remembers Plutarch (40-120 CE) writings regarding the story about Cleopatra and Mark Antony. I have always enjoyed most of Shakespeare's plays.
Shakespeare will always be the epitome of literary works, plays in this case of all time. Unfortunately, Romeo and Juliet story does not speak to me in the same manner, hence I gave it 4 stars, although as far as literature goes it deserves all 5. If you read the story and the writings you will find many parallels to Romeo and Juliet. After all my favorite love story (now with two high grossing pop culture movies) is a very modern and very famous story, poorly written for young adults, however the story and the intensity of the love portray speaks to me fondly even thou as far as literature is concern it is a piece of garbage. Of course originality has to really be defined here. One do not need to love all the elements of the story to appreciate what a great piece of artistic work it is. Another thing that is questionable in this play is originality. This is one of the plays that every cultured individual should read for its literary value.
Romeo and Juliet however is not my favorite of his plays and in my opinion not the greatest love story ever told, although the play was written and executed majestically. Shakespeare did write about the Cleopatra and Mark Antony story and a some of his plays do have the same elements of tragic and deceit as this story. As if Juliet was the second plate, the one he settled for rather than his first choice. Yes, at the time in which was written Shakespeare was one of the few people integrating such stories together.
This edition was original text only -- fine for what it is, but not what we wanted. The customer reviews for this edition of Romeo and Juliet indicated that it was dual language, i.e., the original Shakespeare on one side of the pages and a modern "translation" on the other.
It's a classic, what more can one say. Bought this book for my son, who is in 9th grade. It is required reading which they have not yet started.
It's so worth reading. There's a reason most college students have read this at least once for class. This story is timeless, speaks to any and all generations, and touching in a way no other book can match.
With Romeo being a Montague, and Juliet being a Capulet, their love is forbidden. Some people might think that the plot is not that special and could have been thought up by anyone. Arguably the greatest book he ever wrote was "Romeo and Juliet". "Romeo and Juliet" is about two, "star-cross'd lovers," named Romeo and Juliet, living in the city of Verona. Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" is a very well written play. Shakespeare is able to create a plot where everything that occurs, happens for a reason, ending in a very sad, tragic ending. The city of Verona has one, very long lasting feud between the Montague family, and the Capulet family. In most movies this scene takes place with Juliet on a balcony, but the play never mentions anything of a balcony.
This is where the play really takes off. William Shakespeare is one of the great playwrights of all time. Romeo is convinced by one of his friends, Mercutio, to sneak into a masquerade party held by the Capulets. Romeo and Juliet have a romantic talk with each other. For most of us, it was the first time we had ever read it. After the masquerade, Romeo goes to see Juliet. Romeo is still depressed about breaking up with a girl named Rosaline (who we never hear from once). He is known across the world.
Although the Elizabethan style of writing is difficult to understand, it fits the play fantastically. The plot is not the most interesting of all time, but I enjoyed it very much. One event after the other occurs that twists the plot. The next day, Friar Lawrence secretly marries the two. It is love at first sight.
The bottom line of this book is that Shakespeare was able to write a very interesting tragedy, which is what he was trying to do from the beginning. Now that we look back on "Romeo and Juliet" and then see all the other love stories written in the past three hundred years, we take this play for granted. I enjoyed this book very much, and I think any reader will like it also. That is true in some aspects. This past quarter, my entire freshmen class was required to read this classic play.
All these events lead up to one of the most well known ending of any play in history. The same goes for Juliet. This is where the problem comes in. He continues to be depressed at the masquerade, until he sees Juliet for the first time.
|
