In Defense of Juliet

When I saw the following text post on Tumblr, I couldn’t ignore it:

hotbabysitter:

My name is Juliet Capulet and I’m 13 years young and I luv my bf Romeo so much we’re gunna get married i luv him so much& we just met hehe xD I wuld give my life for him!

Okay here it comes:

First of all, 13 was very different in Shakespeare’s day, and most of the intelligent noblewomen in Europe got married at or around that age. If Juliet didn’t marry Romeo she would have married Paris that same year anyway, so you can just put the age argument away right now.

Second, look at your silly internet diction. Now compare it to the way Shakespeare has the real Juliet speak. “I luv my bf Romeo so much” is a far far far cry from the actual “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.” Forgive me for assuming, but if Juliet were alive in the internet age, she would not use phrases like “we just met hehe.” Despite how much you’d like to make Juliet seem unintelligent, she clearly was not. 

And okay, maybe Romeo and Juliet did make what we would call “stupid” decisions, but look at the time they were in. Their families were basically children (see Juliet’s oblivious and narcissistic mother for proof) in a senseless feud that nobody even knew the origin of anymore. Not exactly an environment that fosters maturity and thoughtful decision-making. Now look at the outcome. Okay, Romeo and Juliet died, but they ended up becoming martyrs for the cause of peace in Verona. In a matter of days, they achieved what the law enforcement couldn’t do in years. 

And yeah, they both died. But last time I checked, it was an admirable quality to love something so much that you would give your life for it. Nobody makes fun of William Wallace for sacrificing his life for Scotland. Nobody mocks Mufasa for dying to save Simba. I’ve never heard anyone say that Jack was an idiot for staying with Rose in Titanic, and that’s basically the exact same story!! (Shocking, I know, because James Cameron movies are usually soooo original.) Sorry that you think that Romeo and Juliet wasted their lives for love. They obviously saw it differently.

So before you start thinking you’re so much better than Romeo and Juliet, take just a moment to stop reducing a beautifully rich tale to your own one-dimensional SparkNote of that tale that draws more influence from a CW television show than it does from the actual play in its historical context.

This has been a moment of annoyance with Emily.

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