Have you ever sat down to really grasp how William Shakespeare not only cornered the market on loves that cannot be like Romeo and Juliet but also with comedy plays like Much Ado About Nothing. Ya know, when I was a freshman in high school, the reading for my English class was the ever so popular Romeo and Juliet. All of us girls were either swooning at. oh so romantic Romeo or wondering on how stupid these two young lovers must have been to not just run away and never look back. You root for them, slap your head at their nativity and wonder how in love were they? They didn't even know each other a whole month!
And yet, the story is a classic, so beloved that it's been adapted in the film world countless times. Even giving us which I think is the best one, Gnomeo and Juliet. A personal favorite if you're asking me.
And yet, I stratch my head over how each film adaptation of the famous play still gets traction,or gains popularity with the masses. Each adaptation has its own target audience, which is the teenage girl population. With the good looking Romeo, captivating the female gaze. Keeping us in our theater seats, popcorn halfway between the box and our open waiting mouths. The handsome Romeo professing his love for Juliet every five seconds, in turn professing his love for us too. You ever feel like the character isn't talking to his opposite character, but to you? That's the Romeo effect. I don't know if that's a real thing but I'm making it a thing. The Romeo effect, where all the romantic gestures that you never got in real life, he says to you, akin to how most Pride and Prejudice fans feel about Mr. Darcy.
I think back on how I described each Pride and Prejudice adaptation and how each one was loved by the generation that got to first see it theaters as teens, and think the same theory applies to every Romeo and Juliet adaptation. One was done in the 80s, the other in 1996 (that's the one with 21 year old Leo DiCaprio wink wink) and the most recent one in 2013. I think that the teens of that generation are going to be inclined to mostly associate and love the one that was made during their youth.
While this theory may be wrong or right, this classic play is still relevant to now which is how it's still in traction. Who doesn't have the experience of young love? Who hasn't had somebody in their youth that they once held so much affection for that you felt like you were on cloud nine with them? It didn't even have to be a lover, or a partner. Not all soulmates come with the romance, soemtimes your soulmate is a platonic love between friends. What makes this play so relevant hundreds of years later is that love comes in different forms, and to quote the play “Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.” (Act 1 Scene 1). To love doesn't always mean to be madly and passionately in love with another like our two lovers. To love is to protect the other, to lift them when they're down. To make sure that they always have somebody in their corner whether you agree or disagree with what is happening. To love is to love both you and the other equally and to respect each other with your similarities and differences. We might see the most common romantic love in the play and through the two characters, but the play and movies resonate so deeply with its viewers and readers because we've experienced some type of love in our lives.
What do you guys think? Is Romeo and Juliet overrated and a played out play or do you feel just as giddy as a schoolgirl when Romeo and Juliet talk deep love on Juliet's balcony? Personally, I think stalking the girl you kissed earlier in the night as she's on her houses balcony is a lil hmmm...odd but hey! What do I know, I don't have a balcony at home, or somebody to scale it so maybe it's just me. :/
As always.
All the love,
Cat:)
You can follow Cat on her instagram at https://www.instagram.com/catcalabro/?hl=en This is where she posts lil tid bits of her life and a few kitty pics of her adorable two cats.