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8k reviews for:
Romeo and Juliet: Shakespeare Appreciated: SmartPass Audio Education Study Guide
William Shakespeare, Joan Walker
3.5 AVERAGE
8k reviews for:
Romeo and Juliet: Shakespeare Appreciated: SmartPass Audio Education Study Guide
William Shakespeare, Joan Walker
3.5 AVERAGE
emotional
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I don't know how to rate this play, to be honest. I love reading Shakespeare, but I don't like romance, so until now I'd never gotten around to reading Romeo & Juliet. As always, the prose is a delight, of course. That alone would be 5 stars. But.... really? 13-year-olds being described as "women", a mother telling her daughter that she herself got pregnant at 12, and every other man making lewd comments about stealing girls' virginities, hard-ons and nice asses? Regardless of the age of the recipient of his attention?
Yes, I get it: the lewdness is one of the points Shakespeare is making here. But good grief, it would still have been valid if he'd made Juliet some years older, right? I am fully aware that I am seeing the play through the lenses of our time and that it's maybe completely missing the point, but it is what it is: I couldn't unsee pedophiles everywhere, and I couldn't enjoy it.
And there's also the problem of how the "love" between the two kids is depicted here. That's not love at first sight, that's infatuation, and probably a good dose of teen horniness. They meet for 5 minutes at a ball, share a kiss, and are getting married practically over night. Wow. Idiotic, even in Shakespeare's day and age. Begs the question: was this really ever meant to be "the greatest love story of all time", or rather a cautionary tale?
Yes, I get it: the lewdness is one of the points Shakespeare is making here. But good grief, it would still have been valid if he'd made Juliet some years older, right? I am fully aware that I am seeing the play through the lenses of our time and that it's maybe completely missing the point, but it is what it is: I couldn't unsee pedophiles everywhere, and I couldn't enjoy it.
And there's also the problem of how the "love" between the two kids is depicted here. That's not love at first sight, that's infatuation, and probably a good dose of teen horniness. They meet for 5 minutes at a ball, share a kiss, and are getting married practically over night. Wow. Idiotic, even in Shakespeare's day and age. Begs the question: was this really ever meant to be "the greatest love story of all time", or rather a cautionary tale?
R&J is not my favorite Shakespeare but of course is his most known work. I listened to the BBC Radio version with Andrew Scott and Douglas Henshall and it was really well done!
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really need to see this performed, because reading it was surprisingly less emotionally impactful than Gounod's opera, but I'm pretty sure that's mostly my fault.
dark
emotional
funny
tense
fast-paced
shakespeare never ever fails. love the whole concept of this.
Classic and controversial, likely as the creator intended.