Shakespeare's Globe: Romeo and Juliet by Aryan Doshi

 Shakespeare's Globe: Romeo and Juliet is a play following the script created by William Shakespeare in his original Romeo and Juliet. The play takes place in the town of Verona and revolves around the family feud between the Montagues and Capulets. It begins with Romeo Montague sneaking into a masked ball hosted by the Capulets. At first, he hopes to see the girl he is currently in love with, Rosaline but instead meets Juliet. He immediately falls in love with her but finds out she is a Capulet. Nonetheless, they ignore the hostility between their last names and get married in secret. However, Juliet is supposed to marry another man. At this same time, Romeo gets into a battle with the Capulets. After this battle, Romeo kills Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, and is banished from Verona.  To solve the conflict in front of them, Juliet goes to Friar Lawrence. He decides Romeo and Juliet should elope. They create the plan for Juliet to drink a special potion that will fake her death for 42 hours. After this timeframe, she would leave her tomb and live a happy life with Romeo. Unfortunately for them, Romeo never heard of this plan and thought Juliet was genuinely dead. He then kills himself next to Juliet's tomb right before she wakes up. At the sight of Romeo’s dead body, she also kills herself. When the bodies are discovered, these two deaths shed light on the Montagues and Capulets should end their long-lasting feud. The play ends on this note happier note.

Overall, I refuse to accept this play as a tragedy. Yes, there are tragic deaths, but the reason for them is outright stupidity by the individuals involved. To start, Romeo. This whole play takes place in two days. In these two days, Romeo falls in love with two different girls, marries one, and also kills himself because she has “died.” Then there is Juliet. The entire time she was saying she would kill herself if she got married to anyone but Romeo, who she met two days prior. If this was the case, why did she not just tell her parents this? The absolute worst-case scenario if her parents found out, was if they killed their daughter. That is an extreme stretch of the imagination even in this era. If we pretend that this could happen, it would practically be the equivalent of Juliet killing herself, which she was willing to do. Lastly, Friar Lawrence. Who I believe is the primary cause of all of these people’s deaths. He was in support of these two getting married. Now the excuse that Romeo and Juliet were young and naive is somewhat acceptable. They were 16 and 13 respectively. Friar Lawerence was a holy man and also an adult. In what situation do you tell a 13-year-old to fake their death so they can marry a 16-year-old and elope. Beyond that, how do you create this ridiculous plan, and then not make sure Romeo knows what is going on? With all these points considered, I think this play is still well written and acted, but I can not understand why someone would feel sad from this play. It is not a tragedy.