40 4 40 #23 Romeo & Juliet

This is the latest in a series of blogs chronicling my journey of trying 40 new things before I turn 40 in March. You can read all the entries using the label 40 4 40.

I have always loved to read. I was reading so early that I got to be the narrator in the Kindergarten play! I think it was the Three Little Pigs. Growing up, I read all the time. Somehow, it was rarely what I was supposed to be reading for school though. And almost never was it Shakespeare.

Now, I know we read MacBeth or Hamlet (or both? - which one has the "damn spot"?) sometime in High School. I remember "reading" A Midsummer Night's Dream. Reading is in quotes because I also remember getting to the last page and having NO recollection as to what I'd just spent a couple hours "reading" (I must've been on a deadline). I don't think we were ever assigned Julius Ceasar or Romeo and Juliet.

As an adult I have visited several classics that I never read in High School. Little Women, for example, is an excellent book that would've been lost on me at 15 years old. At 23, it was great! I have also tried The Grapes of Wrath several times and I just can't get into it. But Shakespeare has always eluded me.

And so, to further include my love of reading in my new things, I read Romeo and Juliet. I am also currently in the process of watching the movie (the 1968 version). As is usually the case, the book was much better!! Not book, play? I read it, so it's a book. Right? In play form. Or something.

Anyway! Beyond the old language, it was pretty good. There were definitely parts I didn't know about - such as the fact that they had secretly been married. Also, I thought they died together at the same time. I guess they do, really, but not really. Don't want to spoil it for you! I think it's The Brady Bunch that has a scene where Juliet comes back to life. Totally thought that was a farce!! It's a shame that if that one note had arrived to Romeo, they'd be making little Capague (Montulet?) babies!!

My main take away is that it's really a very violent story. There's a lot of death, besides Romeo and Juliet. They were so young; it really was a tragedy. I can't help but think that 12 is TOO young to know true love!! But it was different then.

I feel much better now having read the story for myself. I can turn 40 knowing how it really happened. Often, I joke with my students that I'd teach English if it weren't for Shakespeare. This changed nothing!