Romeo and Juliet

Title: Romeo and Juliet

Author: William Shakespeare

Series: Spark Notes’s No Fear Shakespeare

Number of Pages: 287

Date Read: 2/29/16 

Genre: Play, Classic, Tragedy 

Synopsis (Found on Goodreads.com):

In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare creates a world of violence and generational conflict in which two young people fall in love and die because of that love. The story is rather extraordinary in that the normal problems faced by young lovers are here so very large. It is not simply that the families of Romeo and Juliet disapprove of the lover's affection for each other; rather, the Montagues and the Capulets are on opposite sides in a blood feud and are trying to kill each other on the streets of Verona. Every time a member of one of the two families dies in the fight, his relatives demand the blood of his killer. Because of the feud, if Romeo is discovered with Juliet by her family, he will be killed. Once Romeo is banished, the only way that Juliet can avoid being married to someone else is to take a potion that apparently kills her, so that she is buried with the bodies of her slain relatives. In this violent, death-filled world, the movement of the story from love at first sight to the union of the lovers in death seems almost inevitable.

My Review: 

This is the classic play by William Shakespeare. However this book is awesome!. One one side of the page is the original text in old english and on the page next to it is the play translated into modern english. I finally was able to understand the play, what happened and what they were saying. 

The translation is right next to the old english, so I would read the old english side first and then read the translation. I absolutely loved this play now that I can understand it. 

The play itself was very good. I liked Juliet and Romeo but I thought it was silly how fast they fell in love. I also thought it was silly how they wanted to marry each other without really getting to know each other. Now I couldn't tell over how many days, weeks or months the play actually takes place over, so it me everything was happening within days of each other. But I still do have to say that they're romance was good and I found myself hoping that the ending would be different like I've never read the play before- Duh Joanne. I just don't know why Shakespeare couldn't give the kids who went through so much, a happy ending. I also couldn't believe how young Juliet was. I thought she was at least 16 but she was like 13-14 in the time of the play. WTF? I had no idea about love nevermind true love and marriage at 13. 

I was kind of annoyed with Romeo because all he talked about was love. Love this, love that, I miss my love, blah blah blah. I felt like I didn't really get to know him aside from his views on love. Also damn that boy moves fast! He was obsessing over Rosaline and his love for her, then bam he sees Juliet and throws Rosaline in the gutter and falls for Juliet. 

The last scene where they both die made me extremely sad and again I wondered why Shakespeare would do this. It was so so sad and I just wanted them to have a happy life together. It's not fair. If only Romeo wasn't so rash to kill himself. If he waited maybe another minute or two until the friar walked in everything would of worked. Meh.

This book is from the series "No Fear Shakespeare" and it's published by Spark notes. There are many of Shakespeare's famous plays that are available in this series. I can't wait to read them!

Yay Shakespeare!

Never thought I'd say that....

Rating:B+