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A review by emilymknight
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
adventurous
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.25
Oh Shakespeare, the man you are.
I have read some of his plays for my studies but I've made it my goal to actively read more of his work in my own time. With Romeo and Juliet being his most rated play at 2.6 million ratings on GoodReads, I decided this was the one to read next.
I obviously knew the general gist of the plot, (I've seen Baz Luhrmann's film adaptation, of which I was not really a fan of the modern take but I am willing to give it another go) but of course everything I've heard or read or seen of it up to now does not beat the real text. I read it alongside watching the 2009 Shakespeare's Globe on Screen stage play, and once again this just helped in understanding and processing the text a little easier. I could visually see the different colours of the houses, and hear lines spoken with a touch of comedy.
I find it really hard to rate and review plays. I think the more I read them, the more I will be able to pick out what I perhaps liked and disliked, what I found was slow and what I found was highly entertaining. It's like when you start reading older classics, they are not what you are used to, you read them slower and you sometimes don't understand a great deal, but the more you read them, the more you become tuned into the language and the styles. That is where I am starting with plays, as of right now I take them as they are, I enjoy them all because they are different from what I am used to, and so different from anything we have today. And so, I have not yet learnt to be critical of them, but that will come with time.
Some things that did surprise me was firstly,Romeo being in love with Rosaline, and how quickly he moved from her to Juliet, and secondly, Romeo being the murderer of both Tybalt and Paris! But also, that Juliet is only 13!!! At times she did seem quite mature, way more mature than Romeo that is for sure, but her young age does make her impulsive decisions (to marry him, and then not only fake her death, but then actually take her life) a tiny tiny tiny bit more understandable. Also for a love story, there was a lot more deaths than I was anticipating. Lastly, I must say I quite enjoyed Mercutio as a character even if his time was brief.
I have read some of his plays for my studies but I've made it my goal to actively read more of his work in my own time. With Romeo and Juliet being his most rated play at 2.6 million ratings on GoodReads, I decided this was the one to read next.
I obviously knew the general gist of the plot, (I've seen Baz Luhrmann's film adaptation, of which I was not really a fan of the modern take but I am willing to give it another go) but of course everything I've heard or read or seen of it up to now does not beat the real text. I read it alongside watching the 2009 Shakespeare's Globe on Screen stage play, and once again this just helped in understanding and processing the text a little easier. I could visually see the different colours of the houses, and hear lines spoken with a touch of comedy.
I find it really hard to rate and review plays. I think the more I read them, the more I will be able to pick out what I perhaps liked and disliked, what I found was slow and what I found was highly entertaining. It's like when you start reading older classics, they are not what you are used to, you read them slower and you sometimes don't understand a great deal, but the more you read them, the more you become tuned into the language and the styles. That is where I am starting with plays, as of right now I take them as they are, I enjoy them all because they are different from what I am used to, and so different from anything we have today. And so, I have not yet learnt to be critical of them, but that will come with time.
Some things that did surprise me was firstly,
"Death lies on her like an untimely frost
Upon the sweetest flower of all the field."
*reads in Bella Swan's voice*
"These violent delights have violent ends,
And in their triumph die like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume."