EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club discussion

Starting the discussion on Romeo and Juliet here! Just starting it myself so not much to add... yet.

I teach 9th grade English, so I read this about 5 times every year. I will try not to be too snobbish, and most definitely can address your questions if you have any.

Will definitely appreciate the commentary from an expert like yourself! Can you believe I never read this in high school?!? It seems absurd.

We way, way over did this one at my high school. We read it. Then we watched the "classic" movie version from 1968. Then we watched the Leonardo Di Caprio version. Then we saw the play.
I didn't care for it when we read it and by the end I was ready to scream if I was forced to watch/see/look at/etc one more incarnation of it.

I recently watched the Reduced Shakespeare Company's short performance of Romeo and Juliet (on YouTube). Hilarious. A nice refresher before jumping into the text again.

Fortunately, a teacher in junior high made us read this and do book reports. I think it was 9th grade (you can tell it was ages ago because I called my school junior high, not middle school).

Perhaps I was the only one who loved it in my 9th grade class, based on reactions. However, that changed. High school girls begged teachers to put it on their book lists, especially 10th graders.

This is the movie version which had my friends and me full of tears:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romeo...

Boys were incredibly abusive about it all, though. Are they still?

Because of how beautiful the language was, I went on to other Shakespeare plays. I think 'Romeo and Juliet' is the perfect choice for the first Shakespeare play, but they all are amazing.

Part of what makes Romeo and Juliet so classically famous is because it starts off as a comedy (a boy madly in love with a girl who does not want him, funny servants, etc.) and them changes to a tragedy.

Yes, boys can still be quite critical (and some girls too). If you read it too young, before love is part of your life, the play can seem irrelevant. Here some not love based themes this story connects too.

-What makes a good parent? Romeo's let him wander around town, stay in bed all day, and pretty much do what ever he wants. Juliet's parents don't let her do ANYTHING without permission, including go to church for confession. Is there parents actions that prompts the bad decisions they make?

-How far would you go for your best friend? (view spoiler)[Benvolio goes to the Capulet arty; so that, Romeo can move on with his love-life. Mercutio ends up dying to save Romeo's honor. (hide spoiler)]

Though I read this in high school, I decided to re-read it now and I have to say, I'm having a hard time taking this play seriously. Maybe it is all the modern movie adaptations of Shakespearean themes and plays but all I am thinking of while I read this is how absolutely insane puppy love is. I did go through high school and did believe for a time that romantic relationships were the purpose of education but from an older perspective the romantic exchanges seem hollow and temporary. I have rolled my eyes more than a few times. Maybe I am the childish one. Haha.

Brady wrote: "Though I read this in high school, I decided to re-read it now and I have to say, I'm having a hard time taking this play seriously. Maybe it is all the modern movie adaptations of Shakespearean th..."

I think if you see the right movie with the right actors, and thrilling music, it will hit home. The words on the page are lovely to those who love poetry and poetic words, but I noticed for most moderns (me, too), it makes more of a difference if they see the action, if they have music, and the actors are pretty and charismatic. This is why I began to check out videos of the plays actually being acted out - later I looked up stuff, read the plays.

I think I read in play notes the real Romeo and Juliet, or rich kids like them, or whatever bits of a story Shakespeare heard and then transformed, who would have lived in the 14th or 15th century (maybe earlier? Memory fails), were usually 15 and 13 years of age respectively.

I think in some Middle-age fact book I read the average age of people was 19, and most were old, toothless and dead by 40. What that means if you think about it, since people haven't changed their biology, most people we consider YA or teens were considered adults running businesses, plantations, etc. but had all of those teen hormones at the same time. I think that is why all of the sword fights and duels, the races and gambling and whoring, which were commonplace for 'old' married men and fathers who were actually 19-30 years old..

aPriL does feral sometimes wrote: "Brady wrote: "Though I read this in high school, I decided to re-read it now and I have to say, I'm having a hard time taking this play seriously. Maybe it is all the modern movie adaptations of Sh..."

That makes sense, the age, life expectancy and all that. As far as the old men thing. If it started then when it made sense due to age and life expectancy, men sure did milk the hell out of it, didn't they since its still going on now.

I feel though that the perception of it being a given is getting chipped away at just a bit though now. But maybe that's just me thinking too positively and of course when I say that I'm only talking about in the US. I'm not sure how to is for women in other places living under this "given" behavior for males.

Kaseadillla wrote: "Will definitely appreciate the commentary from an expert like yourself! Can you believe I never read this in high school?!? It seems absurd."
I went through the same process, except we didn't watch the play, we acted one out. I get that we should analyse all aspects of it in school but it was too much that we started to dislike it.

Luella! I think feminism has changed laws and expectations, and now women can be picky about men, work in the same jobs, go to college, help in deciding about having children; instead of women being considered the same as a cow and as prized, especially if brushed up and dumbed down, and being selected for childbearing health as in Juliet's day. However, a lot of YA males have gone through or are going through a passion for video games, in which the plots are full of modern versions of sword fights, battles, duels, races and whoring --- PLUS most of the women all are size E Barbies ( to be fair, video game men all look like mostly professional wrestlers), and instead of romance, its mostly rape - Men are men are men biologically, still! (First world customs, anyway)


; P

Sara! Did you have a part? I think I read some high schools that acted the play had girls doing the boys' parts, because in Shakespeare's day the actors were all boys and men, no girls, including Juliet, who was played by young boys.

aPril does feral sometimes

Since there weren't enough characters for all of us we were divided in groups so that everyone can get a part. We had each group act a few scenes and put it all together. So yes I did have a part, I played Tybalt. It was interesting to see several interpretations of the same characters.

"Oh, she knew well that thy love did read by rote, that could not spell"

Love it.

"For never was a story of more woe..."

:' (

I only acted out one play in my entire grade school career - I was Ms. Frizzle of the Magic School Bus in 2nd grade. Yikes.

As for seeing the play acted versus being read, I totally agree that seeing the play probably has a lot more power than reading it, especially during the love/action scenes. Reading it felt rushed and, therefore, made it seem... I don't know, silly? Unbelievable? I found myself purposefully reading slow in those parts in order to try and imagine better what it would actually be like to see it.

I seem to remember there was one part we had to memorize and how much you could recite without messing up would be your grade. I don't remember getting very far...

Luella wrote: "I seem to remember there was one part we had to memorize and how much you could recite without messing up would be your grade. I don't remember getting very far..."

We had to do that with a fairly long scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream. I nailed it, but had a hard time not laughing. I talk with my hands (my grandma's parents were both in Italy, therefore its genetic and I can't help it!) and this particular teacher knew it very well. She said she was actually looking forward to it. I pretty much had my hands going in iambic pentameter and both my teacher and I struggled to keep a straight face.