Cw: Jordan Peterson, reddit-logo

  • LaGG_3 [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    8 months ago

    This is a story which has defined romantic love for generations and now will be just another example of anti-White racism.

    Is it? It's been a minute since I've seen the text, but my lasting impressions is that it's about stupid horny teenagers who tragically throw their lives away.

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
      ·
      8 months ago

      it's about stupid horny teenagers who tragically throw their lives away

      So, there's something of a debate over whether Romeo + Juliet is a Drama or a Comedy, as its relatively easy to play the high strung niche bigotries of two aristocratic families and the soppy tear-jerk romance of two teenagers repeatedly failing to kill themselves for laughs.

      But I think the underlying appeal of the story is, at its heart, the idea that our history may define our current conditions but it cannot dictate our future choices. We can be born into hatred and still find love. We can break free of our family legacies. We can abandon filial obligations and golden shackles, if we can find someone of like mind to follow.

      Their deaths are meant as an emphasis of their determination. But I don't think they're strictly stupid or even particularly horny. I think they are simply unhappy with their lives and in search of other like-minded people who would flee towards a brighter future. Romeo and Juliet are one another's paths to escape their toxic families. And that's honestly really sweet and cool.

        • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
          ·
          8 months ago

          When something is as old and venerated and reproduced as a Shakespeare classic, sometimes its good to take a minute and check under the hood.

          Art that stands the test of 600 years time tends to have survived for a good reason.