* This is my opinion; you can feel free to disagree or agree with me but I personally didn’t like the book. Again, this is just my opinion, not me bashing Romeo & Juliet.*

Almost everybody was assigned to read the well-known play written by William Shakespeare in English at some point in high school, and as a freshman, I saw it coming. First, it was preparing to write an argumentative essay, then reading The Odyssey in our Greek mythology unit, and now reading a sappy lovey-dovey story about two children falling in love, and then killing themselves in the end. I honestly didn’t like the story, not one bit,  and it’s not because I don’t like romance in general, it’s just that I found and read a lot of things that I didn’t like in the book. So, this is my opinion on Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.

Too much talking

I know that plays are supposed to have talking and all, but I got really creeped out when the characters started talking to themselves. I know that the monologue and the aside are the most important parts of the play because they give us access to the characters thoughts, but I still think there was a little too much of that in a play. It could have confused people (me) and make them think that the character is unstable or insane since they talk to themselves.

* This was not an insult to people who talk to themselves*

Didn’t make sense

For me, half the play didn’t make sense. I mean, I know that the play takes place in Verona, Italy during the Renaissance around the 14th or 15th centuries, but they could have at least translated it a little better, or at least to the point where people like me understand.

Too sappy

I said this before and I’ll say it again, it is too sappy and lovey-dovey! I mean they’re children, literal children who are both willing to throw their life away just for some attractive stranger that they met not even a day ago, and I know the whole story is based on love, but Shakespeare could have toned it down a little. A 13 year-old and an adult got married in a church not even 24 hours after they met! They know nothing about each other, other than the fact that their families hate each other’s guts! They were both infatuated with each other to the point where a FRIAR helped a teenage girl fake her death but forgot to tell her “Husband” about, which leads to the “husband” finding out and deciding to buy a bottle of the strongest poison in which the shopkeeper selling it doesn’t even stop him from buying! To add on, the husband goes back to the city in which he was banished from just so he can visit his so-called “dead” wife’s tomb, just so he can drink the poison and die next to her! And hats off to Shakespeare for making this so dramatic to the point in which readers will be put on the edge of their seats just waiting to find out what happens next even though everyone knows that they both end up dying in the end. But for me I feel like all of that could have been avoided if Benvolio and Romeo hadn’t bumped into that servant from the Capulet’s house who needed help reading the names on the list for the feast. If they hadn’t bumped into that servant Romeo would have never met Juliet and they wouldn’t have died, and Romeo would go back to being depressed about Rosaline just like how it was in the beginning.

Many people to blame

OK, so I have a lot of people that I blame in the book for certain things. First, starting with Tybalt Capulet who just couldn’t control his temper and just had to fight with someone every five minutes. I blame Tybalt for the reason on why dear innocent Mercutio is dead (which I was really upset about). Second, I believe that Friar Lawrence is to blame for everything that happened in the end. Like he was a Friar, and he is well aware that it was a sin to give a child “poison” that will make her seem dead just so that she won’t get married to some man who is weirdly obsessed with their family. If Juliet didn’t want to get married, she could have just talked to her mother or the nurse and tell them that she didn’t want to get married to this guy. Third, I blame both families… mainly the parents of both families because they just decided that they didn’t like each other for absolutely no reason. No one knows why the families are fighting, like are they trying to one up each other see who could be the wealthiest family in Verona, or do they just randomly have a deep hatred for each other for no reason. Honestly, it’s kind of confusing.

There are multiple other things that I disliked about the book, but overall, I have nothing against it. I am not a professional writer so its not my place to full on judge the book, but this is simply my opinion. No offense to anyone who felt judge on the part about the characters talking to themselves.