Two things I'd change in how people think about Romeo & Juliet...

ROMEO & JULIET: If I could change just two things about how most people think about the play (and how it is sometimes taught) what would they be?

1. IT'S NOT MERELY ABOUT YOUNG LOVE, but also about how little chance young love has when families are stuck in old grievances.
2. JUST BECAUSE IT'S SET IN VERONA DOESN'T MEAN IT'S ABOUT VERONA. Shakespeare often used far-off settings to talk about things in his own England that were prohibited or difficult to address directly.
- Shakespeare's England was torn by religious feuding between Catholics and Protestants (& other factions).
- Shakespeare's family is believed by some to have had strong Catholic sympathies, but not many years after he wrote the play, his daughter Suzanna married a Puritan, John Hall, perhaps bridging a denominational divide.
- When early audiences heard "Capulet & Montague," the syllables may have prompted more than a few to think: "Catholic & Protestant."
- In the context of the play, the friar who marries Romeo and Juliet hopes that their marriage might mend the feud between the families. They are all Christians in the Verona of the play's setting, probably all Catholics, and yet although their Christianity preaches against revenge and in favor of love of enemies and reconciliation, the Christians of these two families are failing to live up to their religion's ideals inasmuch as they sometimes pursue revenge.
- Protestants, Catholics, Puritans, and other Christian factions also failed to live up to their religious ideals in similar ways when they failed to love enemies and sought revenge and violence instead of reconciliation.
- The play's friar wants the couple to be agents of change, but relationship between the young lovers is not able to bear the full burden of the friar's hope.

The play does not address religious feuds directly, but does address the hypocrisy and destructive consequences of feuds in clever ways. It may be less about passionate, vengeance-prone Italians in fair Verona than about factions in Shakespeare's own England, as well as universally applicable to issues of love and revenge.


SHAKESPEARE'S GLOBE is allowing the public to watch a recording of its 2009 production of Romeo and Juliet for free until 3 May, 2020. They are offering free viewings of past productions during the COVID-19 crisis, knowing many people are at home and seeking meaningful activities.

For more information from Shakespeare's Globe regarding this production, click here. This web page includes links to a video trailer, a pre-show talk, and more.

To view the play on YouTube, click here.

For more information on other shows yet to come, also free, click here.

Consider donating! Theaters like Shakespeare's Globe depend not only on selling many tickets, but also on donations. Given that they are not able to have public performances at this time, they depend even more on donations than before. And if you watch and enjoy the free performances as a kind of gift Shakespeare's Globe gives to the world, consider responding in kind with your own gift, whatever you can afford. To donate to Shakespeare's Globe, click here.

And besides donating to Shakespeare's Globe, consider supporting theater and arts programs near you. I live in Northfield, Minnesota, USA, not far south of the Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul, which has many venues for live theater, including The Guthrie Theater (where family and friends had tickets for a performance of  Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, which was canceled due to COVID-19).

For those who are able: Consider donating to help theaters and arts organizations survive.

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Please support Shakespeare's Globe and your local theaters and arts organizations if you can, either with monetary contributions, or by viewing and sharing news of these and other productions on social media and by word of mouth to promote their visibility and future.

Disclaimer: By sometimes noting bible passages in this blog, I do not intend to promote any religion over any other, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to point out how the Bible may have influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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My current project is a book tentatively titled Hamlet’s Bible, about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet.

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https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html

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