Romeo and Juliet: The Immortals?

Everyone knows the story of Romeo and Juliet: two ‘star-crossed’ lovers from feuding families who die in the name of love. But this story was written over four centuries ago, by a man who has been dead for an equally long amount of time. So why on Earth is Romeo and Juliet still performed and taught in schools?

One reason is because of the man who wrote it: William Shakespeare. Widely considered as one of the best writers in history, if not the best, he single handedly influenced the English language, coining 2,000 new words including: critical, leapfrog, monumental, majestic, obscene, countless, submerged, vast, assassination, courtship, eyeballs, excellent, hint, hurry, lonely, summit, gloomy, and hundreds of other terms still commonly used today. He also introduced countless phrases we use today, such as: vanish into thin air, one fell swoop, laughing stock, star-crossed lovers, love is blind, and many other phrases.

He liked to play around with the seemingly liberal rules and conventions of the English language during the time he was alive, and as a result wrote some of the best literature anyone can find. He liked to play with puns and dynamics of plays, an example being Romeo and Mercutio’s witty exchange in Act 4, scene 5, where they try to outwit each other with funnier and cleverer puns, or in the humorous exchange of wits between Mercutio and Tybalt which led to intense fighting and the death of the two characters.

Another reason is the underlying universal themes. One that comes to mind instantly is love. “Of course this will be about love,” you may think, “what else is Romeo and Juliet about?”. It does seem obvious, since the play revolves around two central characters who are trying, and ultimately failing, to make their relationship work, and dies because of it. The love between Romeo and Juliet is so passionate, it supersedes the hatred of their opposing families, and makes them ashamed that they were born into their respective families, as proven in Act 2, scene 2, when Romeo is willing to give up his last name to run away with Juliet.

But another theme, often underlooked by some, is rebellion. Throughout the play, Juliet defies the rigid patriarchal system of the Capulet family by refusing to marry Paris, instead planning to run away with Romeo of the opposing Montagues. Much of the play involves the struggle of the lovers as they combat the societal institutions that are opposed to their love in one way or another. Their love for night, with its darkness and privacy, and the renunciation of their identities, make sense in the context of a couple who wish to love each other in a world that blatantly rejects them. Ultimately, their suicide is the utmost rebellious act, because it is un-Christian, and it can be understood as the ultimate night, the ultimate privacy, since night unavoidably turns to day.

But surely after all those centuries, Romeo and Juliet must’ve evolved and adapted as the society around it evolves too. And it has. Take West Side Story as an example (yes, both the play and the movie).

West Side Story, the brainchild of Jerome Robbins, was heavily inspired by Romeo and Juliet. There are two opposing factions, but this time they are gangs: the white “Jets” and the Puerto Rican “Sharks”. Their Verona is western Manhattan, and Tony from the Jets falls in love with Maria, the younger brother of Bernardo, who runs the Sharks. They fall in love when the two gangs meet in a dance to compete for control over the neighborhood. The gangs, however, keep feuding, resulting in a fight and a confrontation in which Tony dies in Maria’s arms, which ends the feud once and for all as both gangs carrying Tony’s body in a funeral procession.

From the brief summary of the plot above, it is clear that this is a “Romeo and Juliet” story, adapted to fit the culture of mid-50’s America, the period of time in which the play was written and set in. Instead of feuding families, however, there are gangs of opposing racial backgrounds, highlighting the problems of the time. Instead of princes, there were police officers. Instead of swords and knives, guns were used. These trivial differences, however, do nothing to change the fact that West Side Story share essentially the same ideas and themes of Romeo and Juliet, one of undying love in the face of hatred.

There are plenty of movies and performances made nowadays that do not alter the original play in any form. There are also plays and movies that alter Romeo and Juliet, yet retain the original premise in one way or another (there’s even an adaptation where everyone are essentially lawn gnomes). Romeo and Juliet may have died in the play, but in the realm of literature and drama, it seems that they are essentially ‘immortal’.