Character, dialogue and interaction: 2/9.
Plot, suspense and climax: 9/9.
Theme, conflict, and impact: 9/9.
World, wonder, and detail: 4/9.
Voice, narration, structure, etc: 6/9.
Reflections on Romeo and Juliet: Disliking the Characters and Obscene Jokes, Admiring the Play’s Perfection
Introduction
Rereading Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet again, I cannot yet immerse myself in the so-called romantic and tragic atmosphere as most people do. I cannot agree with the protagonists’ choices and I never appreciate the play’s frivolous, vulgar, obscene humor. Yet I deeply admire Shakespeare’s storytelling craft. I also come to understand the deeper meaning behind the ending — far beyond romance, it is about fate and redemption. To me, this work is never merely a romantic tragedy. It is a literary classic with an exquisitely constructed plot and profound underlying themes. So, I have to admit that even though I do not favor the characters or agree with their choices, I am deeply impressed by the play’s delicate structure, profound insight into human nature, and its core spirit — one person’s sacrifice bringing peace and salvation to many.
1. Character Impression: Reckless and Irresponsible
Frankly speaking, I have never liked nor approved of Romeo and Juliet as characters.
They are merely teenagers driven by youthful hormones and momentary emotions, acting rashly and losing all rational judgment. They lack the calm restraint of adults and basic life responsibility. They act on impulse alone, ignoring consequences, family bonds, and real circumstances. Their naivety borders on absurdity.
With my personality, I can never empathize with their impulsive, reckless behavior. I even find their decisions foolish and hasty. Besides, the play contains many frivolous, vulgar jokes that never suit my taste. Judging only by the characters and certain scenes, I cannot feel the romance people praise; I only see absurdity and irrationality.
But it therefore can act as an excellent admonition for us to control our rage and impulse as well as to get away from those can’t control theirs.
Romeo’s sad fate rightly conveys the profound lesson of never consorting with people with bad temperaments: Romeo was passionate and kind by nature, thus winning Juliet’s favor easily. So he intended to ease the long-lasting conflict between their two families peacefully by appeasing Juliet’s cousin’s rage through his sweet pleasantries. However, Mercutio, his often consorted, hot-tempered and impulsive friend, then hot-headedly annihilated Romeo’s successful attempt to make peace by abruptly instigating a fight without even considering Romeo’s feelings, just because he could not bear Romeo’s humble attitude, which was utterly absurd!
Ultimately, when Mercutio lost his life because of Tybalt’s evil dead, Romeo’s intervention of stopping them, and Mercutio’s own characteristics, Romeo thus had no choice but to avenge Mercutio, since Mercutio died standing up for Romeo’s honor, even though Romeo himself was reluctant to fight for his own dignity! Influenced by Mercutio’s reckless personality, Romeo was therefore easily driven by anger and impulse at that time. The fierce feeling thus dragged Romeo into endless abysses of fate. Step by step, he was trapped in complicated troubles and could not get free. In the end, he lost his beloved Juliet and ended up with a heartbreaking tragedy. If he had kept away from such impulsive companions and kept calm all the time, this sorrowful ending could have been avoided.
2. The Play’s Craft: Concise, Tightly Structured, No Wasted Elements
Putting aside my dislike for the main characters and certain trivial plots, I cannot help but admire Shakespeare’s masterful writing. The play is nearly flawless in its completeness, conciseness, and structural design.
Every line is refined and foreshadows what comes next, with no redundant writing at all. Every character is sharply defined with clear standpoints and strong personalities within such a short play. No character is wasted. Each one drives the conflict and supports the main plot, and every scene serves the overall storyline.
3. Double Plotline: Family Feud Restrains Forbidden Love
Shakespeare’s most brilliant technique lies in its dual narrative lines throughout the play:
- The grand main line: The long-standing hatred between the Montagues and the Capulets leads to constant street fights and an endless cycle of vengeance.
- The subtle secondary line: Romeo and Juliet’s secret, fragile love, trapped between family identity and deep prejudice.
One grand, one intimate; one worldly, one personal. The two lines intertwine, restrain and advance with each other, weaving together fate, prejudice, love and human nature into a perfectly structured, logically closed whole.
4. The Reversal of Fate: Pushed by Hatred at First, Transforming the World with Love in the End
The logic of the early plot is crystal clear: deep-rooted family prejudice and generational hatred dominate everyone’s destiny and tightly confine their love from the very start.
From the moment they fall in love at the ball, they are bound by inherited family identity and labeled natural enemies by the feud. In the beginning, they are merely pawns pushed forward by the general situation, worldly fate and family resentment, with no right to choose their own path.
Their pure love is forced into hiding, kept secret in meetings and marriage. Juliet’s lament fully expresses the helplessness of being trapped by identity and torn apart by prejudice. Hatred stands like a high wall and an inescapable net, crushing their affection. Later, Romeo’s impulsive killing leads to exile, and Juliet is forced into an arranged marriage by her parents — all are chain disasters triggered by family hatred, pushing the two into despair step by step.
The second half brings a powerful reversal. For a long time, the feud shaped their love and destroyed their fate. In the end, their suppressed love becomes the force that dissolves generational hatred and shakes the entire social order.
5. Beyond Tragedy: Sacrificing Their Lives to Save Countless Others
I never regard this ending as a traditional tragedy.
Objectively and rationally speaking, death is inevitable for all humans, and death itself is not sorrowful. What truly matters is that Romeo and Juliet’s resolute sacrifice becomes a rebellion against fate. With their young lives, they end the meaningless centuries-long fighting between the two Verona families.
Their deaths are never futile; they are a profound compromise and redemption. The long-standing confrontation never stops street violence. Countless young generations are dragged into the feud, dying for no reason, trapped forever in a vicious cycle of hatred.
It is their passing that awakens the stubborn, narrow-minded elders. The Montagues and the Capulets finally realize that hatred maintained for a lifetime can never defeat the opponent — it only destroys their own loved ones.
Their sacrifice ends generations of bloodshed. With their lives, they bring peace to the city and reconciliation to the two families. More importantly, they free future generations from the bondage of the feud, saving countless young people from dying meaningless deaths caused by pointless family prejudice and fighting.
In the beginning, they were swept along helplessly by fate; in the end, they rewrite their destiny and defy what was predetermined. This is not a tragic ending from my perspective, but their great achievement in breaking free from constraints and redeeming countless lives through their own love and sacrifice.