Thou hast comforted me marvelous much...

[darkfirehair]

While watching Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet for class this afternoon, I fully realized the hole in the plot that has always bothered me. After Romeo has been banished and Juliet refuses to go through with the marriage to Paris, her father loses his temper and tells her, "Either marry Paris or I'll disown you" (or something to that effect in

Comments

[professor_shoe]

I've been arguing that we think too hard about Shakespeare for years. WHERE WERE YOU?! ;) J/K. But, seriously, it was some pretty popular shit back then, and you have to examine the fact that popular shit is never really all that cohesive. And if it's what's paying the bills, well I guess the holes don't matter so long as the audiences keep attending. Maybe you'll have a zinger every now and then, but the rest is lackluster and appeals to the teen angst of the ages (lets face it-- aside from the age it sets in, puberty's been pretty status-quo since our amoebic stew). Think of Rogers and Hammerstein-- I mean, every musical they wrote was BASICALLY the same, down to the dream ballet sequence, and there were a couple good ones, but the rest were pretty campy. Still, show me someone who hasn't at least HEARD of "I Enjoy Being A Girl" and I'll be reformed. He was like the 16th century John Grisham of the stage. Goodness, that doesn't bode well at all, does it?

[professor_shoe]

PS: None of this is to poo-poo on getting a masters in this field. Just so you know ;) I just realized it may come across as that, and it's not. It's just my conspiracy theory. Also, aliens run the brain of Alan Greenspan.

[midoriliem]

*Raises hand*...also, I'm pretty sure the concept of domestic violence never occurred to Shakespeare.

Katie weighs in.

[theirishscottie]

I went to an Agnes Scott Alumnae event tonight and there was a lady talking about a book she wrote called "Shakespeare's Friends". Naturally, I thought of you since I very rarely think of Shakespeare on my own. Apparently, friendship meant a lot to the bard with the beard so I suppose we can forgive some plotium holius since he wasn't such a bad guy...

Also, aliens do not run Alan Greenspan's brain! We all know that they merely have the power to focus his crazy scientist glasses so that he only sees what they want him to see. It's a matter of input, not output.

[frostflake]

That's always bothered me, too, but I figure she was fourteen and crazy and had been socialised into believing that family is everything. Also, even if she was disowned by her father, there's no guarantee the Montagues would accept her and say, "Oh, sweet! Disowned Capulet girl! What used to bother us about you was your legal status, but now that you've had that fixed, welcome to the family."

Yeah, I feel particularly icky for having read Nietzsche and Hobbes. I have the feeling if they knew how many people have read their leavings, they'd just say, "Booyah! In your face University of Dusseldorf! Who's not worth publishing now?!" Or, you know, something like that. But then I just think the same thing I think about the writers of the Bible: they were dehydrated, diseased, and had never heard of Minesweeper. What the frack did they know?

[clodia_risa]

Maybe it makes sense if you think about Juliet as a 13 year old girl. I don't think a single logical thought crossed my mind at that age, and I wasn't even in a drama-licious family in love with my drama-licious boyfriend.

But you're right - it would make more sense just to run away, especially since it's not like they could post your face in every Walmart.