‘Romeo and Juliet’, although a work which shows that it is a product of era whose language and world views have long passed by, still communicates a meaningful story of youthful love shaken by conflict, says John Whenlyn. William Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is generally renowned as the greatest love story of all time. Although it is still regarded highly in the literary world, is it still relevant in today’s society? After all, many of us tend to read ‘Romeo and Juliet’ as the quintessential story of love upon first sight. It serves as the single unifying concept within the narrative structure, which is quite an absurd thing to say about a play that features one offstage sex scene and seven onstage fatalities. And the fact that we consider …show more content…
Sure, their love may be intense and intuitive, but the façade of “true love” starts to crumble very quickly once the reader learns that the triumph of their love is highly unlikely. When your “only love” springs from your “only hate”, it clearly shows how delusional their love actually is. This is shown when Shakespeare attempts to compare their “true love” with that of Nurse (sexual love) or the parents (love based on duty and obligation). Their love seems almost asynchronous to the love of the era in which the text takes place. Even so to this day we seem to dream and subscribe to some illusory idea of “love upon first sight”, an idealistic concept that we so heavily believe in to the point where contemporary romance literature has degraded to cultural detritus. Even Juliet herself doubts their love at one point, deeming it as “too rash, too unadvised, too sudden”. Despite the flaws of their love, Juliet later regards it to be “as boundless as the sea”. Their love, although it may be deemed as flawed, still can be regarded as love. Love knows no bounds, and as such is infinite is both meaning and complexity. We, the audience, choose to forgive them for their shortcomings due to the purity and authenticity of their