Should Romeo And Juliet Still Be Taught In Schools?

Should the story of Romeo and Juliet still be taught in school? Romeo and Juliet is a story about a young girl set to be married to an older man, when she meets Romeo, and they fall in love at first sight. The two decide to get married in secret, and run away together. However, the story ends with both of them killing themselves for the other. Although most people would agree that this story should still be taught in schools, this is the lazy answer. The story of Romeo and Juliet should cease to be taught in schools because of the pedophilia the story promotes and the racism that the popularity of Shakespeare does. The first point to be brought up about this story is the very obvious pedophilia shown throughout the entire story, and this is why in remakes Romeo and Juliets ages are modified to be more similar. The age gap between Romeo and Juliet is already a gap too large, but something else to bring up is the age difference between Juliet and Count Paris. It’s absolutely disgusting when Paris says things like, “Younger than she are happy mothers made.”(Paris 1-2-12) or “Do not deny to him that you love me.”(Paris 4-1-24) to Juliet, where he sounds extremely creepy and just overall demanding. It’s obvious to the reader that Juliet does not want to marry Count Paris in the first place either. When her mother asks her,

However, they need to focus more on their own personal beliefs instead of just what’s easier to prove. There are many things that make this story problematic, honestly, even some of the remakes are controversial. There’s been a lot of talk about West Side Story(2021) being racist and a story about a race war, essentially. But Romeo and Juliet has always been a controversial story, as you’ve read about previously in this