Romeo&Juliet - Episode 5 - The Worst Way To End A Story... And Become A Classic! - a podcast by Christy and Garry Shriver

Romeo & Juliet - Episode 5 - One Of The Worst Ways To End A Story And Become A Classic!

 

Hi- I’m Christy Shriver and we’re here to look at works that changed the world and changed us.  We do hope you have enjoyed this series on Romeo and Juliet, and we ask that if you did, please give us 5 star rating. That moves us up on the algorithms- you know those spirits that control the inter-webs. 

 

And I’m Garry Shriver, and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast.Christy, speaking of those algorithms, of course our minds go straight to the pressures of social media and that’s on your mind- but in some way as we finish out Romeo and Juliet- we can see that social pressure has been detrimental since the 1300s, if you are of the mindset that this is a true story.

 

Well, you know I think it is. 

 

Indeed, and although it’s fun to think of Juliet as being real when we think about visiting her house in Verona, as we come to the conclusion today, if we think of her as a real girl struggling with real anxiety and intense pressure, this story gets so much more tragic.  If you remember episode 1 of this series, we discussed how in comedies we can laugh at the protagonists because we’re better than they are, but in tragedies we can grieve for the protagonists because they are better than WE are and don’t deserve what’s coming- here as we finish out this book- these two protagonists have gone from the silly teenage lovebirds we all related to and laughed at (slash rom-com charaters) to these incredibly isolated children who find despair and don’t see a way out when everyone else in the world can EASILY see one (tragic heros).

 

Well, of course you know I agree with that.  Romeo is loveable albeit a little silly in Act 1 as he pines away for Rosaline all the way until he sees Juliet and than immediately falls head over heals for her.  Than of course, you’ve heard me talk admirely about the way Shakespeare has portrayed Juliet from the beginning.  She’s strong, extremely intelligent, very decisive and seems to understand how to understand herself and what she wants with her life.

 

Yes- and what we discussed in episode 2 is that- she may be the only one in Verona that IS all those things.  Verona is a wreck.  The feud is pointless.  The teenagers and young adults are drifting around with nothing to do, the adults are self-involved looking out only for their own advancement- if that, and the prince is weak- basically just succumbing to what the important or cool people want him to do or say.  We ended episode 2 with Romeo under Juliet’s balcony and these two teenagers trying to escape all this by pronouncing true love to one another.  Both teenagers desperate to get away from the chaos of Verona and into a private world of their own making.  Something all teenagers dream about- but those who live in particularly chaotic surroundings can certainly identify with this fantasy.

 

I totally agree with that- again- it’s as lovely fantasy- and youthful and optimistic- dreamy.  And I want to agree with another artist who has gotten inspiration from this play- the popular artist- Taylor Swift.  Now many people know Taylor Swift for her pop music, but she first got her start in Nashville in country music, just up the road from us in Memphis, and one of her first and to be honest it’s still my favorite song of hers, is called Love Story and it’s about Romeo and Juliet. 

 

I love that song too, and if I thought we could play it without getting in copyright trouble, I’d play you a clip from it.  According to her description of how the song came to be, she had a boyfriend at the time that her parents didn’t like, and her experience with this boyfriend reminded her of this great classic.  She identified with the dream of Romeo and Juliet.

 

Yes, although I didn’t know that about the history of the song, but what I did know, is that Taylor Swift tracked with Shakespeare and really understood the character of Juliet probably more than most readers really do. I want to read a section of her song (because that IS allowed according to copyright laws) and because Swift’s interpretation of Juliet’s thinking is spot on…Swift writes

 

Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone
I'll be waiting, all there's left to do is run
You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess
It's a love story, baby, just say, "Yes"
Romeo, save me, they're tryna tell me how to feel
This love is difficult, but it's real
Don't be afraid, we'll make it out of this mess
It's a love storyy, baby, just say, "Yes"
Oh, oh

I got tired of waiting
Wonderin' if you were ever comin' around
My faith in you was fading
When I met you on the outskirts of town, and I said

Romeo, save me, I've been feeling so alone
I keep waiting for you, but you never come
Is this in my head? I don't know what to think
He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring
And said, "Marry me, Juliet
You'll never have to be alone
I love you and that's all I really know
I talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress
It's a love story, baby, just say, "Yes"

 

What are you seeing here that strikes you?

 

Swift really understands that one of Juliet’s major motivating forces is that She’s alone.  And of course, we know from the play- that she’s more alone than Swift really details in the song.  Her parents are forcing her to marry an old man.  Her nurse won’t help her.  She has no one to talk to and She needs help- desperately.  And where we left off last week, I think it was abundantly clear through that final soliloquy before she drinks the poison Friar Lawrence gives her is that she is in a place of despair. She can see absolutely NO way out.  In fact, she is idiating suicide.  As she speaks of drinking the poison, for the SECOND time, we see Juliet lift a daggar and refer to killing herself.

 

What’s nice about the Taylor Swift version is that Swift does give her a way out.  She rides off in a pick up truck with Romeo.

 

I really kind of like that part too.  First of all, it’s very Memphis.  As you recall from episode 3, that’s not how Shakespeare builds our story.  In Act 3 of this play, Tybalt, the only real antagonist in the whole thing, stabs Romeo’s best friend, Mercutio.  Romeo than goes and kills Tybalt in a sword fight, and immediately after has to flee because the Prince had previously stated he was going to execute anyone else involved in the feud (although I doubt anyone believed he would- he hadn’t done anything up to this point to curtail it). 

 

And perhaps true to form, you are correct- he has no plans of executing Romeo.  Romeo is banished to live 20 miles out of town in a place called Mantua- I guess we can think of it as the burbs- he’s been banished to the burbs-

 

A fate worse than death no doubt!!

 

 but right before Romeo heads out, he stops for one steamy scene with Juliet…climbing up that balcony…and heading out at first light- or as they put it at the singing of the larks.

 

Oh yes- the singing of the larks- but he leaves Juliet…which is something I don’t get.  It’s one of those things that the reader looks at with disbelief.  Everyone should be thinking…why doesn’t Juliet run away with him.  That’s what Taylor Swift does!!!!  The story would have been happy.

 

But of course we wouldn’t have a tragedy.  From here on out if anyone sat back and thought through all the endless chances there were to change the narrative- the multiple of possibilities, but again isn’t that also what youth is about?  Isn’t that what’s life about.  And maybe that’s why we like this play.  We all know what it’s like to look back and see the missed opportunities.  Another thing that really catches my attention is the exaggeration of the the problem.  When you’re young, everything feels like the end of the world. Every problem is the worst problem anyone has ever faced.  Everything is possibility-less…or until it isn’t.  You see no end..and then all of a sudden, you catch a break and the world is beautiful again…until the next catastrophe…and on it goes…the younger you are, the more deeply you feel everything.

 

Oh my gosh.  That is so true.  In the first grade, an apple accidentally being left in your desk to rot, can create shame that lasts at least 10 years- that’s a true story by the way.  In Romeo and Juliet the outside observer, safely from 400 years of removed history, can see that being exiled to twenty miles down the road is not worthy of death, but Romeo can’t see that from his perspective. 

 

 Well, we can’t knock that youthful passion.  That’s what’s great about being young, the longer you can hold on to all the passion life has to offer the better. But the downside is, sometimes that passion keeps you from proper problem solving…so instead of spending the night planning…Romeo leaves and Juliet runs to Friar Lawrence…who as a reasonable adult and man of God SHOULD have gone to the Capulets with the truth and advocated for these two teenagers- perhaps protecting them with his priestly authority.  In fact, the case could be made, that again we see Shakespeare suggesting elements of the political world have wrongly transcended over the spiritual- Friar Lawrence should have exerted his influence towards counseling these obviously hurting families- advocating for this noble girl, but instead, maybe because he’s misguided, maybe because he’s scared of the political ramifications of facing down the powerful, maybe he’s just a foolish person, but for whatever reason he doesn’t give any religious or spiritual counsel at this time.  He doesn’t push the pause button.

 

Well, in Verona, as I’ve said, the adults don’t act like adults.  He’s like everyone else and he conceives an insanely complicated plan of misdirection.  Juliet is to take a potion to be put in a cataleptic trance.

 

And let me interject, just in case anyone gets any crazy ideas- this drug is an element of fantasy- there is no such thing.

 

True- and what happens in the play- as we got into last week- is that there is the first sizeable gap of time in the whole play.  36 hours are skipped over…Friar Lawrence gives Juliet the drug, it’s Tuesday morning…on Wednesday night we see Juliet telling her father that she’s okay with marrying Paris…she is to be married the very next morning- and that’s the plan- but again instead of jumping out that balcony and running away in the middle of the night, she drinks the poison and falls into this trance.    At first it seems the plan works.   The parents cry.  They have a funeral.  They take her to the family vault.

 

True- which brings us to Act 5- the final act…and again we are reminded that there really is not a true conflict in this play.  There is no antagonist.  Who’s persecuting these teenagers?  It’s not the prince.  Juliet’s mom swears to kill Romeo, but she’s really not taking any action.  Mr. Capulet is forcing Juliet to marry Paris, but we don’t really even understand why.  Why do we have to act with such haste?  Why is there a sense of panic here?  In some obvious ways, this just doesn’t make sense.  Shakespeare makes the pace to deliberately hectic, every audience member is forced to ask that question? WHY???

 

And yet, and I did bring this up last week because I think Shakespeare introduces this idea in the first sonnet as prologue- haste itself developed into the primary antagonist.  I know I can speak for myself, but it is when I rush that I really mess things up.  Sometimes I don’t even know why I feel compelled to act quickly, but there does seem to be this metaphysical pressure in the universe  from time to time that gets to us sometimes and we can’t resist it.

 

That’s true- we’ve all impulsely shopped for sure.  Yes, we’ve rushed to judgements about people.  I know people that have quit their job, or even worse..fired someone…and all because they were compelled by this impulsive need to rush- a mob mentality in one own’s mind.  The casinos are criminal about it.

 

True, and another problem with being hasty is that you absolutely forget stuff that is important.  You forget to shut the garage door, and the house gets broken into, you forget to look both ways and you run into a parked car in a parking lot, you forget to pick up your assignment and you don’t turn in the work you spent the weekend preparing.  When we hurry, we often overlook the obvious.

 

Or in Friar Lawrence’s case, you forget about the BLACK DEATH that is forcing the town you live into to be in quarantine.

 

Yeah, having now lived with a quarantine, I don’t know how one forgets that.  What can you tell us about this epidemic that seemed to have slipped Friar Lawrence’s mind.

 

Well, in 1347, an “infectious pestilence” as it was called reached Europe.  It was the most frightening epidemic in world history up to that point, and honestly, much much scarier than Covid=19.  It killed 25 million people in Europe within a space of three years, and quarantine was the ONLY thing people knew to do to keep it from spreading- it was literally nicknamed- the Black Death. 

 

So, giving a message to a Friar who was going to visit the sick on his way out of town was a misguided plan?

 

Obviously we don’t know the protocols of 14th century Italy, but we do know that the “searchers” or health officials wouldn’t let Friar John leave town after having been exposed to the Black death. 

 

And such we have the literally century old debate as to whether Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy of character or a tragedy of fate?  Is it because of a flaw in character that bad things happen or is it just bad luck?  And of course, we wonder about that in our own lives as well.  To what do I owe my bad situation- who’s fault is it?  Is it the stars?

 

Obviously, I would think in my life it’s obviously the stars..,okay, more likely poor choices. 

 

Maybe- although what we see in this place is not a pervasiveness of malevolence or real true stupidity.  No one is just totally evil.  No one is horribly stupid.  But as we look at Act 5, I think there is fault to spread around to everyone.  We start with Romeo opening Act 5 with more irony and foreshadowing-

 

Act 5 scene 1, lines 1-10.

 

He’s happy, but strangely we see this mixture of imagery between death and love- he’s dead, he’s being kissed, he’s being revived. 

 

To which his servant Balthazar brings him the bad news that Juliet has died. 

 

True and again we see a great theme emerge through this exchange with Balthasar- Romeo decides he has to leave right this minute to do something that the audience is going to find out just as soon as Balthasar leaves to be totally destructive-  but on his way out- Balthasar says this, “I do beseech you, sir, have patience, your looks are pale and wild, and do import some misadventure.”  In other words…slow down!!!!

 

But of course, Romeo doesn’t want to have patience.  He doesn’t want to think slowly- instead he screams out- “I defy you stars!!!- this of course is the language of the prologue- defying the tragedy of fate- in fact blaming fate.  But Mercutio told him in Act 1- not to believe dreams. Mercutio has warned him “dreamers often lie”

 

There is nothing but irony here for the reader.  We know Juliet is NOT dead.  There is a verse in the Bible that says, “They have eyes but see not!”.  It’s an interesting expression that is worthy of thought.  How can you possibly have eyes and not see.  But Good Lord, the older I have gotten, the more I have understood that to be true.  This is a tangent, but it reminds me of when I moved to Japan after graduating from college. I had taken a job teaching English, my husband at the time and I had moved to Shizuoka, and when I got there, I remember thinking. Wow- this place is just like the US.  They had malls, McDonalds, cars, lots of things I understood. However, after a year in the culture, I began to realize, I didn’t know a thing about Japan.  I had been looking with my eyes, I hadn’t been seeing. 

 

 Exactly- it is a caution to be careful about interpreting what you see- knowing how to correctly interpret what you see is something we should all be aware of, but often don’t pay attention to.  And in Act 5- it seems NO one correctly interprets what they see.

 

This idea has actually been alluded to Act 1 when the Capulet servant comes up to Romeo the night before the party with the invitation list and asks if he can read the letters because he cannot interpret what he sees and he literally asks Romeo, “Can you read anything you see?”  What we see from here on out- is that Romeo cannot…in fact no one can…and perhaps that is the very definition of fate…are we able to correctly interpret what we see?    

 

Scene 2 is about Friar Lawrence learning that Friar John has NOT delivered his letter- and so in another strange set of circumstances- he begins to worry- but strangely not about Romeo- only about Juliet.  Juliet will be awake in three hours.  He knows he needs to get her out of the creepy skeleton infested tomb, so he asks Friar John to get a crowbar, but unimaginably he  altogether forgets Romeo…that seems to be a tragedy of character.  How can a guy who has devised such a complex plan, forget a main component of this plan? 

 

True- and that’s not the only twist- we get to Scene 3 and low and behold who shows up in the middle of the night to bizarrely mourn the death of Juliet- none other than the ridiculous Paris- the old geezer who wanted to marry her and whom she hated.  The person who had absolutely ZERO relationship with Juliet.  He decides to come to a tomb in the middle of the night…and of course Romeo just happens to be there- and of course- they have no idea how to interpret this- Paris challenges Romeo- Romeo, to his credit, tries to get out of the fight- but Paris will have none of it

 

For a character so obsessed with love- we do have to hand it to Romeo- he clearly has his fencing skills… and he kills Paris- now he’s  a murderer times two- we as observers don’t judge him for either one- it’s a tragedy of fate!!!  It wasn’t his fault.  There is a lot to explain But, at the end of the day,  if it had been me, I think this would have been something that impacted my state of mind.

 

There’s a bit of literary imagery I want to bring up- here at this point- perhaps reinforcing that point-it’s something I brought up before, but I want to bring it up again.  Remember on the balcony scene, I pointed out the Shakespesare plays around so much with this imagery of light versus darkness.  Everything Romeo and Juliet do is in the dark.  They only meet in the dark, but Romeo calls Juliet the sun.  There is actually a lot of light associated with the couple.  Well, when we get here, Romeo opens the tomb in order to get to Juliet, but also to put down Paris, he looks at Juliet and he delivers these lines- -page 217 lines 84-100- light is a symbolic image of beauty but it’s also a symbolic image of wisdom- this idea of a clear dichotomy between right and wrong but Romeo- he has eyes but cannot see- how can one even see the difference.  Or to paraphrase Capulet’s servant, he cannot read anything he sees. 

 

There is an ambiguity here between right and wrong- good and evil- love and hate- all the things Shakespeare has been playing around with this entire play- and at this moment- He’s looking at person full of life.  He’s actually looking at q beautiful girl minutes from waking up, the love of his life- a girl strong in spirit, his intellectual equal= but ironically all he sees is death.  Let’s read the rest of Romeo’s soliloquy before he drinks the poison and dies.

 

Garry read Romeo’s last lines in Act 3.

 

A tragedy of fate or character? 

 

It’s all so fast.  He finds out she’s dead.  He buys poison.  He kills Paris.  He sees the girl he loves dead, a death that he has not perhaps caused directly but is somehow connected with, she’s his wife.  Life is so fragile.  It was less than a week that Romeo was in a totally other place, and now, he’s facing death for the fifth time- Mercutio, Tybalt, Juliet, Paris…and now his.  This is fate.  None of this was his fault…or is it?  It’s very murky.

 

And there we begin to see Shakespeare, the philosophy, poke out his head.  A play so full of contrasts- the truth is not black and white. There is no clear villain- no one person to blame.

 

This barrage of death is absolutely not any one person’s fault.  No one did this… but there does seem to be a collection of small deviations from conviction.  Small advantages to be gained by being less than true.  Small bursts of rashness. Small compromises of courage.  All by a group, a collective..and putting then all together..fate is created. Is that what fate is?

 

 When Friar Lawrence busts in to see Paris and Romeo dead and watch Juliet awake- his line to Juliet is the worst in the whole play, “Come, I’ll dispose of thee among a sisterhood of holy nuns.”  DISPOSE…that’s his great plan…dispose of Juliet…is it any wonder that Juliet who has talked of killing herself twice already picks up a knife and says those famous lines, “O happy daggar! This is thy sheath. There rust and let me die!”  What is one more ironic twist, is that Romeo’s death is described as quick and painfree= “they drugs are quick.”  There is nothing pain free about stabbing yourself.  It’s gruesome.  Sweet Juliet gets the raw end to the very end.

 

It’s such a strange death sequence.  Their deaths are not sacrifices.  They didn’t die FOR each other- that’s what we normally think of.  Their lives were never even challenged, maybe you can say that Romeo’s was going to be, but it hadn’t happened yet.  It was always the perceived threat. 

 

True- it was the perceived loss of her son that caused Mrs. Montague to die that very night herself back in Verona.  None of this should have happened.  None of this makes sense, and none of this leaves the audience satisfied with the ending.  When the families make peace, we all walk away disguisted. What a strange sensation for an author to create.  To use the old Greek turn of phrase we are filled with pity and terror- if you don’t know the story- you can’t believe what a slaughter you just witnessed and there is not world where the two horrible families making up at the end justifies the sacrifice of these two beautiful people.

 

And therein lies the great mystery?  Of all plays- why does Romeo and Juliet stand out amongst the others?  In some ways it makes zero sense.  It reminds us of the fragility of life; something we don’t need reminding of.  It reminds us of the tyrrany of society, the danger of cowardice, the risks of secrets, the fact that all of us don’t understand what we see and are prone to rash judgements.  But What about any of that makes for good theater?  What is there that compels us to revist, to rewatch Romeo and Juliet?  What made you want to visit Verona?  What compels millions to write letters every year to Juliet?

 

I really don’t know, but I have to admit I do feel it too.  I went there.  I was mesmerized. Maybe I should go back to the numerologidts- maybe it has something to do with that magical number 13 going on 14- as I have said before- William Shakespeare went out of his way to associate that number with Juliet- and I truly believe William Shakespeare loves Juliet- Juliet was two weeks shy of being 14- the sonnet form which has dominated this play is characterized by 14 lines- this play is about love- from beginning to end.  It’s about the strength of love, the dream of love, the limitations of love…the chaos of love…the hope inherent in love…the last lines somewhat hint of this…why is Juliet fascinating?  Why is Romeo, for that matter?

 

At the very end of the play The prince has shown up, the page has given an account of what has happened.  Let’s read these lines.

 

Well, it’s not the cliché love conquers all..that’s for sure. 

 

True nor love is blind, or love will set you free, love springs eternal or even “you had me at hello.”  Let’s read the very last lines of the play..

 

“A glooming peace this morning with it brings…to the end

 

Never was there a story of more woe…and yet it is a love story -Romeo and Juliet is a  story of absolute oppositions- doubles- contrasts- stark contrasts…the only thing I can suggest…is that unlike the clichés we expect in the movies…when we think of our  real lives…I guess real life os more like Romeo and Juliet than it is like Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks.  I guess we relate to every bit of that.  Very few of us live out the clichés.  I know that’s not my reality.  My reality has been in the oppositions- the oxymorons- the small mistakes, misdirections, selfish deviations that made fate accidental..arbitrary.. life as a love story- is a story of fate, of tragedy- and if we’re lucky perhaps it’s comedy- that’s what we shoot for.…life as love story…I still like Taylor Swift’s ending better.

 

As a way to conclude our Romeo and Juliet series, I wanted to finish by reading my favorite Shakespearean sonnet.  Perhaps Shakespeare’s most famous- I could spend an entire episode on it, but I won’t…I’ll just point out that it’s in iambic pentameter- it follows the rhyme sequence abab cdcd efef gg…it’s a nice definition of true love- what it is not, perhaps what it is,  I don’t interrupt you when you read it because it is pretty to hear..i do want to let everyone just enjoy the words…Shakespeare is talking about love being about intellectual compatibility ( a nice ideaz)- it talks bout not admitting impediments (in other words, the impediments are there, but not admitting them in)- it’s about not changing the other person…but settling in and loving over time.  It uses some of the same imagery of love as a star like we see in Romeo and Juliet- a guide, a light, but also maybe far away.  It’s abstract and hard to understand.  It connects with the beauty of youth- with rosy lips and cheeks.  It’s sweet and endearing…is it the real definition of eros….well, that’s for you to decide….much love to you all!!!

 

…Garry read for us Shakespearean Sonnet 116.

 

 

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove.

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wand'ring bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me prov'd,

I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.

 

And on that inspirational prayer for find love, may you have a great week!!!  This week we want to give a special shout- out to our good podcast friend Travis James from the podcast Currently on.  Travis is a veteran podcasts who helped us set up a podpage.  His podcast currently speaks to current music and other events of culture importance.  Thanks Travis for being a great member of the podcast community.  Check out podpages and check out Travis’ podcast.

 

Peace out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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