Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Title: Romeo and Juliet
Author: William Shakespeare
Published: 1595
Pages: 112
Rating: 4/5
Summary: "Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,"

With these first lines, Shakespeare's timeless play of young love and untimely death begins; as in life, it is sometimes comic, sometimes tragic, always poignantly beautiful. While our emotions are moved by the imagery and rhythms of Shakespeare's verse, our minds are delighted by the sharpness of his insights into life, death, and the human condition.

Review: Ever since I was smaller I had heard about Romeo and Juliet but I never really had the desire to read the play. Thanks to my English class I read and let me tell you it was fun reading it in class and hearing what others thought about it.

I think everybody pretty much knows what the play is about. You know, about Romeo and Juliet who can't be together and their families hate each other. Even knowing what was going to happen at the end I found myself wanting to keep reading.

I still think that Juliet could have been a better character but I think the way she acted went along with the time period in which the play was written. Still, it just seemed weird reading about how much she loved Romeo the second after they met. And Romeo was no different. He was supposed to be in love with Rosaline and said he would never stop loving her and the moment he saw Juliet he suddenly loves her.

Even though the play focuses on Romeo and Juliet, I found that I really liked reading about the minor characters. Especially the nurse. They each had their role in the play and their equal on the opposite family. And now I have to talk about the nurse. Some of the things she said were hilarious. Especially the double entendres. It just shows that some things just don't change, even with time.

I still don't get why it's such a famous story but I know I enjoyed reading it. Yes, the love between Romeo and Juliet isn't all that believable but I found that I didn't care. By the time we finished it I could easily understand the language that they talked in. The only think that I complain about is that my teacher made us annotate it into modern English which some fun away from it. But she did show us the 1968 movie version which kind of made up for it. Plus, it was just funny watching it.