The number one dream I have for my life is to become a published writer. Even more than that I would give almost anything to have a book become a number one best seller. Because of this I will occasionally be writing short stories on this blog. Most of them are ideas that are in my head but that I do not see as ever making it to full novel stage. My alternate ending to Romeo and Juliet is one of these short stories.
I have always felt that Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is looked at completely wrong by people today. Everyone looks at this story as an amazing love story, showing young teens experiencing such deep love that they were willing to give their lives for it.
However, I feel that Shakespeare had a very different message in Romeo and Juliet. It is my opinion that Shakespeare was showing the foolishness of many teenage lovers. First evidence of this is Romeo's infatuation with Rosaline at the beginning of the play. He expresses that he is deeply in love with her and would do anything for her. In nothing but a few minutes with Juliet this "love" for Rosaline is completely forsaken before he even knows a thing about Juliet except her appearance and her name. In return Juliet is immediately infatuated with Romeo as well. This does not seem to point towards love but rather a lustful infatuation towards each other.
Later, they are married quickly before their parents can find out and as most people know they end up dead. Each feels that they simply can not live without the other. If Romeo had taken a few moments to reason before drinking his poison then he would have found Juliet waking from her fake death. If Juliet would have taken some time to reason things out she would have realized that she did not even know this boy she was ready to kill herself over.
In my view Shakespeare was not telling a love story but rather doing what he normally did, expressing the foolishness and rashness of human emotion. I think that Shakespeare meant for Romeo and Juliet to be laughed at as two teenagers who wasted their young lives because they thought they were in love when in actuality they knew nothing about love. Ironically, I think that the joke Shakespeare was making is funnier than he intended. If I am right about the meaning of Romeo and Juliet then Shakespeare is probably laughing hysterically in his grave that the foolishness and rashness of human emotion is so intense that no one got his joke. Instead, everyone was so intrigued by the "love" of these two teenagers that they never realized that Romeo and Juliet were an ironic example of teenage stupidity.
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