Who Killed Romeo and Juliet?

It was once said that Romeo and Juliet was the greatest love story ever told. In many ways this is true. It is a tale of romance, despair and ultimate undying love. Modern society, however, is undermining this love. No more can Romeo and Juliet stand as a tale of devotion; it is now represented as youthful stupidity. In no way will it ever be appreciated as the amazing art that it is. Modern society has no time for the arts any more, no time for the simple act of watching a play unfold. I blame five characteristics of modern society for the death of Romeo and Juliet: A lack of respect for the arts, modern film and contemporisation of the play, what romance has become in our society and our pace of life. These things have unfairly killed the greatest love story ever told.



In the 18th Century, people lived their lives much slower than we do now. The little things meant so much more to those people. People were content with their lives, happy to move along at the same pace all the time. We do not have this luxury. We have busy streets in cities that stretch as far as the eye can see. We expect promotion, invention and stimulation from all areas of our lives. We cannot accept that anything will remain without improvement for any amount of time. This pace has killed our ability to appreciate Romeo and Juliet. The love which is portrayed between the characters of the play is not something we can comprehend as exceptional in our time. The magic of the play comes from the instant attraction of the two main characters, however in our time this kind of love is considered common in our world. In the time that this play was written, it was shocking and controversial and was not the normal way for a relationship to work. The pace of our lives has given us a perception of love that is shallow and fast paced. The true difference between the love Romeo and Juliet shared, and the love that we share in the current day is the meaning of it. Romeo’s love for Juliet was both instant and true, whereas in the current time it seems we can only choose one, and we therefore struggle to comprehend it.



The pace of life which we experience also affects our appreciation of what makes our lives different. It seems a common complaint of people that their lives are unexceptional and boring. One reason of this is the appreciation of the beauty of the everyday world, like the arts and nature, is being devalued. Romeo and Juliet, as a play is a beautiful piece of art. It is a sensory masterpiece, which invokes both moral and emotional response from the audience. However, things like the arts have become so unappreciated that people don’t give them the time which they deserve. People have claimed that Shakespearian plays, such as Romeo and Juliet, are irrelevant and they struggle to connect with the events on the stage. This is a common view taken by members of society, and it shows people are missing the point of the play in the first place. William Shakespeare wrote the plays as an escape from the world in which the audience lived. When you compare the play with your world, you cannot get the substance which was intended from the play. You are not meant to imagine yourself looking through a character’s eyes, or see yourself in their shoes; the purpose is for you to experience, for a moment, what it is like to be someone else. You are not yourself for that moment, you are not spectating a play; you are emotionally participating in the events on stage. That is the true purpose of art. And art has lost this purpose in our modern society: paintings have become just expensive decorations, instead of impossible moments captured in the eyes of an artist; music has become a way to achieve fame and money, and the essence of story-telling and joy-bringing that existed for hundreds of years is lost, and Romeo and Juliet, the greatest love story ever told has become just a story to be clapped about. Romeo and Juliet has been slaughtered by a lack of care, appreciation and nurturing of the arts in our world, an irreparable, unforgivable loss.



It is because of this lack of appreciation that people decide to try and make it easier for the world to understand the arts. Baz Luhrmann, an Australian director has constructed a new way for the world to view Romeo and Juliet. His movie, of the same name, used a modern setting for the events on screen. With modern weapons, clothing and lifestyles, this made Romeo and Juliet more accessible to the general public. This is a perfect example of the undermining of the core beliefs of the arts. By putting the play in a contemporary setting, it removes a layer of the original context. Art represents the context in which it was made: Rhinoceros, one of Eugène Ionesco’s many plays represents the feeling of oppression in Nazi occupied Germany; The Scream, Edvard Munch’s most famous work shows the feeling of meaningless in the wake of the 20th Century; Claude Monet’s Impressionism Paintings of the environment portray his amazement at the workings of nature. Could we ever take these things out of context? They would lose all meaning: Rhinoceros set in ancient times, The Scream in the computer age, Monet’s paintings in a city environment? It doesn’t make sense to do these things. Why then, would we allow for Shakespeare’s works to have that treatment done to them? In our time, we cannot understand the romantic oppression in the times in which Shakespeare, and therefore Romeo and Juliet, lived. If art is treated properly then it will be kept in the context in which it was written. Just because someone struggles to understand it one way does not mean we can change it. Would a mathematical formula be changed because school children cannot understand it? Or would we give them the tools they need to be able to understand it. Our modern world is killing the context in which the play is set, and therefore killing the play, instead of teaching people how to appreciate and comprehend the true meanings behind the events.



This cannot be entirely blamed on Baz Luhrmann. He is only caving in to the demands which the modern movie industry is making on the way that the cinema should be. Nothing is sacred to this movie industry, ruining perfect scripts, using terrible ones and making things more “accessible” to the public. The current technology, such as 3D and Computer Generated Imagery and Animation, that this industry uses feeds off the “wow factor” of the cinema. Romeo and Juliet was first shown to an audience that was not looking for explosions, and fast paced action. It was to a conservative audience which was prepared only for what the play would offer. As victims of the modern film industry, we will never have the fresh eyes of that audience, untainted by the pathetic clichés which spawned from the play. It is sometimes hard to remember that this play was a controversial, contemporary and shocking thing in its original time. This play almost encouraged children to break away from their parents’ wishes, fall in love with whoever they wanted, do whatever they wanted, and ultimately discussed a topic, suicide, which was taboo anywhere else but the theatre. This play was given reviews that ranged from “bad” to “terrible” because of this content. Shakespeare did not write his plays merely to entertain, but to make at least some kind of message. Our expectations of performance in the modern time have killed the message that plays used to hold. Romeo and Juliet died when the controversy gave way to pure entertainment, which is what defines the current movie industry.



Other creative revolutions have taken place which also numb the effect of Romeo and Juliet. The romance of modern society has become defined by fantasy and unrealistic novels and movies. The main reason for this change is the shift in what people want to see in romance. Readers and viewers no longer want the macabre tragedies which define Shakespeare’s plays. They are looking for sleek, predictable plot lines, with shy beginnings and happy endings. This is no more evident than in the recent smash hit success of the Twilight franchise of books and movies. This kind of Hollywood romance has taken the place of other, possibly more deserving, pieces of literature. Stephanie Meyer, author of the series, has killed Romeo and Juliet by creating a series which overwhelms the market of other romances. What Romeo and Juliet once held, the title of most popular romance, has been taken away by Twilight. It is not only Twilight, however. Generic and weak romance has been around since the dawn of the film age. Romeo and Juliet does not have a recent, contextual version out in available media, such as film or writing. This leaves it at a disadvantage to even the most pathetic modern romances, as these can be advertised and spread through other mediums. For the most part, Romeo and Juliet relies on schoolteachers and curriculum to keep it in circulation. This lack of proper modern representation in society, without the clichés and copies, has led to the death of Romeo and Juliet, and also relates to the disrespect of the arts in our society.



The greatest love story ever told has been brutally, unfairly and swiftly murdered in our society. Romeo and Juliet once represented what it meant to love somebody else. In twenty years, if we continue to treat the play, along with all arts, with the disrespect which we have been for the previous few decades, they may not be around for us to experience. A world without art is a sad, lonely world, especially when all that is needed to sustain the arts is proper education. It is modern society’s responsibility to save Romeo and Juliet and bring it back from the brink of loss. For truly, there never would be a story of more woe, than the loss of Juliet and her Romeo.