“Meet the IRL Romeo and Juliet who met via Snapchat Story,” the headline promised. Now, you know I’m going to click on that.
I dare anybody to find a single shred of anything having to do with Romeo and Juliet in that story. It’s pretty much just a standard “missed connection” playing out via Snapchat on some college campus somewhere. No ancient grudge, nothing star crossed, no unhappy ending. We’ve now reduced “Romeo and Juliet” to meaning “Oh, I hope those two get together.”
He hasn’t even been to a party at her house yet. I’m not sure when he’s even planning to kill her cousin, if at all!
I think the only thing we can take away from this story is that kids are making it to UW these days without understanding what Romeo and Juliet is about.
Just a few months ago I took a MOCC course on Shakespeare hosted by the U of Wisconsin. One of the students said, "Oh I love Romeo & Juliet. It's such a nice poem". I wanted to smack her.
She may have been referring to the sonnet: "If I profane with my unworthiest hand…" But if you really wanted to confuse her, you should have said, "Oh, I love Arthur Brooke, too!"