Public reader discussion about Romeo and Juliet in the WeRead Catalog by William Shakespeare.
By Hidden_Wolf
I’m looking for romance books that have that forbidden love vibe—doesn’t have to be enemies to lovers, but something like Romeo and Juliet would be perfect. I’ve had a lot of anxiety lately and a good romance recommendation would genuinely help. Thanks in advance!
By ivory-lynx67
I keep thinking that famous line could be hinting at Romeo and Juliet, since that play came first. There are a lot of overlaps between the two, like the themes, the trickery, and the tragic stuff. Still, I’m not totally convinced, because I haven’t been able to find anything about it online.
By LynxAnnotation
I don’t think he totally made up most of his characters, but he definitely puts his own spin on them. It feels kind of like how Disney changes stuff in a lot of their movies, or even like sampling in music. Also, there are tons of art and media that are clearly influenced by something else, or they’re built on the same basic archetypes. Like the whole “hero’s journey” thing—it's been used forever, from stories like The Odyssey and Beowulf to basically every superhero movie and Star Wars thing that comes out lately. People borrow, that’s kinda what we’ve always done. And honestly, the whole copyright/IP idea feels pretty new compared to how long humans have been telling stories.
By redPencil3
The visuals were just gorgeous—sets too, and the casting felt spot on. The editing landed exactly how it should, and the performances really hit. Even the soundtrack is used so well that by the time Radiohead’s “Exit Music” comes on during the credits, you’re basically stuck there. It also has these really special moments. The fish tank scene honestly belongs in the “best of film” hall of fame to me, especially that last smile from Claire Danes right before her nurse takes her away—it’s like pure young love in one shot. And then near the end, when that one anguished sound slips out and echoes through the cathedral… yeah, that one tore me up. Overall I think it’s a gorgeous movie and a huge accomplishment for Baz Luhrmann. I’m really glad I saw it in theaters back when it came out. I just watched it again with my 13-year-old after reading the play together, and wow—she was crying hard.
By luckyHammer
Mercutio has always been my favorite part of Romeo and Juliet. I remember reading his lines out loud in English class and just having so much fun with it. And honestly, I’m a woman, and I’m lucky that my husband seems way more like Mercutio than Romeo, so I’m totally good with it. I’ve always thought Mercutio is a lot smarter than Romeo too. It’s funny, because a lot of “comic relief” characters these days are funny mostly because they’re kind of lovable, clumsy idiots, and I don’t really know any real-life versions of that. Most of the time the idiots I run into just end up being annoying instead of lovable. Mercutio feels like a rare exception, though. So, does anyone know of other characters who are like Mercutio? Also, I don’t think we really need to worry about spoilers with this one—Romeo and Juliet’s ending doesn’t feel like a spoiler since everyone knows how it goes anyway.
By SwanReads4197
Our school’s doing a competition where we’re putting on a play version of Romeo & Juliet, and we’ll have to compete against 13 other classes. Right now, we’re mostly talking about how to rebuild the story by adding some comedy stuff, not just keeping it as a straight-up romance. So yeah, I’d really like some help from anyone who knows Shakespeare well or anyone just super creative—like, what would make the story more fun? Any suggestions would honestly be a big help. Also, here’s what we’re thinking so far: instead of the original setup, we’re imagining a “second chance” type timeline where Juliet still has memories from before, and she ends up looking for her Romeo with a guy named Adrian (who’s basically trying to become a filmmaker). The story goes through a bunch of ups and downs with them until they finally find Romeo… but we’re not sure if the feelings are still the same. For the ending idea, Adrian has been secretly filming the whole thing as they go, and in the last scene he suddenly brings Juliet to a cinema right when the movie starts. The title that shows up is “Adrian & Juliet: A twist in Time.” Would you change anything in our plan, or do you have a better idea for certain scenes we could add or swap in?
By Epilogue825
Thanks for sharing your poem here! Just a heads-up—make sure your post is following the poetry posting rules (there’s a checklist). If it doesn’t match up, it might get taken down. If you haven’t already, it’d be nice to hear what pulled you to this poem and what it means to you. I always like when poetry starts a real conversation. Also, quick reminder to everyone commenting: it’s totally fine if someone loves a poem you don’t, or hates one you do. That kind of back-and-forth is healthy as long as people are being respectful and discussing it in good faith. And yeah, I’m an automated thing—if there’s a problem or you’ve got questions, you can reach out to the moderators.
By Reed_Novel
The wiki page alone has like two different theories for where it came from… I’m not sure which is right.
By Pink-Beacon
I just rewatched Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet and I’m so into that immediate chemistry they had. I want something kind of like that, but not just insta-love that turns into everything being about sex. And definitely not the death part at the end. I do like the families-being-enemies thing, but I don’t really want full enemies-to-lovers. More like they actually care about each other and want to run off together. I’m really into books with a lot of emotional intimacy plus plot, and I usually like a medium amount of spice. Historical is my favorite, or futuristic/aliens/barbarians, but I’d be open to contemporary if it really nails everything. Excited to see everyone’s suggestions!
By focus
It really bugs me how, in *Hamlet*, the men around Ophelia keep acting like they know what’s best for her—Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes—and somehow she’s the one who ends up paying for it. She’s clearly not dumb or helpless, but they still try to control her “for her own good,” and it’s not even consistent. Like, Laertes gives her advice that he doesn’t seem to follow himself, and Hamlet straight-up fakes his insanity and then it turns into him being cruel to her. The “get thee to a nunnery” part always feels like it comes off as slut-shaming, which… yeah, not great. And then the worst part is Polonius gets killed by accident, which basically knocks the last stable thing out of her life. After that, it feels like all the guys who were steering her world either disappear or screw her over, and she just completely unravels for real. Her breakdown with the songs and flowers makes it seem like she’s basically watching everything fall apart, and then the suicide feels less like she’s trying to chase death and more like she can’t see any way out anymore. I also keep thinking about the Taylor Swift comparison people are making—like how she’s got a song coming out called “The Fate of Ophelia.” I get the vibe: a woman stuck dealing with powerful men who mess with her life. Obviously it’s way darker for Ophelia, but at least in Taylor’s story she seems like she has way more control over her own choices. Swift even kinda “rewrites” things in other songs too, and I can’t help wondering if this one is going to do something similar, like changing what’s supposed to happen. Anyway, I’m curious what everyone thinks—Ophelia is such a complicated character, but I’m not totally sure how I feel about her yet.
By MuddyHeron68
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By QuietHawk4559
It’s not really a doomed love story about soulmates — it’s more like a big warning about what happens when people let feelings run the whole show. The adults are stuck in this old grudge and it ruins their kids’ chance at being happy, plus it brings all this violence and death into the town because neither side will just let it go. And the weird thing is nobody even names what started it, so it kind of feels like it couldn’t have been that huge in the first place and they’re just clinging to it out of pride. Romeo gets introduced basically whining that he wants to die because Rosaline dumped him, and then he immediately falls for the first pretty girl he sees that same night, which makes him seem like he falls in love way too fast. He feels more into the idea of being in love than into actual people. And unlike some of Shakespeare’s other couples, we barely get anything from Romeo and Juliet as actual individuals outside of “they’re in love.” Romeo, what exactly do you even love about Juliet besides how she looks? Anything? Her humor? Her personality? Her kindness? What makes her so special to you beyond the surface stuff? He never really says. Then Romeo just lets that obsession turn off his brain about what marrying Juliet might cause. You can see it when he runs into Tybalt after the wedding and acts completely stupid about it. He doesn’t think like a normal person, he’s just like: I love Juliet and she loves you, so we’re basically fine now, right? Tybalt, meanwhile, completely gives in to rage and starts the fight with Romeo, which is what gets him killed. Mercutio is mad because he knows all this pointless fighting and death is because these two families are acting like ridiculous drama queens over basically nothing and it never had to go this way, but since Romeo is his dumb friend he jumps in anyway and gets killed trying to stop him from doing something stupid. That’s why he dies sounding like: “Just so we’re clear, your families are toxic and this is all bullshit. Ughhhh…” And honestly, if Romeo had paused for literally one second in the tomb and thought about anything at all — himself, the damage this family feud caused, even the creepy decor in there — instead of just reacting with his emotions, neither of them would have died. Please stop teaching Romeo and Juliet as a romance. Especially to teens. Teens already get pushed around by their emotions and make impulsive choices they regret later, sometimes with really bad consequences. They need to hear it the way it was meant to be taken. Edit: no, I didn’t just now figure this out. I’m frustrated because I work as a librarian with teens and I keep hearing that this is how it’s being taught, and when I was in high school I was taught the same “sad true love” angle. It really annoys me that it’s still being taught that way by at least some teachers. Edit edit: I didn’t add the spoiler tag. No idea why it’s there, but whatever. Edit the 3rd: some people seem to think I’m like obsessed with this or raging about it, but honestly it’s just annoying. I ended up really liking Shakespeare in college, but the way Romeo and Juliet was taught to me in high school made me think I just didn’t like Shakespeare. So I went years without really enjoying his stuff because I thought the problem was the play, not the way it was taught.
By focusDesk
After reading both, I felt like The Death of a Salesman is just as sad, but it also deals with a lot of real modern problems that a lot of kids today could end up dealing with later on. Looking at Willy Loman’s life, we can sort of learn how to be better people and how to handle hardship and failure.
By reedPrologue
I’ve been wondering—when Romeo and Juliet first came out, what kind of reaction did it get? Was it an instant hit, or did it slowly turn into one of those classics? Also, what was Shakespeare like as a person—did people basically chase him down for autographs in the street like we’d do for a celebrity today? And yeah, I know the title’s kinda a joke.
By HarmonyMaple6981
Did anyone else notice the rogue cat in the Shakespeare play? Like… where’s Romeo? It basically jumped onstage and was messing with the actor’s hair right in the middle of that emotional death scene, and I can’t tell if it was hilarious or just ruined the whole moment.
By NeedleRusty5
Romeo and Juliet is probably my favorite Shakespeare book. I know people say it’s kind of a satire, but I still get really into it. I also loved The Great Gatsby—especially the whole thing where Gatsby keeps loving Daisy even though it’s not really returned. Right now I’m reading The Sorrows of Young Werther and I’m enjoying it too. I’m just really drawn to the tragic love stories, and I pretty much always go for classics. What else should I read that’s similar?
By Quill-Humble7
Honestly, I don’t really think Shakespeare’s plays are the “best tragedy stories” like my teacher and those articles said. It kind of feels like they just keep killing people off to make it tragic, and the more deaths there are, the more boring it gets. My old teacher used to talk to the class about Shakespeare, and that’s when I started noticing how often someone dies in these stories. So I wasn’t expecting much after that. It doesn’t really surprise me anymore when another character shows up right after someone got killed.
By cafe-clear
Hi! Does anyone have any book recommendations where two people are secretly dating, but then one (or both) of their parents finds out and doesn’t approve because of religious and/or cultural stuff? I’m looking for something where they really want to stay together and fight for it, even if their family and society don’t think they should. I know it’s kind of a hopeless romantic request 😅 Thanks if you can point me to something! :)
By ProudPocket3
This whole thing got me thinking after I saw someone on imgur say Romeo and Juliet was actually satire, meant to make fun of people who run on emotion. I was reading it for school around then, so I started digging into it and noticed a bunch of stuff that kind of made that idea seem possible. Also, spoiler warning. One thing that stood out was how Romeo and Juliet basically don’t have any real reason for being in love besides “love at first sight.” You’d think Shakespeare wouldn’t write the main couple without giving them more of a real foundation. And the whole story only covers something like four days, if I’m remembering right. So it does seem kind of ridiculous to think two people would kill themselves and leave their families behind for someone they just met a few days earlier. There’s more, but I don’t want to drag this out too much. So yeah, some of it doesn’t really work that well if you’re supposed to take it as a serious romance, which makes me wonder if it was meant as satire instead. That’s just how I read it, but has anyone else thought this too, or is this already a known thing and I’m just way behind?
By chance_letter
I’m not trying to bite your thumb at you—more like I bite it, sir.