Understanding Romeo & Juliet, pt 1A

Understanding Romeo & Juliet, part 1A. You're going to love Romeo and Juliet. The play is almost universally popular, especially with young adults. It's funny, has dirty jokes, swordfights, as well as amazingly beautiful language. It also deals with issues that young people can relate to, like love. If you're a young adult, you think about love and sex somewhere on this continuum from "once in awhile" to "every waking moment." Middle and high schoolers are also trying to figure out what it means to be an adult. Where is the dividing line between being a kid and being an adult, capable of making responsible decisions with lifelong consequences? And on a bigger scale, young people are also asking questions like, "who or what is in control of what happens to me? Am I in control of my destiny? Or is society? Or even some supernatural force, like God or fate?" Big questions. Good questions. But if this is your first Shakespeare, don't rush it. The 400 year old language will seem strange at first, but you'll get the hang of it. Go slow. Pretty soon, you'll figure out that "anon means "soon" and "bade" means commanded" and you'll start to pick up momentum. And, really, most of the words mean the same thing today as they meant back then. In this video, I'm going to assume you've already read Act I, but avoid giving spoilers about the rest of the play. If you haven't read Act I yet, please read it before watching this video. The line numbers I'm using come from this Folger edition paperback. This is the first video in a 7-video series about Romeo and Juliet. Here's a list of the videos and their topics. OK, first, I usually teach a little introductory lesson about Shakespearean theater. I've made another video on that; you might find that helpful or interesting. Act 1. Teenagers are just starting to have their first experiences with physical love. By that, I mean teenagers experiencing physical attraction to someone that goes beyond "just friends." This includes what we'd call "romantic love" as well as good old fashioned lust. That's why I use the word "physical." Now, here's what I don't mean. In this video, when I say "love," I don't mean non-physical love, like between best friends, between parent and child, and love for all humankind. None of those things is what I'm talking about. In this video, when I talk about love, I'm talking about the kinds of love where two people want to kiss each other. Got it? Love is complicated territory. Not everyone defines love the same way. Act I of Romeo and Juliet is a perfect illustration of that. All the main characters in this Act talk about what love means to them. For some, it's one thing, and to others, it's another. Who's right? What character, if any, expresses best what you think true love, or maybe more accurately, real love, is? What is real love and what is just a shadow of the real thing, or maybe even a counterfeit of love? Some people hate and kill in the name of love. Is that really love? The various definitions of love are sometimes contradictory, so they can't all be right. Can they? I believe that's the central question of Act I. What is love, really? To be continued in Part 1B. We're going to talk about what the various characters in Romeo and Juliet in Act I think about this issue.