Romeo and Juliet - A Great Love Story? :: Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet has been known as the best love story to hit the face of the earth. It is the most known and most talked about Shakespeare play and has become the ultimate classic love story. But is it even all that great? No, I do not think Romeo and Juliet is all that great of a love story. I think that the public who were exposed to the play at the time, which was around the 1600's, had not seen too many other tragic love stories, so they of course loved it. Everybody loves new and original things. So I think that Romeo and Juliet was just a big "fad" of that time. Everybody went all bazerk about the play and it just carried on. Pretty soon, all the grand children and great grandchildren (of the people who first saw the play) were told about how great of a love story Romeo and Juliet was. And it was all ready instilled in the publics mind that this was a great play even before they saw or read it. And the same has happened in our time. When somebody talks about Romeo and Juliet, everybody immediately thinks that it is the greatest book and that it is the best love story. But I do not think so. Over the past years, many love stories (movies) have came out that I think are better love stories than Romeo and Juliet. If these stories would have came out 400 years ago, then they would probably be just as well known and publicized as Romeo and juliet is today. Also, I do not like the play because it does not correspond well with current times and current ways of love and culture. That may be the reason so many people like it, because it is a classic, but it is one of the reasons why I do not. There are also some parts of the play that I do not like, Such as the idea of pretending to be dead, and being put in a coffin. There is no possible way a person can pretend to be dead. You still have to breathe, and the people that are crying over you would have to have noticed you breathing.