This book was written by W. Shakespeare in the 16th century. ‘R. & J.’ is an extraordinary example of a classical love story. Gallons of tears were shed over these pages by innocent young ladies and made their boy-friends giggle a great deal.
The scene is laid in independent Verona (a NATO member now). Two heirs to two unfriendly families (vendetta, sir...) all of a sudden fell in love with each other. Hard as they tried, the only way out was to die. Juliet’s cousin Mercutio wasn’t a nice chap (jay-walking, chain-smoking, attempted polygamy etc.), that’s why he was the first to die. So Romeo, who accidentally killed him, had to flee the city. The next guy Paris, representing the whole French nation, was after Juliet till her premature death, hoping in vain to inherit her fortune. The poor girl, in order to avoid Paris’s courtesy, swallowed a pint of medicine (better known as ‘Smirnoff’) and was fast asleep for some days.
Everybody including Romeo thought her dead. ‘See you’ murmured the future rookie killing himself with a huge dagger. Having awakened from her intoxicated sleep, Juliet found the corpse of her lover-boy. Nothing doing, she kissed good-bye to this cruel world in the same way. Why did they have to die? For love!
That was a good lesson for the two families, since then they have been kissing each other fore and aft.
And who could remain untouched by this collision? The whole book seems so realistic, that even butchers would sob like little kids, wouldn’t they?
I was greatly impressed by this story of unpredictable destiny of mediaeval Italian teenagers. The generation gap is a serious problem nowadays. Problems touched by Shakespeare can’t be lessened and are still burning (don’t die of ignorance). We must be very careful and considerate with our nearest and dearest and always clean our teeth in the morning.