Roses. Hearts. Love letters. Romance, a genre that’s loved by many and hated by few. This genre goes back to 2000 BCE, and has been around since. One of the most popular “romance” plays is Romeo and Juliet by Willam Shakespeare.

 You’ve heard of it, your mother’s heard of it, and even your great great uncle’s heard of it. The story of a thirteen year old girl, and sixteen year old boy killing themselves within hours of knowing one another. How romantic. 

Everyone considers Romeo and Juliet to be a tragedy, but why romance? Could it be the fact they knew each other for less than 24 hours? Could it be Romeo having more chemistry with his friends than with Juliet? Or maybe it’s Romeo’s weird idolization of Juliet? Whatever it is is beyond me. 

Romeo and Juliet first meet each other at a party at the Capulet’s house. Romeo is heartbroken since the woman he loves (Rosaline) has sworn off love and chose to live a life of chastity. As soon as Romeo sees Juliet he confesses his love to her and they kiss twice. As soon as the sun rises the next day he rushes to Friar Lawrence to marry him and Juliet in secret. Even though they will be going against their families they are still doing it, in Juliet’s words “Deny thy father and refuse thy name, or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I’ll no longer be a Capulet,” 

So far they’ve known each other for less than a day, kissed twice at first sight, and now they’re getting married. This is just like the movie Frozen, Anna and Hans meet and get engaged the same night and he turns out to be a power hungry psychopath. In the words of my mother “If you ever married a guy you just met I would probably have a heart attack.”

Mercutio, who Romeo has known for so long and loves like a brother, is then killed. Romeo avenges him and kills Tybalt (Juliet’s cousin). The prince then banishes Romeo, and Juliet is then set to marry Paris in three days. So Juliet goes to Friar Lawrence and he gives her a vial of liquid that will put her in a dead like state for forty-two hours. Then Romeo will take her out of town with him. So she takes the vial home and they move her wedding to Paris to the next day. 

So they make this elaborate plan but the messenger that’s supposed to tell Romeo about it doesn’t want to get sick because there is a plague in Romeo’s town. He never gets the news. As such, Romeo goes and buys poison. He goes to Juilets tomb and there Paris is placing flowers, they fight and Paris dies. Romeo then gets in Juliet’s tomb and takes the poison. Juliet wakes and sees Romeo’s dead body on top of her and takes Romeo’s dagger and ends her own life. 

Wow, what a rollercoaster of emotions. Now I’m not saying that there’s no romance, I do believe that Romeo and Juliet liked each other. But I do not believe they loved each other. Romeo was heartbroken over Rosaline and saw a young, beautiful, girl and was like “sick a rebound!” While Juliet was willing to do anything to not marry Paris, she jumped at the chance to be with Romeo when he started to flirt with her. 

So is there romance in the play? Yes. Is it written well? Also yes. But it should not be considered a romance. It’s a tragedy about two teenagers caught up in their hormones. It’s scientifically proven by multiple studies that it takes multiple months for both genders to fall in love. So tragedy? Yes. Fantasy? Also yes, but not romance. 

Romance, or love, is knowing the other person’s worst days and still loving them. Romance is when you know a person’s coffee order by heart, and their grandma’s name. So two teenagers that knew nothing about each other and only knew each other for one day before getting married is not love, it’s just crazy.