Romeo Fool

Star-crossed or starry-eyed fool?

I imagine a lot of people feel sorry for Romeo and Juliet, cruel victims of fate and a feud not of their own making. But is that really the case? Why did things turn out so badly for our pair of young lovers? I mean, who did them in at the end? It wasn't the authorities or their families, they did it to themselves.

What is the real story behind Shakespeare's play? Consider Romeo's first entrance. He's plucking flower petals waxing romantic over... not Juliet, but Dianne. Who? She never appears, yet Romeo is ga-ga over her. This is no accident, the Bard introduces him this way to show how fickle and impetuous he was. It is this character flaw that leads to his demise, not the feud or his situation.

Just think about how many foolish, rash, almost self-destructive things Romeo does. On a lark he attends the masquerade he knows he shouldn't be at, going incognito because it will be "jolly good fun." The typical young rebel thumbing his nose at authority. He meets Juliet and... he's instantly gobsmacked. Last we ever hear of his undying love for whats-her-name.

He just can't restrain himself so literally starts climbing the walls, not really to woo her as to be near her. Rather stalker-ish, actually. Despite knowing full well if caught in the enemy family compound he's in for it. Such behavior is, shall we say imprudent at best. Sure, he didn't start the feud between their families, but he knows all about it. He's not ignorant, but impulsive.

What other rash things are then done by this "sensible" young buck, all of 13 years old? Why, he runs off with her and they get secretly married. I can't imagine what future he saw in that. But then, Romeo doesn't seem to plan these things out too well.

What's next? Oh, he rushes in to break up the fight between Tybalt and Mercuchio. The joking banter between the two, before Romeo's "coming to assuage the inter-family rancor", was clearly to show they were not as deadly serious as all that. Still, he dashes in and Mercuchio is skewered and dies. Time to stop and think about what his interference has wrought? Not for Romeo, who then runs after Tybalt and kills him. The guy is never at a loss for rash acts. Tybalt's death adds fuel to the feud flames and Romeo now is wanted by the authorities.

Now, Juliet isn't blameless in all this. She goes along with his misbegotten schemes and is talked into a half-baked plot of her own. She'll fake her own death. Romeo finds her, but isn't wise to the fakery of it all, and kills himself. Impetuous and clueless to the end, this Romeo fellow. Juliet awakens from her "death", sees Romeo has gone to meet his maker and offs herself with a dagger.

Everything that goes wrong finds Romeo at center stage, both literally and figuratively. It's one misstep after the next by this hot-blooded Lothario. Romeo a victim of circumstances? I don't think so. He's a damned fool. Can't say I feel that sorry for him, despite the tragedy of it all. In the end, it's just as Shakespeare says, "The fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves."

If I were directing Romeo and Juliet it'd be a comedy, a farce. Romeo would be a pimple-faced, teen-ager full of himself and Juliet a flake. Tybalt would be killed because he didn't take the sword-wielding 13 year-old Romeo as a serious threat. The soliloquies would be overweening teen-aged angst, ludicrous when spouted by someone clearly out of his depth. But, maybe that's just me.

By the way, to be clear "wherefor" means "why" and not "where." Juliet is asking WHY is he Romeo, not where is he.