Book 18: The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Book 18: The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Writer: William Shakespeare
Genre: Stage Play/Tragedy
Number of pages: 128
Read This Year: 5281
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: A
Short description/summary of the book: from Amazon.com:
We can more easily decide between Shakespear and any other author, than between him and himself. Shall we quote any more passages to shew his genius or the beauty of Romeo and Juliet? At that rate, we might quote the whole.
My Thoughts: I’m by no means arrogant enough to presume to review William Shakespeare. This would be like reviewing, for instance, lettuce. Just lettuce. Everybody knows what lettuce is, everyone knows what it’s for, and you either like it or you don’t.
So rather than a review, here’s how I’ve been left feeling about Romeo and Juliet, now that I’ve had to tackle it not as a reader or a student or an actor, but as a teacher. If you don’t get Shakespeare, my friends, if you ever feel like you just can’t take it, the best thing you could ever do is teach it to somebody else. I thought I got this play before, but after spending the last two months discussing the work with my 9th grade students, I have a new respect and appreciation for the depths and layers that Shakespeare created. It stands to reason that you have to have a good understanding of something before you can teach it, but there’s really no limit to how much you can learn. After teaching this play to my students, it’s more interesting, intelligent and meaningful to me than it ever was before.