Romeo and Juliet is not a love story. It's a 3-day relationship between a 13-year-old and a 17-year-old that cause 6 deaths.

It’s a story about love, but not a romantic love story like it is commonly considered. Shakespeare meant to lampoon the dumbness of obsession and young love while also making scathing criticisms of family/blood feuds. Romeo and Juliet is commonly considered romantic despite the irony of that.

Also, to get a bit more into it, I personally don’t think Romeo or Juliet were actually in love. Juliet is 13, and Romeo is a 17 year old horndog who only meets Juliet by accident while trying to hook up with her cousin. They screw and know each other for like 3 days. They are not in love, at all, nor do they even know what it means to be in love. Only because of their families’ dumbass feuding are they thrust together like they are, and only because of that feud do things get out of control and end with their deaths. They were star crossed lovers because they were both idiots and part of idiot families. So yeah I think saying “it’s a love story” is reductive and almost completely misses the point.

/r/Showerthoughts Thread Parent