Romeo and Juliet: the story

As I was trying to think of ways to engage Shakespeare creatively I decided to write a chapter on a section of play, kind of flesh it out.  I picked Romeo and Juliet as the play I wanted to write about - I know everybody makes fun of Romeo and Juliet because they're so young, but I wanted to give them some real feelings and emotions like I like to imagine they shared.  I set it right after Romeo killed Tybalt and is being forced to flee for his own life.  It's kind of long, but I hope you like it.  I've modernized it a little bit, as there are quotes from Keats (who wasn't alive at the time) and references to chocolate, but I think it gets the emotions I was trying to convey across. – sorry, I know it’s kind of cheesy. 

Dynamics

In one of my earlier posts I was examining an interesting switch of gender traits in Antony and Cleopatra.  Antony, who should be a very masculine, strong hero actually seems more dependent and emotional than Cleopatra.  In the play Cleopatra constantly tries to excuse herself for her 'womanly' flaws, but she acts more rationally and logiacally than Antony most of the time.

Lindsay commented on the blog and suggested I do a follow up looking at this more closely.  We also talked about the different roles women play in Shakespeare's plays in class the other day.  I think it was Cara who was saying how woman's characters were strong and dynamic when Queen Elizabeth was the monarch, but then changed drastically (into weaker, suicidal characters) once King James took the throne.