The Books I Have Taught series is a personal reflection on the books I have taught in my classes. Their experiences often reveal interesting truths, not about the themes necessarily, but more about the outcomes and interactions I had with my students and the various paths it led me down. I hope you enjoy my reflection on the books that I have taught.
Today I will talk about the second play that I have taught as a teacher, the other Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet. If you would like an explanation for why I am including a play in a series titled The Books I Have Taught, then check out the previous post that I did for Macbeth. I was told at university that Romeo and Juliet is often regarded as some of Shakespeare’s poorest work by critics, but it was and is one of his most beloved works by the general audience. The reason, my tutorial teacher explained, was the theme of love, a timeless experience that attracts all audiences. While this is more than likely true, I would say that it was the love that drew the most questions from my students. The first being the age of Juliet and the second being how did they fall in love? From their eyes, they saw each other, and they declared their love and they could not comprehend that. Perhaps they are right or perhaps they are school children who have not experienced looking into the eyes of the one you love, like I do every morning when I awake next to my wife. The play makes me reflect on my own attempts at creating romantic plots. I have had romantic plots in the background of my other stories, The Diary of Vanessa Rocoso and Tawny and Cree both contain these elements. Another of my work that I am actively trying to publish also has it and I have even experimented with it more prominently in A Love Competition Season 12. In all of these cases, I never made romance the centre, even if there were times when it became the main focus. I, however, have written a romance fantasy anthology novel (if it becomes published, I will let you all know about it) and I reflect on how I did romance. My problem with many romances that I have watched is that the tension of will they date or won’t they is a majority of the plot and I would rather get to the point. That being said, Romeo and Juliet does quite the opposite and raises questions of what do they see in each other. For my own work, I tried to give reason for the romance, but more than a reason, a moment. When my wife was reading my first edit of my romance novel she asked for more time of the two protagonists together, she wanted to see them interacting. I did add more scenes, and I think this is part of the reason why my students question why Romeo and Juliet would fall for each other. Time is needed for a relationship to develop. Now, I know that it can be romantic to consider love at first sight and I have even met people who met on a weekend and then decided to get married, happily, mind you, they have two adult children who are both married themselves. Also, at least for me, I find it more interesting once they are together. There is a romance series I watched called Quintessential Quintuplets and I don’t usually enjoy romance, but I did enjoy this one. Part of the reason was the time, the other was each character had enough depth and was interesting enough that I cared about them. To stay on point, there was this moment where one character confesses her love for the protagonist and this move forces the other girls to consider what they will do. Will they confess or will they leave it be to not ruin the other girl’s chances? That is compelling from a narrative view because it forces action, and it is something that I tried to emulate in my own work. I wanted my romance to have a sense of urgency or at least a forcing of the hand where the characters must act or else lose that which they desire. When my romance novel is published and whatever that looks like, I do hope that you would all read it and help me reflect if I have achieved what I set out to. Regarding the play that I was discussing, I would teach Romeo and Juliet again if I had to, there are other plays I would prefer, like As You Like It (my personal favourite) or Hamlet, but it is a solid teaching experience and it is a simple theme that even a class of year 9/10 students can relate to.
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