like flying

'On the fourth planet out from that star, there's a race of intelligent sea serpents who worship whales as gods. The whales on that planet aren't intelligent, of course, and the serpents know that, but they believe the whales are so enlightened that they don't need to be intelligent. Around that one' – he pointed again – 'there's a frozen world where an old enemy once stranded me. I had to build a fire to keep warm till I could be rescued, and I ended up throwing one of my favourite ties on the fire to keep it going. And around that sun' – he pointed at another star, directly overhead – 'there's an ice-cream shop where they kept me waiting an hour and a half for a chocolate milk shake. Can you believe it!'

SABRINA CARPENTER

cw for suicide talk. I mean. You know how it ends but I’m gonna Go Into it.

Juliet has no friends. No one. I literally think she talks to the nurse, the trees in the courtyard and the Friar in confession. And that’s it. If she had a Celia things would be different. But she doesn’t. She’s alone. And that’s an integral part of the tragedy.

This is a horny play. If she can use the horniest sounding variation of a phrase she will. I mean partly that’s just Shakespeare, but it also speaks to her isolation and sexual curiosity.

Lots of bird talk. Lots of talk about Romeo being her bird. Lots of talk about wanting?? to tie?? him up?? Like you would a little pet bird. Juliet tops is what I’m saying. 

In the modern theatrical conventions, we tend to smoosh the Shakespearean 5-act structure into 2 acts. When you do that, Act 1 is a comedy, where Romeo is the star, and Act 2 is a tragedy, where Juliet is the star. This whole thing is super interesting and I’ll probably make a separate post about this, but basically, a really good production can make you forget you know the ending. I don’t know if we’re there in this production, but that’s the goal!

I think Juliet was suicidal before any of this started. All of act 2 pretty much devolves into people keeping instruments of suicide away from Juliet. Like, the Nurse is all “Shame come to Romeo” until Jule starts looking a little too closely at that rope ladder and then she’s like “ok. ok. I’ll find him.” And the Friar only goes with that wild sleeping draught plan because she is literally holding herself hostage at knife point in his cell. I think - in meeting Romeo - Juliet found a reason to keep going, escape her isolation, and found a kindred soul to boot. which brings me to:

Romeo and Juliet really love each other. This play is NOT an indictment of young, rash love. Shakespeare is kinder than that, and more nuanced. If you take nothing else away from this post take this: Shakespeare was not writing fables. There is NO “moral to the story” in Shakespeare. Ever.  They’re in love because they say they are - both to each other and the audience - and it’s as real as any other given circumstance spoken in the play. It’s as real as “two households both alike in dignity.” Because that’s how Shakespeare works.

I can really only speak to Juliet for this because I’ve been in her words for the last month and a half, but for her it’s an all-consuming love because of her isolation and the darkness in her thoughts. She thought she was the only person in the world who felt the way she felt. Of course she genuinely couldn’t think of a reason to keep going as soon as that was taken from her. She was alone again. She couldn’t trust her nurse anymore, her father threatened to kick her out, she barely knows her mother, and the one person she’d ever met who saw the world like she did - the one person, as far as she knows, in the world - was gone.