Comments on: Are Verona Beach Teens Capable of Tragic Insight? http://www.theottery.com/2006/03/are-verona-beach-teens-capable-of-tragic-insight/ "If an otter can't have fun doing something, it just simply won't do it." Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:55:04 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: theotter http://www.theottery.com/2006/03/are-verona-beach-teens-capable-of-tragic-insight/comment-page-1/#comment-11 theotter Fri, 24 Mar 2006 18:12:34 +0000 http://www.theottery.com/2006/03/are-verona-beach-teens-capable-of-tragic-insight/#comment-11 Yeah, I would agree that Shakespeare's teens aren't really teens in the way we think of them today. But Luhrmann's R & J kind of are, even though they're speaking Shakespeare's lines. Not completely, but at least partially. I guess that's what I find so jarring: updating them works, but I'm not quite sure how it works with the additional emphasis on tragic insight. Definitely Juliet's smarter. She's not going around moping about some other guy immediately before declaring love for Romeo. Shooting/stabbing herself over the stupid boor isn't smart, of course, but we do have to accept that it's tragedy and that she's gotta die somehow. Yeah, I would agree that Shakespeare’s teens aren’t really teens in the way we think of them today. But Luhrmann’s R & J kind of are, even though they’re speaking Shakespeare’s lines. Not completely, but at least partially. I guess that’s what I find so jarring: updating them works, but I’m not quite sure how it works with the additional emphasis on tragic insight.

Definitely Juliet’s smarter. She’s not going around moping about some other guy immediately before declaring love for Romeo. Shooting/stabbing herself over the stupid boor isn’t smart, of course, but we do have to accept that it’s tragedy and that she’s gotta die somehow.

]]> By: j. http://www.theottery.com/2006/03/are-verona-beach-teens-capable-of-tragic-insight/comment-page-1/#comment-10 j. Fri, 24 Mar 2006 17:08:10 +0000 http://www.theottery.com/2006/03/are-verona-beach-teens-capable-of-tragic-insight/#comment-10 While you know how I feel about R&J--whiny, lust-stricken teens sums it up nicely--we are coming at this from a 21st-century perspective. Juliet, as her mother tells her, is older at 13 than her mother was when Juliet was born. The concept of the teenager is a 20th-century one, just as the concept of the child belongs to the 19th. Perhaps in an age where 13 wasn't a child or a teen, but a marriagable woman, teenaged heroes, no matter how overrun by whacked-out hormones, are capable of tragic and/or heroic insight. Besides, I have a great fondness for teenaged heroes, in YA fiction and elsewhere, so I am hesitant to say that none of them are capable of tragic insight. Of course, looking up at the post agagin, I just realized that you only asked if R&J are capable of it, which is not a reflection on all teens anywhere. FWIW, I've always thought Juliet to be the more sympathetic and intelligent of the pair. Maybe I give her too much credit? While you know how I feel about R&J–whiny, lust-stricken teens sums it up nicely–we are coming at this from a 21st-century perspective. Juliet, as her mother tells her, is older at 13 than her mother was when Juliet was born. The concept of the teenager is a 20th-century one, just as the concept of the child belongs to the 19th. Perhaps in an age where 13 wasn’t a child or a teen, but a marriagable woman, teenaged heroes, no matter how overrun by whacked-out hormones, are capable of tragic and/or heroic insight.

Besides, I have a great fondness for teenaged heroes, in YA fiction and elsewhere, so I am hesitant to say that none of them are capable of tragic insight. Of course, looking up at the post agagin, I just realized that you only asked if R&J are capable of it, which is not a reflection on all teens anywhere.

FWIW, I’ve always thought Juliet to be the more sympathetic and intelligent of the pair. Maybe I give her too much credit?

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