The Greatest Love Story Ever Sold!
Ninth graders in the United States are often assigned Romeo and Juliet in English class, but many probably do not read it thoroughly, and most don’t understand it. Shakespeare was not giving us his tale of star-crossed lovers as a status symbol of love, but a tragedy of consequences. The lie the mainstream consciousness tells us is that Romeo and Juliet is the greatest love story ever told, but that misinterpretation fails the ninth graders and the rest of us. Indeed, Shakespeare’s play makes the opposite point, putting Romeo firmly in the seat of the big bad, or dare I say, the mustache-twirling VILLAIN!
