Romeo – Looking to God

“Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona, where we lay our scene. From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes a pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life.”

~Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

This week’s Women Who Wow Wednesday celebrates Shakespeare’s Juliet.

Born to the house of Capulet, the young Juliet discovers her life is not her own. Her father plans to betroth his daughter to the wealthy Count Paris of Prince Escalus’ family. Under formal agreement, the engagement would provide an honorable means to secure the Capulet’s future among the elite. Not part of the arrangement is Juliet’s reaction.

At thirteen, Juliet believes in love—the kind of love that would stop thunder from cracking over the skies, but at the same time, the kind of love that would strike like a lightning bolt searing an unsuspecting heart. When she sees Romeo for the first time, her legs buckle at the knees.

His words give her life:

ROMEO
(taking JULIET’s hand)
If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

JULIET
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this,
For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss.

ROMEO
Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?

JULIET
Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.

ROMEO
O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do.
They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.

JULIET
Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake.

ROMEO
Then move not, while my prayer’s effect I take.

(Kisses her)

Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged.

JULIET
Then have my lips the sin that they have took.

ROMEO
Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged!
Give me my sin again.

(They kiss again)

A consuming flame overtakes her heart causing her to inquire of the handsome boy. But to Juliet’s dismay, she discovers Romeo is a Montague, an enemy of her family. If her father ever found out of their love, she would surely die by his own hands.

No one must know.

She resolves to marry Romeo in secret.

And there’s more.

Given today is New Year’s Day, a day of new beginnings, best knowing Juliet makes the decision of a lifetime out of love and nothing more. In her short life she learns about being happy from a boy who shows her the world through his eyes. A set of eyes filled with hope and dreams. Juliet grabs a hold in faith and never lets go. She doesn’t know what comes next, but she knows it feels right. And that’s all that matters to her.

RANGER MARTIN AND THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, now on sale.

Have you read Romeo and Juliet? If so, what did you learn from it?

Having seen Warm Bodies two nights in a row last month, the subtle thought of a zombie apocalypse entered my mind. I shouldn’t say subtle, I would say blaring. As funny as some scenes were, some interesting concepts came to the fore worth discussing. I’m hoping this Monday Mayhem post can do the film justice by exploring those ideas.

Warm Bodies (Photo Credit: Jonathan Wenk)

I’ll try writing this post having in mind not to give away any plot points or spoilers. I’ll attempt to keep it as general and as high concept as possible.

One of the main themes the movie emphasizes is love will cure all. It’s no secret that when people feel lost and alone they turn to family and friends for support. Why is that? Family is the crux of a stable society. When one becomes injured, family can help with raising the spirits. Who else knows us better than family? However, what is one to do when they possess a fractured family? This is where friends come into to play. Friends—good friends—the kind that have been there through good and bad, light and darkness, joy and pain, they’re the ones who can provide support when all seems lost. Warm Bodies makes it plain that having a support system will make all things better. Love will cure all.

Oh, Romeo, Romeo! The movie drips with references to Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, which, by the way, aside from Hamlet and Othello, is one of my favorite plays of all time. Again, I ask the question, why? Why the references at all? Is there significance with the way the characters interact with one another and how the main theme plays out?

For those who don’t know, the story of Romeo & Juliet is about love conquering all. It’s about feuding families who, by death, quell their quarrels. The entire opening of the play gives away the whole story:

Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life

As with the play, Warm Bodies tells of two families at war with one another, a war that can cease only with death. Yet, death is not what it may seem. For some, death may be life. And life is all that matters.

The last point the movie highlights is that no matter how bad things get, they can get worse, and they usually do. We shouldn’t ever give up on what we want from life—even if we’re in the throes of darkness. Our life is our own, to make of it what we will by sheer will and integrity.

These are the things I’ve learned watching Warm Bodies.

RANGER MARTIN AND THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, on sale October 22.

Do you have a lesson you’d like to share having watched the movie? If not, do you plan to watch it?

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