When people don't pay attention to Shakespeare.

[andrewducker]

via absolutelymadness

Comments

[supergee.livejournal.com]

And it has the plausibility of a sitcom.

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

And don't get me started on Wuthering Heights

[erindubitably.livejournal.com]

Where does it say she's 13?

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

There's a scene where the mother and nurse are talking and the mother mentions that she was already a mother at 14, and that Juliet is well old enough to be popping out sprogs.

[andrewducker]

Act1 Scene 3:
On Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen;

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

How long before someone tries to ban it as promoting paedophilia?

[erindubitably.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks.

[andrewducker]

Although, apparently, in the source material Shakespeare took it from she was 16. I can't find a good explanation for why he knocked two and a bit years off.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Hmm... despite the quote, above, I always took Juliet to be 12. There's a scene with her nurse where she talks about being younger than her mother, who was 13 when she had Juliet.

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

John Sutherland's comment is that nowadays Romeo would receive a longer sentence for what he does to Juliet than for what he does to Tybalt - though that's clearly an exaggeration for effect.

[erratio.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a challenge - nothing says romance quite like a high bodycount!

[marrog.livejournal.com]

Oh, oh, me, me - I looked this up recently. Apparently the general consensus was that during that time in Italy (and indeed in England among richer families) 13/14 was a more normal age for girls to marry.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

What they never say is how old Romeo is - 17 is a guess. All the play says is that he doesn't have a beard yet. He was probably a little older than her but it never actually says he's 17.

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

completely true.

by 18, the majority of women were considered 'past it', unlikely to survive childbirth.

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

that would peg him at roughly 15. Which makes a lot more sense. Most guys have some growth at 16.

and of course, 13-15 is far less of a controversy.

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of how I referred to the film version of Stardust as "The Princess Bride with higher stakes and a higher body count."

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

Plus the fact they are a pair of self obsessed teenagers who would probably have split up about 3 days later if they hadn't been dead by then!