This meme is 100% correct. I’ve been saying this since 9th grade. IIt bothered me even then. IIt wasn’t even a relationship. It was the promise of a relationship. I don’t know how the play is taught now, but I hope it is in context as to when it was written. Kathryn Howard was approximately 15 when she was married to King Henry VIII, which would be around one generation prior to Shakespeare’s writing. The ages for marriages then were common because of the time.
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy. It’s not romantic. There is nothing romantic about it. There are lovely platitudes, but it’s no great romance. It’s a tragedy. It was always a tragedy.
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