You See? This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

Meet the IRL Romeo and Juliet who met via Snapchat Story,” the headline promised. Now, you know I’m going to click on that.

  
I dare anybody to find a single shred of anything having to do with Romeo and Juliet in that story.  It’s pretty much just a standard “missed connection” playing out via Snapchat on some college campus somewhere.  No ancient grudge, nothing star crossed, no unhappy ending.  We’ve now reduced “Romeo and Juliet” to meaning “Oh, I hope those two get together.”  
He hasn’t even been to a party at her house yet.  I’m not sure when he’s even planning to kill her cousin, if at all!
I think the only thing we can take away from this story is that kids are making it to UW these days without understanding what Romeo and Juliet is about.

2 thoughts on “You See? This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

  1. Just a few months ago I took a MOCC course on Shakespeare hosted by the U of Wisconsin. One of the students said, "Oh I love Romeo & Juliet. It's such a nice poem". I wanted to smack her.

  2. She may have been referring to the sonnet: "If I profane with my unworthiest hand…" But if you really wanted to confuse her, you should have said, "Oh, I love Arthur Brooke, too!"

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