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The Teacher Told Me When I Forgot to Have a Point
Nowadays I mostly just have to remember to have one
In my three-page “character analysis of Romeo,” written in my senior year of high school, I said something like the following.
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Romeo enters the stage playing a guessing game with a friend. Benvolio asks what makes Romeo’s day seem so long; Romeo answers that he doesn’t have that which would make him seem short. To speak more directly, Romeo’s interested in a girl called Rosaline who has taken a vow of chastity.
And then he chances to see Juliet at a dance. “Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! / For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.” OK, so, unlike his friends who are making sex jokes, Romeo is a serial monogamist at heart.
He runs to Juliet and introduces himself, and the chemistry is instantaneous. He kisses her right there, at the dance, in front of everyone, even Rosaline. This is potentially a scandal. No turning back.
Romeo learns that Juliet is of the Capulet family with whom his family is feuding. Knowing he’s endangering his life, he steals into her garden at night to see her again. He offers to change his own name to be more acceptable to her family, and he begins to swear by the moon, but she interrupts and tells…
