Dear No One,

Dear No One,

At one point, I was convinced we were soul mates. I truly believed that we were meant to be together-- that it was written in the stars. After everything we'd been through-- heartbreak, feuding, petty arguments, spite, jealousy, backstabbing, lying, cheating, happiness, laughter, inside jokes, 3 am phone calls, excitement, trust, tragedy, love and death-- we always found our way back to each other. I thought it was a sign of our irresistible magnetic pull towards each other.

I've never liked Shakespeare's works. That may be a crime for a literature lover, but it is the truth. So often, he is referred to as one of the greatest playwrights and poets of all time and one of the most influential people in literature. To me? In my opinion, he, along with his works, is severely overrated. Now, don't get me wrong, Shakespeare is to thank for many of the words I, and millions of others, use on a daily basis; obviously, he was a very creative, inspired person. I have the utmost respect for him in that aspect. However, I think his plot lines are mediocre, at best. I must give him credit, however, for the amount of thought and devotion he put into his works. And, yes, Shakespeare's time and culture is completely different from the society in which I live, today. If I had lived during the Shakespearean era, perhaps my outlook on his works would be different. There is no way I will ever know for sure how I would feel about him and his plays, had I lived during his time, so I can only analyze his work with an eye tainted by twenty-first century experiences, however different they may be to his seventeenth century endeavors. Therefore, my opinion of his quite sub-par works stands. One of his most notable plays, perhaps the most infamous of all, Romeo and Juliet, is a play I find to be extremely disappointing. The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet was a play I had longed to read for many years. In most public schools' English curriculum, it is required for Freshman to read this play. And, so I did at the tender age of fourteen. To say I was sorely disappointed is an immeasurable step down from my feelings while reading and after reading the play. I could list all of my reasons for not admiring the play and justify my criticism of Shakespeare and his plays, but that isn't what this essay is about. So, I will link this with my next statement:

Romeo and Juliet is meant to be a tragedy. They were never meant to happily grow old together. They were poison to each other. Their relationship was toxic. While I do not have admiration for Shakespeare's techniques in expressing these ideas, I do appreciate the overall message I believe Shakespeare was delivering in his play. There is no science in literature. Literature is creative, messy, unique and occasionally illogical. I find the unpredictable and not-patterned nature of literature to be it's beauty. The way someone interprets a piece of writing is completely and entirely unique to them. This is why, to me, The Most Excellent and lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, is no tragedy. It is, instead, a very metaphorically realistic and forewarning story of love. I say, Romeo and Juliet, isn't a tragedy, but simply the truth.

No one, we were just another Romeo and Juliet. We were toxic to each other. There was nothing tragic about us-- just truthful. Our love was a messy, star-crossed, Romeo and Juliet love. We were destined to meet. It was in our fates to have met and to have loved the other. However, it was also in our fates to be poison in the other's life. We were uncontrollable from the start. Romeo and Juliet were weak, that much is clear. So, let us be strong. We must not let our fates control our reactions to fate, itself. I am choosing strength over weakness. I will no longer be bounded by the constraints of the poisonous air surrounding our intermingled life. If I were weak, I would let the poison consume me, just as Juliet had when she thought she had lost her Romeo. Therefore, I must do the opposite. No one, you are my Romeo, and this is why I must leave you.

Will all my love and my last goodbye, 

Your Juliet