Yo! What it do? This week on Thug Notes we gettin lovestruck with
"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare.
Up in the swanky part of Verona, two families called the Montagues and the Capulets been beefin since foreva.
After dodging an all-out war in the streets, Big Daddy Montague and his boo Lady Montague
start talkin bout their emo son Romeo, who got it bad for some fox Rosaline,
but Rosaline ain’t feelin it, and now Romeo mopin around like he dun lost his nuts. So Romeo’s homieos Benvolio and
Mercutio try to get his mind off that trick by crashing a party over at the Capulet's crib.
But as soon as Romeo peeps the most- tappable ass of Juliet Capulet, he forgets
all about dat Rosaline mess and steps up to holla, like a champ.
Romeo loves himself some fast women, so he drops his A-game, gets a lil lip action, and snags those digits.
Get it, Romeo. Then Romeo creeps up to Juliet’s balcony.
Turns out, she batsh*t crazy in love with him too!
But since their families got so much beef, they gotta keep it all on the DL. Next day, Romeo and Juliet run off
to local preacher man Friar Lawrence’s spot and get hitched.
Later, Benvolio and Mercutio takin it easy, when Tybalt,
the baddest mofo of all da Capulets, steps up and starts talkin sh*t.
Mercutio boot up and start scrappin with Tybalt, til Romeo busts in and tries to break it up.
But Romeo just gets in the way, and Tybalt shanks Mercutio. Damn.
Romeo goes from whiny b*tch to the hardest thug in the streets and straight murks Tybalt.
The Prince of Verona had it with all this gang violence.
So he boots Romeo right outta town. When Juliet’s mama say she gotta marry some
candy-ass scrub named Paris, Juliet gets all torn up and hits up
Friar Lawrence for some help. Fry-Daddy comes with a plan to fake
Juliet’s death by giving her some juice that makes her take a long-ass nap.
Then he gonna write Romeo a letter, sayin all he has to do is play it cool, and once Juliet wakes up,
Romeo will have a lifetime supply of poontang. Problem is, the letter never makes it to Romeo.
So when he hears Juliet bit the dust, he thinks this sh*t's fo real. Romeo straight flips.
So he rolls up to Juliet’s crypt, peeps her layin stiff, and throws back some poison.
When Juliet wakes up and sees his dead body, she gets all crunk, grabs a knife, and kills herself.
Teenagers, man. Damn.
Peep this motif, blood. Willy Shakes flippin opposites all up in this play:
love/hate, youth/age, life/death — I ain’t even trippin.
Even characters got opposites. For example, while Benvolio be all chill and peace-lovin,
Tybalt always comin out hard, tryin to throw down. Sh*t you can even peep these paradoxes in tha text, B.
But Willy ain't just playin — all these clashing opposites makin dat dramatic action mo intense. Listen up, patna.
The full title of this play is “The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.”
'Cept, is it really a tragedy? Some homies don’t think so.
See, in most tragedies, the characters got somethin in their dome that’s
so f**ked up, that no matter what, they gonna end up feelin the hurt.
Peeps call this, “The Tragic Flaw.”
Thang is, some thugs say Romeo and Juliet ain’t rollin with no tragic flaws.
It ain’t their fault that sh*t gets so cray.
But what is tragic is that something else is trippin up their game — chance.
All throughout this play, fate doin our lovers straight dirty.
Just look at all these ridiculous coincidences: dat letter don’t find Romeo, the Friar too late in stoppin him,
Juliet wakes up right after Romeo bit the big one. I could go on, playa.
So when the prologue sayin that these kids be “star-crossed,”
maybe it’s cuz the heavens got it in fo these fools.
But maybe it ain’t fate so much as it is kids actin like stupid lil sh*ts.
Some say Romeo and Juliet’s tragic flaw be a
love all insane in the membrane. And they willin to do anything to keep it real.
Even Friar Lawrence say that sh*t a sin.
Could be they ain't sinnin at all, but that the world that they live in just too twisted to
deal with a love as pure as theirs. Maybe it ain’t our lovers that got the flaws, son.
Maybe it’s the world. But all scholars agree it would be a damn tragedy if you didn’t subscribe.
Peace, yall!