Romeo and Juliet: Legend or Lame?

As the freshman class wraps up reading "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, every student at Jamesville-DeWitt High School will have read this famous play. "Romeo and Juliet" is the only story that every student reads in English class; after that, different teachers offer different texts to read. But why must all freshmen read it? Why is the story of two very unfortunate lovers so special?

"We like to expose students to Shakespeare, and 'Romeo and Juliet' is one story where everyone knows something about it, so they don't have to struggle through the plot on top of the difficult language," says English Teacher Tamara Barley.

Mrs. Barley says that Shakespeare uses plot lines similar to "Romeo and Juliet" in his other works, so "Romeo and Juliet" is a good place to start. It has comedy, tragedy and romance all in one.

"It's referred to a lot in general society," says English teacher Terri Skeele. "It's a part of pop culture; it's a part of society. It's a good story and it's not as difficult as say 'Julius Caesar' or 'Hamlet.'"

Sophomore Lauren Crosby feels that it fit to read "Romeo and Juliet" in ninth grade because students are required to read much more literature in higher grade levels.

Freshman Billy Hohreiter agrees that freshman year is an appropriate time to read the play. "We can relate to it and it's funny. We have some laughs," he says.

Mrs. Barley feels that students are able to relate to the play because the main characters are teens.

"It's still a little challenging," said freshman Morgan Pusey, "but I guess it's okay at this grade level."

"It's kind of hard for ninth graders to understand," said senior Sarah Lesser. "The text is hard but the teachers did a good job of explaining it."

Students read the play aloud in class by choosing different characters to act as for each scene and there is no outside of class reading required. Most students agreed that reading the play in class has helped them understand the difficult language and events that occur because their teachers explain what is going on.

"The book is really hard because it's in old English, but my teacher did a very good job of explaining it and gave us a summary for each scene," said freshman Tamara Abu-Ramadan. "I definitely prefer reading the book in class, because if I tried reading it at home I would've probably ended up not reading it at all"

"I wouldn't be able to understand it as well outside of class," agrees Hohreiter, "and it's fun because you get to act out the parts"

English teachers try their best to make sure their students understand the story and are interested in reading and learning about it.

"I know it's hard for about 90 percent of the students. I try to explain everything as best as possible because it's such a rich novel and if you can appreciate the language, you can appreciate the plot and don't feel intimidated," said Mrs. Barley. "I don't think they all understand every line but they understand the plot." She also likes having students read it in class because she knows everyone has read it.

"We watch [the movie], we talk about it, we interpret it, and I teach with a sword," says Mrs. Skeele, holding up a fake sword. "I think it's too hard to read alone." She encourages the students to make it fun when reading it aloud, saying, "the more action there is, the better. Hence the sword."

Overall, students seem to have mixed opinions about whether or not they like the story. For some, the genre isn't something that interests them.

"I really like this genre of romance and tragedy, and I would love it if it was written in modern day English," said Abu-Ramadan.

However, Hohreiter is "not particularly a romance-novel person."

"I didn't like it," said Lesser. "It's kind of boring."

"I don't really like it because I can't really understand it and I think Romeo is just a sap," said Pusey.

"You always either love it or hate it," said Mrs. Skeele. She claims that she can never predict if her students will like it or not. Often, the students she predicts will hate it end up loving it.

Most students also watched a movie version of "Romeo and Juliet" in class, which they found helpful.

"The movie made it way easier to understand what the characters are saying," said freshman Jackie Halpin.

Abu-Ramadan was glad that the play was read before watching the movie and didn't find too many differences between the two. "I liked the movie a bit better because the acting was better than [the people] in my class," she said.

"One thing I object to is that I don't think the actors [in the modern movie] understand the lines they are saying. The people in the Zeffirelli version do and you can tell that they care," said Mrs. Barley.

While students are not assigned much homework while reading "Romeo and Juliet", later, there is a final project they must complete. Mrs. Barley declined to reveal what the project is because she wants it to be a surprise for the freshman class, but adds deviously, "The final project is my favorite project of the whole year."