Sunday, May 11, 2014

What It All Means

Based on our reading of Romeo and Juliet, I would like us to have a real world discussion based on the text's ideals and messages.  Once you you write your own response, begin responding to other people, challenging each other's thoughts and questions and keep the line of questioning going as you progress.

First, I would like each of you, individually, to reflect, in at least a solid paragraph, on how this text speaks to you.  What did it make you wonder, see, think about, etc.?  When you are done, end with a strong critical question that you would want others to ponder and answer.  Begin the line of discussion from there.

28 comments:

  1. This text has shown me what it is truly like to have love at first sight and how to deal with a rivalry between people you care about. It makes me wonder what it is like to have a relationship where you are willing to do anything to keep it. I realized that old English is far different from modern English, even in the U.K. I wonder how exactly Shakespeare meant for it to be interpreted back then. The question I pose to you guys is: Would you have been willing to kill yourself if your boyfriend/girlfriend died? If so, why?

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    1. I think that any one could automatically answer this question with society's thoughts in mind. What a horrible person you would be if you didn't die for someone else. This topic just came to my mind as I saw this question. I automatically thought, what would others think if I didn't die for my boyfriend instead of what I would think.

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    2. This is a very interesting question because I think some people who are in a relationship that is going strong would say yes. That they would be willing to kill themselves for their boyfriend/girlfriend. But, I think getting to the actual situation is very different. Would they be strong enough, and selfless enough to take their own life for their loved one? Now, with that sentence people would say taking your own life is very selfish; however, the way I see it, choosing to stay alive and not risk dying is the selfish thing. I also think that it is totally fine for a person to be selfish once in a while, especially in that situation. So right now, honestly I would say no. I don't think I would kill myself for my boyfriend because I am selfish. Thinking about it right now, I wouldn't want to die. I also would like to think that if two people truly loved each other they wouldn't want the other person to die for them. I would think he/she would want the other to live a long happy life, even if it's without them. Who knows though what my answer to this question will be five years from now.

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    3. There's a quote, "You die twice, once when you stop breathing and twice when your name is said for the last time on earth."

      My answer is, no. I would not take my own life if a person I loved romantically died. Because then what would remain of my love of this person? Nothing. Yes there would be times grief and "Oh I wish they were still here" but then who would hear about the person I really loved? I can tell stories of our good times and bad times and let those stories be a lesson of life. And not let the person I loved die twice.

      However, if there was a circumstance in which I had to die for this person to live, then yes. If I truly believed I love this person.

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    4. I think that before you kill yourself for the person you love, who need to know if you truly love them. Some people go through several relationships before they find the one person they will be with for the rest of their life. So, I think that you should be absolutely sure you love that person. It is always sad when someone dies but life doesn’t stop for anyone. Life goes on without people. I don’t think I would kill myself if the person I loved died because I would still have life to live. I’m sure that probably sounds selfish but that doesn't mean I would ever move on from that person, but there could still be great things to come in your life and you wouldn’t be able to see them or live them. Just because you don’t die when your loved one died does not mean you love them any less that someone who died for their loved one.

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    5. I agree with your paragraph completely! Life makes you go on without people sometimes. When people leave, there is still a future for you. Yes, its hard. But sometimes you have to push through the pain and not close your self off to the world. When you close yourself off, you miss out on things that only come once in a lifetime.

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  3. Romeo and Juliet has taught me many things that people in this day and age seem incapable of. Since reading the text, my eyes have opened to all of the sacrifices love makes us do. Love is portrayed so easily and non effortlessly in Hollywood these days and I wonder how far a modern day couple would go for each other. I do believe true love is still out there, I just feel that we as people have made finding that love harder because of technology and other things. So, how does society portray love? How is the word love used in our generation? What does it mean to people?

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    1. I think the word love is used too much in our society and we think it is necessary to use it if we are in a simple relationship with someone. I think we use it to lightly now a days.

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    2. I totally agree with what you're saying about people in this generation. We lost the communication and that ability to love on our own. We seem to have forgotten how to find love and how to cherish it. We take it for granted and with something so powerful as love, it should always be close to your heart.

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  4. This reading made me think about the risks that we may or may not take for love. Now a days I think we use love to lightly so our risks are cut back. I think at one point we would probably say we would die for someone because we would love them or risk our own life for them. We need to think if we are ever in a relationship when we use the word love do we really mean in or are we just using it loosely. Should we use love as much as we do? Why or why not?

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    1. Love is what drives us to do lots of things, it can make us happy, sad, angry, and all kinds of emotions. I think that when we use the word love, if you truly mean it, it is a way to express how much you care about someone or something. I think that most of the time when we use the word love, we really mean it, and truly love whoever or whatever it is.

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  5. Love has many different meanings to many different people. Romeo and Juilets love is a very intense love. This text teaches us all about the things love can and cannot do for us. Love is one of the most powerful forces on Earth. This text taught us about the affects love can have not just one one, but on many. Love can cause such happiness and such pain. Love can completely overcome a persons emotions. In this text both Romeo and Juliet were so overcome with love that being alive without the other was purposeless. Today it seems like people don't love as fully and immensely Romeo and Juliet did. Love is not as pure and treasured. Feelings for one another are usually hidden. Should love be bold as Romeo and Juliet's? Is that true love?

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    1. I agree that there are different meanings of love and that love can change who we are, and that can be for the better or for the worse. There are two completely different sides to love as well. Love can make you happy but it can make you miserable. Even though we might not know it love does change us and we should notice it if it is changing us for the worse.

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  6. This text, Romeo and Juliet, has made me think of love in a whole new way, and how it can affect a person in good ways and bad. I have realized that love at first sight could be possible. Someone could look at another person and suddenly feel the urge to get to know them, to kiss them, to even make sure they’re theirs in the end. This book has shown me so many things about love, sacrifice, and tragedy. How people are willing to sacrifice their own life because of the death of a loved one. I’ve realized that to love someone could possibly be a bad thing. Love is blind. I’ve seen that when you truly love someone, you will do anything to keep that love and make the other person happy. I now understand what the quote, “to love is to destroy, and that to be loved is to be the one destroyed.” means. That love is not always good and it can ultimately end up destroying someones life. Love can be horrible, especially unrequited love, but then again, I think of the good times Romeo and Juliet had. How love can also be beautiful and sweet. Finally, this text has made me realize how tragedy can affect certain situations. How because of the death of Romeo and Juliet, the Capulets and Montagues ended their long time feud. They realized that if their children could find a way to get past their family names, they could also work together. Overall this book has taught me so many life lessons, but it has also made me question just as much. My biggest questions that I had in this book were what drives a person to take their own life? and how come it takes a tragedy to realize things that are wrong in a person's life?

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  7. The text of Romeo and Juliet exposed to me a new way of thinking about the concept of love. Love is a feeling we yearn for want to hold on to until the day we die. For Romeo and Juliet, Love is something they literally can't live without. The idea of having someone to emotionally connect with sounds very promising, but this play has shown a tale of love which ends in complete tragedy. It has shown that love is not as glamorous as it is made out to be. The mission to achieve love comes with loss and sacrifice. But is this always the case? Romeo and Juliet are children who seem more devoted to accomplishing true love than characters in the average love story. My final question is, is our purpose here on earth simply to love each other and do so by any means necessary?

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    1. I think that our purpose on Earth is to love each other because it makes the world a better place. People will be happier and want to spread love to everyone else. If we all did not love each other then there would be so much hate in the world.

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  8. This text speaks to me about saying how vulnerable kids really are. Kids are so unpredictable. Especially when it with things that they are kind of new too. Juliet had never loved before and Romeo had some experience with Rosalie. This text made wounder if love is the strongest force. In the play Romeo was hesitant to fight with Tybalt. Also Romeo would do risky things like sneak into the Capulet's house just to see Juliet even though he knew that if he was caught he would be killed. Also Juliet went against her parents ideas and went ahead to marry Romeo any ways. This helped me to see that love is a very strong force. People will do crazy things like take their lives for love. When I was reading this play I was contently thinking how Shakespeare is such master of writing. His diction and way he worded the play was fantastic. His writing was very interesting because we all knew that they were going to take their lives but we had a little hope in us that it would work out. Just how he makes the story intense to read is just a great way of writing. Now I would like to ask you if you think love is the strongest force? Is it greater than greed? Hate? Sadness?

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    1. I think so because love can cause these things of hate, greed, sadness etc. Love I think triggers all the emotions in us. He love our family so it is so sad when one dies. Love is the control of all of our emotions so it is very powerful.

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    2. I personally think that love is the strongest force because, I also feel there are other very strong emotions involved with love like hope. I think that when you love someone or something, there's a certain amount of hope and happiness involved with that love. And as I believe it, hope and happiness are also two very strong emotions. Also, love can make a person do crazy things, without that person even really knowing what they're doing. I think love can be powerful as in a person is so immensely happy, but then theirs also when you get your heart broken. That love is taken away, and without it, a person feels a hole in their heart. Love can make or break a person, and to me that is truly powerful.

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    3. Jeremy, I do think love is the strongest force. It drives you to do crazy things and makes you feel crazy emotions. I feel like it is the only thing that can cause you great happiness and extreme pain at the same time. It is an exhilarating experience that may only happen once. Rarely do we find our "other half" in our lifetime, so when we find them, nothing can hold back the passion.

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  9. Romeo and Juliet was a super confusing book for me but I got the main idea of it. I think that Romeo and Juliet fell in love so fast because there was so much drama and hate in their families. They were both looking for what little happiness they could find. For a little bit there you really thought that their marriage could end the dispute but really it just angers their parents even more. I also didn't understand how if Romeo loved Juliet so much why would he go kill her cousin the same day that they get married? I wonder if they made to hasty of a decision that ultimately ended in their untimely deaths! So my question is should you make decisions about love fast or should you take your time to decide?

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    1. I think that the answer to your question can come in many forms depending on the situation that the lovers are in. If it's something like the situation in Romeo and Juliet then decisions will need to be made with haste or fear repercussions. If it is a situation like the more common loves today where people go on a few to many dates before making a decision about marriage. So, the overarching idea is that the decision should be made in the amount of time that the situation requires.

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  10. Romeo and Juliet was a book about what the 1500s declared love. I feel this book was a "Poke-Fun" on teenage love of the time as the events that took place in the play only happened in a (very) short timespan. Shakespeare wanted to show that love was a very strong force in human nature. And how would he show this? Through obsessed teenagers who would pretty much be considered adults at the time. Juliet was a character who was looking for love, or a companion, but she was being forced to marry Paris. She found Romeo, but she couldn't be in love with him in public, as the Capulet and the Montague families were in feud. Romeo was a guy who for a short while felt love for another person (Rosaline) but soon found out that Rosaline does not feel the same. Which can leave a devastating impact on a man's self esteem.

    Romeo found Juliet. He declared love at first sight, like many kids do. As the days past they grew on each other, and Romeo would be wiling to do anything to keep his love of Juliet alive and prospering. Even kill her family, and eventually himself. This again proves a big thing people would do when in love. So my question is, how far would you go for love?

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  11. I believe that this text, Romeo and Juliet is both beautiful and gut wrenching at the same time. A story like this really allows me to think about my life and what I want in the future. Although I haven't particularly experienced love myself, I can definitely connect to this idea of loving and yearning to be loved. I think that in life we all have a main goal, when we are asked what that goal is, most of us mention a career or something of the sort. However, I feel that none of us share what we most want in life, I personally believe that this thing in love. We all want to be loved one way or another. I think we all hope for that one person to make us feel like the only person in the world. This is exactly what Romeo and Juliet did for each other. They found a love for each other that seemed truly unbreakable. I think this is what makes this story so easy to connect to. My critical question, How can love change you? How can love make you blind?

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  12. The text spoke to me because it showed me what love can do to people and what people would do for love. Love can evoke many different feelings in people. Love can make us feel happy, sad, angry and jealous. In the text, Romeo felt depressed because Rosaline did not feel the same about him. And then only a short time later, he was in love with somebody new, Juliet. I think it is interesting how fast people can change their feelings. When people see each other for the first time and realize they love one another, do they love them so much at first that after a while their love runs out? When thinking about what people would do for love, I didn’t think about killing yourself for them. Instead I thought about smaller things you would do for them. Like holding doors open for them, pulling out their chairs when they sit down and other things like that. Sometimes I feel that people think about the bigger things about love, like if you will marry that person. Because of that I think we forget about things like hugs and holding hands. I think that you should enjoy their company in the first place before you worry about dying with for them.

    Question: How do you know you are in love with someone?

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  13. Romeo and Juliet was a book that did take me a while to understand but after I explicated the text, I better understood the story and love that Romeo and Juliet had for each other. It made me think about how many types of love there is. I think that Romeo and Juliet had a type of love Romeo and Juliet had was hard to completely understand. I think that definitely now a days love is very different and that there is so many types of love now a days that when we see love like this it is really hard to understand. When I see love like this I think that is a little much for their age and that they fell in love too quick. Overall this book has made me understand that love can drive you to do anything for somebody you love. Love comes in a variety of types and if you aren't in that relationship then you won't ever truly understand their love.

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  14. Question: How can love make you become a different person?

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