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Romeo and Juliet: do you think it is difficult?

GamerGuyEbby
By GamerGuyEbby
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I'm a freshman in High school and I'm doing a thesis paper on why or why not Romeo and Juliet should be in the curriculum, one of the points I used is it is difficult to understand if you are just reading in class.. So I decided to create a straw poll to see what others think. So if or when you were a freshman, did you think Romeo and Juliet was difficult?

 

http://www.strawpoll.me/10224350

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No... No. If it's difficult for a 13-16 year old to understand, then there is an issue with the 13-16 year old. Reading comprehension is an important skill, and if it is difficult then reading it can improve your reading comprehension as a whole. So difficulty is not an argument for removing it, but against removing it, if the difficulty is there at all.

 

If I had my way, you'd be reading The Iliad and the Odyssey.

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I did the same thing earlier this year, and while it was not difficult, it was definitely boring. I felt as though there was no point in reading the book other than to take time, but perhaps that is just the goal of my year long, 45 minutes a day, English class.

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20 minutes ago, theninja35 said:

I did the same thing earlier this year, and while it was not difficult, it was definitely boring. I felt as though there was no point in reading the book other than to take time, but perhaps that is just the goal of my year long, 45 minutes a day, English class.

This. It wasn't difficult just an extremely boring book and most people knew the end anyway.

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2 hours ago, JoeyDM said:

No... No. If it's difficult for a 13-16 year old to understand, then there is an issue with the 13-16 year old.

 

1 hour ago, theninja35 said:

I did the same thing earlier this year, and while it was not difficult, it was definitely boring. I felt as though there was no point in reading the book other than to take time, but perhaps that is just the goal of my year long, 45 minutes a day, English class.

 

1 hour ago, starwarsguy99 said:

This. It wasn't difficult just an extremely boring book and most people knew the end anyway.

Well while all of you say it wasn't difficult do you think it would be difficult if you had none of it acted out in class and all read in a monotone voice? Because as you probably know it is a play and meant to be acted out.

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4 minutes ago, GamerGuyEbby said:

 

Yes. I read it before I ever saw it played out. And I've had it read to me in a fairly monotone voice. It isn't difficult to understand, and if it is then that is just proof that it needs to remain. Don't dumb down classes for people with poor reading comprehension. They won't improve if they just keep reading hooked-on-phonics.

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I did romeo and Juliet and Of Mice and Men for my English Lit GCSE.

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I'm not going to pretend it was easy to understand. Without guidance from a teacher over what certain archaic words meant yes, it was genuinely difficult. Once you understand those meanings though, and the format of it, it became much much easier to read really any Shakespeare work.

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7 hours ago, JoeyDM said:

If I had my way, you'd be reading The Iliad and the Odyssey.

Have they taken those out of the curriculum or something? We did that in school when i was around 14. 

 

As for OP's question. Romeo and Juliet isn't that difficult to understand. Having a dictionary nearby might help though.

 

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The message is that they died too young to know that their death wasn't worth it.

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When I read R&J in 8th grade the teacher made whoever was reading outloud follow strict iambic pentameter, but as a freshmen in HS I read the Illiad Gilgamesh Julius Caesar Plato Aristotle and I thought that JC was the easiest, and then the next year we read the Inferno, Canterbury Tales (in middle English) and from my experience the only people who had trouble didn't speak English as a first language.  My brother understood the story of R&J when he was 5.  While it is meant to be acted out it is not necessary to understand the show.

 

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R&J really isn't that difficult really. The problem is with the way it's written, it can be confusing to some because it's (presumably) written in a way that people would've talked back in the 1500's in England. It's the same language, but you don't need to be a genius to realise that there are still a good few differences between English then, and English now. As soon as you nail the lingo, it's easy to read it.

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18 hours ago, GamerGuyEbby said:

I'm a freshman in High school and I'm doing a thesis paper on why or why not Romeo and Juliet should be in the curriculum, one of the points I used is it is difficult to understand if you are just reading in class.. So I decided to create a straw poll to see what others think. So if or when you were a freshman, did you think Romeo and Juliet was difficult?

 

http://www.strawpoll.me/10224350

No. No more difficult than any other Shakespeare play or something written in Olde English or other archaic forms of English.

 

There are words that are spelled a little (or a lot, in some cases) differently, or are pronounced differently, or are no longer used in Modern English. So your teacher definitely needs to explain these things as the words come up.

 

As others have mentioned, having a dictionary on hand to look up words that you don't understand helps. And if a class is reading it, and they say a word you don't understand... well, simply ask your teacher what that word means.

 

It's "difficult" in the sense that basic math can be difficult to those who haven't learned or practiced it. If reading "R&J" is difficult for someone, then it sounds to me that their teacher isn't doing a good job of teaching it.

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Also, for those who aren't very engaged by the plot of Shakespeare's plays, try this:

https://www.goodreads.com/series/111908-william-shakespeare-s-star-wars

 

I've read Episode's 4 thru 6, and I must say, Star Wars works very well as a Shakespearean stage play.

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No, git gud

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R&J isn't the most engaging of Shakespeare's canon, they should try Twelfth Night, Macbeth or A Comedy of Errors instead.

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