Romeo and Juliet
The three things I took away from this reading...1. Romeo and Juliet is and reads like an early work of Shakespeare's (whether or not you believe he wrote it), and so the scene executions are occasionally clunky and it lacks the subtly of his later work.
2. Regardless, the story moves you. When two people love one another and are kept from loving one another something must stir within your heart, otherwise you may want to get your heart checked out.
3. The third thing I took away was a questioning. As a wise guy once wondered loudly aloud, "Is it love...baby...or is it confusion?" Romeo and Juliet are very young. I remember being 14. I had no idea what love truly meant. I thought it had something to do with whether or not a girl was a looker and if she made my winky stand at attention. I thought numerous times, "She's the one! She's perfect! There will never be another one for me!" I didn't know what I was talking about. Hell, I didn't even know what "me" really meant, and besides, the definition of "me" changed a great deal from 14 to 24 to 34. Without the definition of "me," the answer to who the one and only "she" is can not be known. And all that is just a fraction of what goes into love. It's a base, a mere beginning at best. So how can Romeo and Juliet truly love each other, especially so soon after first meeting and barely even knowing one another? On that basis their love rings false. Ah, but that does not matter. These are not 24 or 34 year olds. They are (at least she is) 14 and if they have feelings for one another that are rending their hearts apart, isn't that all that matters? Even if we don't believe they are old enough to fully understand true love, don't we have to respect what they are feeling on some level? And if so, then doesn't Romeo and Juliet ring as true as ever it could? After all, as another wise guy once posited, a little less loudly, "I am human and I need to be loved, just like everybody else does."
Rating Note: I hate the bland 3 star, middle of the road choice especially when I don't consider a work bland or middle of the road, but perhaps it fits this time, more as an average of my emotions while reading.