Love Stories

By Joanne Elliott

Love stories can take many different shapes and forms. From novels to film and real life, romance is happening literally everywhere, all of the time. We all have our favourite love stories, but perhaps one of the most romantic stories ever told is Romeo and Juliet. It was written by William Shakespeare in approximately 1591. It’s a very old story which can be quite hard to follow, but you can read a really simplified version of the story right here:

Romeo and Juliet lived in Verona, Italy. They were teenagers from two very rich and powerful families and it was very important that they marry well. Juliet was a beautiful woman and had been promised to another man, Paris, whom she has only agreed to marry to please her father.

One day Romeo went to a grand ball to see another lady, Rosaline, but as fate would have it he met Juliet instead and they instantly fell in love. It’s only after this that the lovers realised their families hated each other and were sworn enemies. Although they both knew it was against everything their families stood for their love was so strong that it knew no boundaries. Despite everything they asked the Friar to help them to marry in secret and he agreed.

But just after the secret marriage Romeo found himself amongst a fight between two other men. Being a good man our tragic hero tried to intervene. Romeo killed one of the men and was banished from Verona as a murderer.

Meanwhile Juliet was still supposed to be marrying Paris, the man she was promised to. But she was still so in love with Romeo that she told the Friar she would rather stab herself than betray her man. The Friar felt sorry for the lovers and decided to give Juliet a potion that would make her appear dead for 48 hours so she could get out of the wedding. He also promised to send a secret letter to Romeo to explain what was going on. Juliet took the potion on the morning of her supposed wedding and her family mourns her ‘death’. So far so good...

But unfortunately for the lovers the Friar’s letter didn’t get through to Romeo. He heard of Juliet’s death from somebody else and was absolutely heartbroken. Because the Friars letter hadn’t yet arrived Romeo thought that Juliet was dead for real. Devastated, he bought some poison in preparation to kill himself before taking one last trip to Verona to see his true love for the last time.

When Romeo got to Juliet’s tomb he found that his love rival, Paris, was already there. The two men fought. Romeo killed Paris but was so distraught at the death of his wife that he still took the poison and died. Tragically, at that very second, the special potion that our heroine had taken wore off. Juliet woke up to sees that her Romeo was dead. Unable to cope with her loss Juliet was devastated. And then without a second thought she reached down and killed herself with Romeos own dagger.

The end.

Pretty sad huh?! But hey, just take a second to think about it for a second...

This fantastic story has been, and will always be, in circulation for years and years. Ok so the story itself is pretty tragic, but hey. Take heart. Maybe it’s proof that romance isn’t dead after all?!