BlueOrchid wrote:I love the ties between New Moon and Romeo and Juliet. The whole part about how Edward thinks that Bella is dead is so remininiscent of Romeo and Juliet. I also think that the fued between the Capulets and Montegues is really similar to the seemingly inabilty for humans and vampires to live together. Any other thoughts.
I think the feud is more about werewolves and vampires.
The ties between Romeo & Juliet and Edward & Bella are also about people accepting others that are different then themselves. Love happens...there is no script, no right or wrong!!!
edward x lover wrote:I love how the book ran parallel to R & J the whole time and I love that they were watching it in the beginning. I also like that Jacob was the "Paris" in love with Juliet/Bella but her heart is somewhere else.
OFF TOPIC WARNING
did anyone notice the typo in NM? Bella is thinking about what is Rosaline gave Romeo the time of day but it says Rosalind
Ah! I did notice that. But I dismissed it at the time because I was still reading, and then forgot about it. Kudos!
I love how the book ran parallel to R & J the whole time and I love that they were watching it in the beginning. I also like that Jacob was the "Paris" in love with Juliet/Bella but her heart is somewhere else.
OFF TOPIC WARNING
did anyone notice the typo in NM? Bella is thinking about what is Rosaline gave Romeo the time of day but it says Rosalind
I didn't see that at all. However, I'm not sure if Rosalie or Tanya is more of a Rosalind...
Who would Benvolio be? If the Volturi are the Montagues, then would Benvolio be Carlisle or Emmett?
Would Alice be more like the friar or the messenger? (I think friar...)
Ugh. Frankly, I hate this comparison.
Romeo and Juliet was a comedy/tragedy to show the foolishness of teenage lust when it is mistaken for love. It was not intended to be taken as a story about the greatest romance of all time.
Twilight is a serious romance novel that portrays two teens (well, a teen and a century-old vampire) in lust and tells us that it's love. It's supposed to be taken as (one of) the greatest romances of all time, and it's got a happy ending for goodness' sake.
I can see how one might draw parallels like Romeo=Edward, Juliet=Bella, and Paris=Jacob. The relationships between the characters was similar. I get that. I also can see how the Capulet vs. Montague deal is similar to the Vampire vs. Shifters thing. I can- kind of- see how the Romeo thinks Juliet's dead! thing = Edward thinks Bella's dead! thing, if one ignores the fact that Juliet meant for Romeo to know she was faking and Bella didn't intend for Edward to find out she threw herself off a cliff.
However, when the overall themes of the two stories are viewed side by side it's obvious that they were written with very different themes in mind. R&J shows the foolishness of teen lust/love; Twilight holds teen lust/love up as an ideal to be striven for.
I also don't get the whole Rosalind=Rosalie/Tanya thing. Romeo was in love with Rosalind and she didn't reciprocate. Edward was in love with neither Rosalie nor Tanya. Rosalie was happy with Emmet; Tanya wasn't particularly lovesick for Edward either as I remember.
Of course, one can hardly blame Meyer for intentionally making these connections with R&J. Most people these days are under the impression that R&J was, in fact, written specifically to be a tragic romance rather than a picture of the foolishness of such romance; it's an easy mistake to make, I suppose. Still, the constant comparison bugs me.