Episode #242 ... Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare

Stephen West· Host0:00

Hello, everyone. I'm Stephen West. This is Philosophize This!. Patreon.com/philosophizethis. Philosophical writing on Substack at philosophizethis on there. I hope you love the show today. So, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Many of you were probably forced to read this when you were in high school, and little did we know back then how much philosophy there was underneath the events of the play. See, this is one of those stories where I think to understand the significance of a lot of the stuff that happens in it, you gotta know about a scene that goes on at the very end of it first. 'Cause once we know about the ending of this play, then all the stuff before it starts to take on a whole new meaning. I'm talking about the scene where there are three people lying dead inside of a tomb in a churchyard. Two of these people are teenagers who've just taken their own lives. Their names are Romeo and Juliet. The other guy is named Count Paris, who's been stabbed to death by Romeo just hours before. Outside of the tomb, there's a friar from a local church named Lawrence who's pleading with the authorities of the city. He's confessing to how all this that went on here is partially his fault, that he had helped Romeo and Juliet plot the things that have led them to being in this place. Meanwhile, the fathers of both Romeo and Juliet are standing close by the tomb, mourning the loss of their children. They look over at each other, and as two people that have long hated one another, they say, "You know what? Enough of this. Let's shake hands right now. Call a truce between us. 'Cause look what all this fighting between our families has led us to. Two of our children are now dead." By the end of this episode, we'll understand how all these people got to this place, and we'll understand a bit more about what Shakespeare wanted