Romeo & Juliet / Black & White
During this section of humanities, we continued our studies of "Love through the Ages", this time studying the Renaissance, and the love story of Romeo and Juliet. We learned about Shakespeare, the characters of Romeo and Juliet and the culture of the Renaissance. After we finished reading the play, we began reading Black & White (or Naughts & Crosses, as it's known in the UK) by Malorie Blackman.
The final part of this section came as a small project, which, incidentally, was our midterm exam as well. The idea was simple: Pick a character from either Romeo and Juliet, or Black & White and create a scrapbook for them. Once the scrapbook was done, we would pick another character from the literature we didn't use the first time and have that character find the scrapbook.
For my project, I made a Tumblr blog for the character of Romeo. Then, I wrote an interior monologue from Sephy's (Juliet's counterpart in Black & White) point of view when she finds Romeo's blog. The blog, unfortunately, is lost to the ages, but the monologue can be found below!
The final part of this section came as a small project, which, incidentally, was our midterm exam as well. The idea was simple: Pick a character from either Romeo and Juliet, or Black & White and create a scrapbook for them. Once the scrapbook was done, we would pick another character from the literature we didn't use the first time and have that character find the scrapbook.
For my project, I made a Tumblr blog for the character of Romeo. Then, I wrote an interior monologue from Sephy's (Juliet's counterpart in Black & White) point of view when she finds Romeo's blog. The blog, unfortunately, is lost to the ages, but the monologue can be found below!
Interior Monologue
"Persephone Hadley" read the inscription. It was neat, in silver chrome. The rest of the computer was a dark blue. Not that you could tell. I had plastered stickers all over it. Maybe for my own enjoyment, maybe to see those neat-freaks in my family get annoyed.
I woke it up, the whirring increasing slightly in volume as I logged on to my favorite recommendation site. I typed ‘forbidden love’ into the search bar. (I don’t know why I did it, but I’ve been looking it up for the past week or so. There’s a lot of content on this site that I’m working through.) The recommendations I came across were ones I had already read. At the bottom of the page though, was a new link. To a blog, actually. Posted just an hour ago. The recommender had typed the crying emoticon next to the link. About a thousand times. That was annoying. Clicking it anyway, I wondered, not for the first time, whether emotions on the internet needed to be overdone in order to get noticed. I really just needed one exclamation point to get the feeling across. Feeling too much wasn’t helpful in the long run, as I had learned from experience.
These thoughts were halted in their tracks as soon as I saw the first post of the blog. It was simple, just a bad picture of a scrap of paper. The words that were scribbled on it were kind of heart-wrenchingly sweet and laugh out loud hilarious. “Juliet, do you love me?” then check boxes for yes and no. It was signed Romeo. The caption underneath read “You love me, you love me not.” Then underneath, were the words ‘mutilates daisy’ in asterisks, to convey an action. That made me laugh. Despite the seriousness, the writer could still be witty and funny. A bit like Callum. He was always good natured, and could find the wit in anything. The entirety of this blog reminded me of Callum. The memories hurt. A lot.
The next post was a simple picture with the words ‘You do a lot of thinking and that’s what kills you.’ Under the picture, the caption read, “Capulet, Montague. Montague Capulet. Why can’t we just be people?” The last sentence was crossed out, as if the writer would get in trouble for saying such a thing out loud. I pondered that as I scrolled up. Was there an argument between the Capulets and Montagues? Were they separated into social status like Naughts and Crosses? Was this blog about the forbidden love between a Capulet and a Montague, much like the forbidden love between a Naught and Cross?
The next dozen or so posts were all sappy and love-oriented. It became painfully clear that this was Romeo’s blog and he was totally, unhealthily obsessed with this Juliet character. Hmm. I scrolled by, reading but not paying attention. Addiction to another human being. I needed no reminder of what that was like.
The next post that caught my eye was a big black photo with white words. “I miss you. A lot.” Apparently Romeo had been tragically separated from Juliet. From the caption underneath, “I promise, we’ll see each other soon. I am here, I can be there. You are there, you’ll be here soon.” It was clear she didn’t break up with him or anything, they were just temporarily separated. And she was going to go to him. I wondered what had happened in his life. Was it anything like mine? Torn away from everything I knew, waiting for someone to save me. No one saved me. Would anyone save him?
The next picture was simple. Just a girl throwing something (was it a towel?) up in the wind, with the caption, “True goodbyes are the ones never said or explained.”
It would have made me believe that she broke up with him, but then the caption he’d written made no sense. He was coming for her? Was she hurt? Grounded? Dead? Just the word sent a little shudder through me. When I thought of death I thought of black hoods, inescapable ropes and confessions of love I couldn’t hear.
I scrolled up. The next, and incidentally last post, was simple. A bottle of poison. The words “I won’t leave you alone in the dark.”
That caption was the scariest. Was he going to kill himself, to be with Juliet, who had also apparently died? My heart thumped erratically. I wasn’t sure if this was made up, or something real that had happened. Or something that was happening right now.
I wasn’t sure that I wanted to find out.
I woke it up, the whirring increasing slightly in volume as I logged on to my favorite recommendation site. I typed ‘forbidden love’ into the search bar. (I don’t know why I did it, but I’ve been looking it up for the past week or so. There’s a lot of content on this site that I’m working through.) The recommendations I came across were ones I had already read. At the bottom of the page though, was a new link. To a blog, actually. Posted just an hour ago. The recommender had typed the crying emoticon next to the link. About a thousand times. That was annoying. Clicking it anyway, I wondered, not for the first time, whether emotions on the internet needed to be overdone in order to get noticed. I really just needed one exclamation point to get the feeling across. Feeling too much wasn’t helpful in the long run, as I had learned from experience.
These thoughts were halted in their tracks as soon as I saw the first post of the blog. It was simple, just a bad picture of a scrap of paper. The words that were scribbled on it were kind of heart-wrenchingly sweet and laugh out loud hilarious. “Juliet, do you love me?” then check boxes for yes and no. It was signed Romeo. The caption underneath read “You love me, you love me not.” Then underneath, were the words ‘mutilates daisy’ in asterisks, to convey an action. That made me laugh. Despite the seriousness, the writer could still be witty and funny. A bit like Callum. He was always good natured, and could find the wit in anything. The entirety of this blog reminded me of Callum. The memories hurt. A lot.
The next post was a simple picture with the words ‘You do a lot of thinking and that’s what kills you.’ Under the picture, the caption read, “Capulet, Montague. Montague Capulet. Why can’t we just be people?” The last sentence was crossed out, as if the writer would get in trouble for saying such a thing out loud. I pondered that as I scrolled up. Was there an argument between the Capulets and Montagues? Were they separated into social status like Naughts and Crosses? Was this blog about the forbidden love between a Capulet and a Montague, much like the forbidden love between a Naught and Cross?
The next dozen or so posts were all sappy and love-oriented. It became painfully clear that this was Romeo’s blog and he was totally, unhealthily obsessed with this Juliet character. Hmm. I scrolled by, reading but not paying attention. Addiction to another human being. I needed no reminder of what that was like.
The next post that caught my eye was a big black photo with white words. “I miss you. A lot.” Apparently Romeo had been tragically separated from Juliet. From the caption underneath, “I promise, we’ll see each other soon. I am here, I can be there. You are there, you’ll be here soon.” It was clear she didn’t break up with him or anything, they were just temporarily separated. And she was going to go to him. I wondered what had happened in his life. Was it anything like mine? Torn away from everything I knew, waiting for someone to save me. No one saved me. Would anyone save him?
The next picture was simple. Just a girl throwing something (was it a towel?) up in the wind, with the caption, “True goodbyes are the ones never said or explained.”
It would have made me believe that she broke up with him, but then the caption he’d written made no sense. He was coming for her? Was she hurt? Grounded? Dead? Just the word sent a little shudder through me. When I thought of death I thought of black hoods, inescapable ropes and confessions of love I couldn’t hear.
I scrolled up. The next, and incidentally last post, was simple. A bottle of poison. The words “I won’t leave you alone in the dark.”
That caption was the scariest. Was he going to kill himself, to be with Juliet, who had also apparently died? My heart thumped erratically. I wasn’t sure if this was made up, or something real that had happened. Or something that was happening right now.
I wasn’t sure that I wanted to find out.