Love not Lust

  Romeo and Juliet is considered the greatest love story of all time, but is it really great or is it just great because it's a couple of hundred years old and was written by a poet and a play writer who may or may not be real? Romeo and Juliet is similar to a lot of other famous stories too, like Helen and Paris, but Helen didn't really like Paris. For Romeo and  Juliet's story, they really did love one another, they even died for one another. This isn't lust. This is really love. These are the reasons why. 

  Most people's thoughts on Romeo and Juliet is that they think its romantic to die for one another. But is it really worth dying for someone who you just met? Or you love that someone so much you give up on life when you lose them? One doesn't know until they find out for sure. One story that is similar to Romeo and Juliet is about Paris and Helena. The site that held this information says it might be a fact or fiction. Helen of Troy was considered the most beautiful woman in all literature. She was married to Menelaus, the king of Sparta. Paris, the prince of Troy, fell in love with Helena and abducted her, taking her back to Troy. That led to a war, destroying Troy and Helen was back with Menelaus. 

Was Helena really worth the destruction of Troy based on what Paris heard about Helena's beauty? Because of him Troy was destroyed. Is love really that important? In Act 5 Scene 3 "Thus with a kiss I die". In this line Romeo drinks poison because he thought Juliet had died and he couldn't bare that so he killed himself because he couldn't be with her. Then later on Juliet kills herself because she can't live without Romeo. Act 5 scene 3 " There rust, and let me die". They died for someone that they met couple of days ago.

 The again love is everywhere. In the hallways of schools, songs, movies, at home and etc. You wonder if one is better than the other. When you're in love and it lasts the most likely thing would be to get married. But there are people in the world who are in love with other people for a week or a month exactly like Romeo and Juliet. But they weren't allowed to because of their families. Act 2 Scene 2 "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet". Here Juliet is saying if the flower, Rose would smell sweet even if it wasn't called a Rose. Meaning if Romeo wasn't a Montague he would still be the person she loves. She loved him for how he really was, risking her reputation and maybe her life. 

 But the real question is, why is an old play so famous when it's common in life now? A blog writer asks if reading Romeo and Juliet is the same as students 400 years from now studying Love Actually? When your in love the outside world doesn't exists. Maybe you didn't like the play but that doesn't mean you will never fall in love like they did. Romeo didn't listen to his friends about forgetting Rosaline and again his friends told him loving Juliet is not a good idea. But he didn't listen.  Act 1 scene 4 "Begot of nothing but vain fantasy". In this line Mercutio tells Romeo that he shouldn't pay any attention to dreams and forget about them. Maybe Mercutio's never been in love before or he was heartbroken before, but we don't know for sure. Maybe those are the reasons why Mercutio is telling him to forget about love. Mercutio doesn't understand Romeo's feelings because he is not in love. Overall it looks like Romeo picked Juliet over his friends. Meaning he cares more for her than he ever did for them. 

 So Romeo and Juliet can be the greatest or the worst love story to you, but what they had is really love. You wouldn't die for someone you didn't love. You wouldn't choose your friends over who you want to spend your life with. You wouldn't call this lust. That us something different. This is actually love. But no matter how great Romeo and Juliet can be, to you your love is the greatest no matter what.