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OK, so William Shakespeare wrote The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet to attract a ticket-buying horde to his theater. But those beautiful speeches, those passionate love scenes. There’s got to be a greater purpose to Romeo and Juliet than just money, right? Shakespeare’s intentions have to have been greater than the desire to just rake it in at the box office, right? Right???

Video Transcription:

So Romeo and Juliet is probably the most famous love story written in the English language. But in the end, what’s it really about? You know: What’s Shakespeare’s message? Oh, if only I knew.

I gotta be honest: I’ve never been a huge fan of Romeo and Juliet. I know. What’s my deal, right? So much passion … so much drama …

So little point.

What I mean is—OK, true confessions—I get annoyed with this play because I want to know what Shakespeare thought. Is love a good thing? A bad thing? Is there any moral to the story?

Well, the answer to that last question is no. But it was only after reading this play for the fourth time that I finally understood that that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

See, this play isn’t a commentary on love, it’s an exploration of love. It’s about love’s power to bring us together and tear us apart. It’s about the power of love to overcome loyalties and to spiral us toward violence.

And while Shakespeare doesn’t explicitly comment on this power, maybe that’s not so much a failing as it is a breath of fresh air. After all, almost every other author you read in school is all about the message—sometimes to the point of banging his or her readers over the head with it.

But Shakespeare, he chronicled the human condition and offered that up on its own terms—and all for just the price of admission.