Just been re-reading Romeo
and Juliet and realised that under present law Romeo would be arrested for
child molestation. He is clearly considerably older than Juliet (in his late
teens - old enough to be banished). Though in the original source of the play
Juliet is 16, Shakespeare makes her 13, going on 14 – the age of Nabokov’s
Lolita! When she wakes after their
wedding night it’s quite clear that she has been well and truly, um, made love
to. Incidentally, Juliet’s nurse, always portrayed as an old or at least
middle-aged woman, is only 26 – and she lost her maidenhead at 12. What a fun
place Verona must have been! I suppose one of the youngest Juliets was Olivia
Hussey in Zeffirelli’s film (15). Leonardo Di Caprio’s Juliet looks about 18. No
producer would dare to show the play as Shakespeare obviously intended . . .
but why did he make Juliet so young? Was the boy actor who first played her
particularly young?
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