Alack, alack! A plague has ruined the Montague and Capulet families, sworn enemies at the start — in the end to quarrel no more.
My 9th graders are finishing reading Romeo and Juliet and will write on who is to blame for this tragedy. When we read and discussed Act V, Scene ii, we talked about how a Plague quarantined Friar John, and he was unable to deliver Friar Lawrence’s most important letter to dear Romeo, notifying him of Juliet’s sleeping potion…
Nobody would dare courier a pestilence-ridden letter for fear of illness.
Such times as this! Times as then, times as now!
Our poor lovers are destined to their fates, then?
I realized as much as the Nurse, and the Friar, fiery Tybalt, or verbose Mercutio were to blame for this tragedy —
a plague was also to blame for this sad tale of woe, with a quarantined priest and love-struck Romeo, impulsive as he was, charging on ahead into Juliet’s tomb.
And here we are, still living through a pandemic, and hoping to learn from those who have gone before us. I found it all too ironic!
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