「로미오와 줄리엣」을 ‘순진하게’ 읽는 세 가지 관점

Abstract

This essay responds to three hypothetically innocent questions that uninformed readers might have on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, a tragedy of which persistent popularity is said to be found in its aesthetic elevation of untainted, unworldly love of two innocent hearts. Those questions are primarily concerned with (1) the authenticity of the family feud as an undoubted background on which the entire tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is supposed to stand, (2) the thematic relevance of the exceptionally frequent use of the religious word “holy” to the story proper, and (3) the problem of Romeo’s obsessive fascination with visual beauty of women. Answers to these questions, I argue, facilitate the enlightened reading of the drama. The importance the conventional criticisms attach to the “ancient grudge” between the Montagues and the Capulets is more highlighted than it deserves, for the diverse textual evidence hints at the probability that the old bloody edge of the mutual antagonism has been quite blunted by the passage of time. However, this subdued antagonism does not necessarily diminish the play’s tragic vision; in fact, it heightens the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, as it provides an ironic dimension to their untimely death. The habitual use of the word “holy” serves as a conceptual lens through which one can see the systematic evil embodied in the destructive hostility between the two powerful households and the political and religious helplessness of the dignified personages in Veronian society. This perspective enables an interpretation that the tragedy of this drama hinges not so much on individual hamartia as on collective corruption of society. Even though Romeo’s vulnerability to the visual attraction may be quite regrettable, there is a sense in which it largely partakes of the early modern preoccupation with the deceptive power of appearances. However, in Romeo and Juliet the deceptive power of appearances should be felt on the collective and communal rather than on individual level, an important dramatic aspect that makes Romeo and Juliet particularly hopeless lovers.