'Romeo and Juliet' can't be called a love story!

Hi there!
By asserting that Romeo and Juliet is not a love strory,I mean that it ought to be taught as a tragedy,for it will convey the wrong message to the students who already take very stern stance when it comes to defending their love.They were too young is not an excuse,for then it can only be called infatuation of affection.My mantra is that a loving heart does not discriminate.As to protecting my family,if,by any chance, there happens to be such a situation,in which I have to protect my neighbour's family first and my family second then there is no choice.Love is universal and defending own family is only a kind of it.
bless you.
Raja Sharms

I would agree with you that it is more a tragedy than a love story. But I stand by my point concerning their age. Not as an excuse for their behavior, but as an explanation of their actions.

Let me explain. Clearly they lived in violent times. In fact, the two households were so violent that the Prince of Verona finally intercedes and proclaims that the heads of their households will be held accountable for any further violence. This implies that this has been a long standing problem between the two houses. If Juliet and Romeo being young and raised int his environment, had this ingrained in their upbringing. They had not the benefit of age and experience to be able to objectively see the violence and therefore any alternatives.

Also, at that tender age, they did not have the emotional depth that maturity brings. They did not have the emotional experience to handle the situation that they found themselves in. They acted out the way it had been modeled to them by their families, through violence.

Again I do agree with you that it is more a tragedy than it is a love story.

My dear,
Love is understood by raising yourself from the depths of affection,infatuation and physical fulfilment of desires.You say that were too young at that time.You have answered your question by yourself.Their love,socalled,was the product of the distance created by the families,for the more you are kept away from something,the more you want it.It is like a child's insistence to get a toy at any cost.
We teach this play to the students,and if we teach them that they should achieve their love at any cost,don't you think that the society would be more violent.To understand the philosophical aspects of certain abstract notions,maturity is required.No offence,you seem to be taking your first steps toward raising yourself to discriminate between love and infatuation.Bless you.I love you for the thoughts you have presented.Isn't it one form of love which you were trying to defend.No my dear,you were thinking from only one angle.Generally,the students of literature enter the class with prejudiced and biased ideas but when they leave the class they proudly say,"What is hate?" Raja Sharma

No offence, my dear Rajasir, but when I teach language or literature I leave my own idea of morals inside my bag and I try to show what the author meant (in his time). And also, I try to make the students do their own thinking and get their own conclusions.
I think that if young people learn to think by themselves probably there will be less violence in the world. Or maybe not, on the other hand. But that´s not the center of my teaching.
I do not think that by reading Romeo and Julietas a love story we "teach them that they should achieve their love at any cost". It sounds as naive as being afraid that by letting younsters see Superman, they´ll start throwing themselves from, the roof.
And yes, I do think that up to some point, specially when people are very young, love is affection,infatuation and fulfilment of desires (among other things). For me it is still a miracle how it can grow so much from those fragile roots.