Romeo and Juliet and String Theory

Posted: February 23, 2012

I love this, you guys. It’s a poster with the entire text of Romeo and Juliet, and every instance of “Romeo” is connected to every instance of “Juliet” with a red line.

I think it’s kind of cool and creepy and apropos that it looks like blood spatter at a crime scene. It’s an interesting commentary on the text.

And more — I’m about to waaaay over-analyze this poster, guys, I’m warning you — I love the idea of connecting Romeo and Juliet with little red lines. It’s become fashionable to read the two characters as headstrong and impulsive kids who brought tragedy down on their heads by mistaking lust for love, but I think that reading is wrong. I think the textual evidence supports the idea that Romeo and Juliet really were soul-mates who experienced a preordained love not quite of this earth.

This poster makes me think of string theory, which says that at the most fundamental, subatomic level, little pieces of us got tangled up with little pieces of everything else at the beginning of the universe. A string that makes up me could be entangled with a string in a distant star or a person in China, and when one thing happens to my string, it effects the other string instantaneously, the only phenomena we know of that’s faster than the speed of light.

Maybe Romeo and Juliet’s strings were just tied to each other.

From Beetroot via John Green

Categories: Miscellany, Reading | Tags: , , , | 8 comments

Comments (8)

  1. Yolanda Shamash says February 23, 2012 at 6:30 pm

    Wow, this is really cool! I actually love your blog because it genuinely educates and entertains me, which is pretty impressive!

    Reply
  2. sara mcclung says February 24, 2012 at 1:31 pm

    I. love. this. It’s completely romantic in such an original way–and makes me want to reread R&J. Though, maybe I’ll just come to you so you can give me the Cristin’s cliff notes version, since you’ll tell me about all the nuances I’d completely miss just reading it on my own ;)
    sara mcclung´s Last Post: ARC Giveaway!!

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    • Cristin Terrill says February 24, 2012 at 10:37 pm

      Dude, we’ll just watch the Leonardo DiCaprio/Claire Danes version sometime; much less actual reading involved that way. ;) I totally want this poster too, but it costs like 160 euros, and it’s red, so it doesn’t even go with any of my stuff. Conundrum.

      Reply
  3. Tami Clayton says February 28, 2012 at 4:43 pm

    Very cool post! I love the string theory of connectedness, too.

    Reply
  4. Erica says March 2, 2012 at 5:39 pm

    Love.This. I bought a gold knotted ring the other day, and a friend asked me “What’s with you and knots?” I said they remind me of my husband. “Why would they remind you of your husband?” I said, it’s string theory – his and mine are tied together. I think I have to buy this for my office – thanks so much for sharing!

    Reply