Star-Crossed Lovers

Romeo & Juliet is not my favorite story. I find it not the most compelling romance, with not the most compelling characters, but it does have one strong aspect that I appreciate: It introduced me to the phrase "star-crossed lovers".

I vehemently despise stories where characters struggle with problems of their own making. For example, when a woman is afraid that her husband is cheating on her, and rather than just talk to him, she follows him for one afternoon, and makes a bunch of half-assed assumptions based on her observations. And then rather than confront him or simply leave him, she decides to have an affair with his best friend. And then she finds out that her assumptions were wrong, and has to deal with the guilt and misery which she brought upon herself by acting like a child.

The idea of star-crossed lovers comes from astrology. If your star sign and another person's signs are in alignment, you will get along well, and if they are not in alignment, then you will not get along. With Romeo and Juliet, their signs are crossed, which means that they are in alignment (hence their passionate love), but something is interfering with it working out properly (namely, their respective families).

Now, arguably, Romeo & Juliet does have a certain amount of tragedy that comes from miscommunication or a lack of confidence, but by and large, the greatest obstacles to their romance were everything outside of the two lovers.

In this respect, it is an incredibly compelling story. It addresses one of the harshest realities imaginable: even if you do everything right, even if you are a good person and doing the best possible thing, you can still get thoroughly screwed over.

That is a concept which can be viewed in many lenses. We can ask a number of questions about it, like "Are you sure that's true?" "Why should we even bother trying?" "What do we do after we get screwed over?" "Who exactly is screwing us?"

To ask those questions through our stories, we may find ourselves coming up with quite different answers to all of those questions. We may also find deeper questions to ask, as well.

Ultimately, though, these are the more important stories to tell. They are the ones we need to contemplate and address. Because if fate simultaneously sets us up and knocks us down, the human mind cannot and will not accept that. But if fate has nothing to do with these circumstances, then there ought to be a way to overcome those obstacles. Is there always a way, though?