Just a little drabble prompted by the following questions asked by my English teacher before we went to see Romeo and Juliet:
What is love?
Did we see that in Romeo and Juliet?
Just so we're very clear, in the show I saw, Benvolio was a FEMALE character. So, this isn't slash for me.
There he went again, running off, only thinking of his "love", his Juliet. What they had wasn't love. It was lust and infatuation.
A good relationship was based off of things you had in common, interests and values you shared.
When you truly lovesomeone, you connect on a spiritual level, and physical characteristics are beyond mattering anymore.
What Romeo and Juliet had wasn't love.
Maybe what she felt wasn't love either. Because maybe love had to be returned in order to be true. And he sure as hell didn't feel the same way.
But whether it was love or not, what she felt was more real than whatever that Juliet was feeling.
Little girl. Perfect little girl she was. Perfect beauty, perfect femininity, and, from what she'd heard, a perfect kisser as well.
And she was just Benvolio, Romeo's not-quite cousin, a girl who acted like a man, a girl who was fierce and angrier than she should be, a girl who wasn't delicately beautiful like his Juliet.
But she was Benvolio, who had been there for him through it all, who had helped him to get over Rosaline (all though she hadn't thought he'd fall for Juliet).
She'd been there when Mercutio had been killed. She'd come to him in Mantua, even though it meant bringing news of Juliet. She had merely wanted to see him.
She'd been there right up until the end, with Friar Lawrence, when they'd discovered his body in the vault, underneath Juliet's.
She still saw it in her mind, still saw the way he'd looked like he was merely sleeping, so soon was he dead.
And it had nearly killed her.
Benvolio was strong. She was good at keeping others at arms length, and good at keeping her feelings to herself. She was skilled at being not-quite a girl (or at least making people feel that way), but not quite a man either. It was best that way. It kept people farthest away that way.
But seeing Romeo's body like that had broken down the walls she'd taken so long to build. It had taken her from the person she wished she was to the person no one knew she could be.
And it had nearly killed her.
After seeing this show with Benvolio as a girl, I have a fascination with her. A girl like that is someone I would like to be. And the actress was amazing!
E