31 March 2009Behind every great love is a great story.(The Notebook) The story of Romeo and Juliet and Bonnie and Clyde Barrows have demonstrated this quite well. Romeo and Juliet, were two young kids in a forbidden love due to their parents hatred towards each other. Romeo from the house of Montague and Juliet from the house of Capulet should have never met and fallen so hard for one another but one nights fun brought them to a life that would end in a tragedy. While, Bonnie and Clyde were two young law breakers, that loved one another and the thrill to kill. From the start it was trouble for the two, in and out of jail. But nothing was stopping them from being together. The relationships Romeo and Juliet and Bonnie and Clyde are similar with how started and how they ended.
The relationships of Romeo and Juliet and Bonnie and Clyde are alike when it comes to how they started.
Romeo and Juliet had met at a party at Juliet's home and fell in love instantly. After that night there was nothing that would keep them apart. When they had met they knew nothing about who their parents were. Or anything else about them for that matter just that they were truly in love. Later that night Juliet had asked her nurse about the beautiful boy she had just met and now loves. She quickly learns that he is a Montague but to her it doesn't matter. "My only love, sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown, and known too late! Prodigious birth of love it is tome That I must love a loathed enemy." (Shakespeare 1020) From that night on Romeo and Juliet would do anything to be with one another again. In the same way with Bonnie and Clyde. These two had met in West Dallas and it was also love at first sight. The two were soon causing mischief, robbing, and killing everything in sight. Bonnie loved Clyde so much though she wasn't willing to risk losing him, so she tagged along for everything. "She apparently justified her criminal activities because she did not want to leave her man's side. She would stay with him no matter what." (The Story of Bonnie and Clyde.) Bonnie would sneak around with Clyde just as Romeo and Juliet. This loves should have never existed either because it was doomed from the start. A life or such crime could only end badly.
The relationships of Romeo and Juliet and Bonnie and Clyde are similar when it comes to how they ended, in death. Romeo and Juliet's relationship was doomed from the beginning. They had a forbidden romance that only two others had known about. Since their parents were fighting they thought it was better to keep their love a secret. They had been married in a Friars cell with only Juliet's nurse knowing. If the children had only known that the feud between the Montagues and Capulets had been called off during a meeting with the prince then they would have never needed to keep their love a secret causing them problems. The Capulets had planned to have Juliet marry Paris; a wealthy, kinsman of the Prince. When Romeo and Juliet heard this news, they would not go with it. Instead they came up with a plan with the friar who had married them. In all tragedies things always go wrong when they could have been prevented. In this case, Romeo and Juliet's plan had gone awry, leading to the deaths of both of them. While faking her own death to go through with plan, Juliet comes upon Romeo truly dead, because he did not receive the information regarding the plan. "What's here? a cup, closed in my true love's hand? Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end: O churl! drunk all, and left no friendly drop To help me after? I will kiss thy lips; Haply some poison yet doth hang on them, To make die with a restorative." (Shakespeare 1088) Juliet sees Romeo has killed himself and decides she too will not live. She takes Romeo's dagger and stabs herself. " Yea. noise? Then I'll be brief. O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die." (Shakespeare 1090) In comparison with Bonnie and Clyde's story of crime. The should have never been together. It was love when they met, but another situation that should not have occurred. The two had years of killing and robbing under their belts. Always getting away, never really paying for what they did. Until one day the law finally caught up with them and they were not able to get away. They had been gunned down in a car together, shot around 40 times each. "Some day they'll go down together. They'll bury them side by side. To few it'll be grief - To the law a relief - but it's death for Bonnie and Clyde". (The Story of Bonnie and Clyde.) Bonnie and Clyde had caused much trouble in their days and people could only hope their get theirs. When their final stunt ended in death, they were in fact together and their love was a full as it was the first day they met. No matter what they were not letting go of each other even if it meant death.
The relationships of Romeo and Juliet and Bonnie and Clyde are comparable when it comes to how they started, being a love at first sight story. Also they are comparable when it comes to how their relationships ended, in death. Both relationships are very different, ones a forbidden love and ones a love of crime. Although they each tell a story of what people are willing to do for love. Both of their stories are considered a tragedy, that could have been prevented. Their meetings sparked a love that whirled them each into more trouble then they could handle. Their stories had ended badly, but still left a powerful message of what ones willing to to do for another, and that sometimes love is all you got. The best way to sum up these stories is; " Tis better to have loved and lost then never to have loved at all" (Alfred Lord Tennyson)Work Cited"Lord Tennyson, Alfred" In Memoriam. 1850.
"Shakespeare". The Language of Literature. United States of America: McDougal Little Incorporation, 2000 Print.
"The Notebook" Nicholas Spark, New Line Cinema, 2004.
"The Story of Bonnie and Clyde." Rosa, Paul. History Buff. 21 Apr 2009