Romeo/Benvolio

[meorae]

So, I start my english homework and I start to read the first section in Romeo and Juliet. I'm thinking of how much I'd rather be reading fanfiction than Shakespeare and then Romeo is complaining to Benvolio about how his love can never love him back and all that crap. Then, Benvolio, who is "just Romeo's friend" says:

Ben: Be ruled by me, forget to think of her.
Romeo: O, teach me how I should forget to think.
Ben: By giving liberty unto thine eyes; Examine other beauties. (it's implied that he's saying, like me)

And then after more of Romeo's complaining, he ends with:

Romeo: Farewell: thou canst not teach me to forget.
Ben: I'll pay that doctrine, or else die in dept.

I'm sorry that I see slash in this scene. You do, too, right?

p.s. Did Shakespeare actually mean for Ben to be gay? Because it looks slashy even without my dirty mind being involved.

Comments

[arsinyk.livejournal.com]

Oh, there's definately slash here. There is always slash, but Shakespeare is especially good at getting rid of the need to read between the lines.

And actually, the whole premise of Romeo and Juliet could be interpreted as his way of expressing his frustration with the homophobia surrounding him (which invariably lead to the end of his homosexual relationships, or perhaps forced him to suppress his true desires entirely).

Romeo and Juliet are forbidden by society to love each other, much as he was forbidden to love his boyfriend/crush. However, Romeo and Juliet defy society and persue their relationship anyways, as Shakespeare either persists or wishes he had the courage to persist in courting another man. And in the end, Romeo and Juliet die, just like Shakespeare's relationship, or dream of having a relationship, dies.
He couldn't have written something involving two men at the time, much though he might have wanted it, because people were too homophobic. So he wrote a story with the same basic concepts, only coming up with a different, and more acceptable, reason for the lovers to be kept apart.

And I'll probably come up with some more detailed and convincing evidence once I've actually read the book. XD

[cbizkit.livejournal.com]

Oh, totally. Although I guess people didn't even consider that people might be gay back then, so there was no "innuendo" that way, per se... I'm not making much sense.

Um, yeah, and there's a scene in Great Expectations where Pip tells Herbert to look at him by the firelight, and asks if he's quite himself, and Herbert says yes, but he looks a bit excited... yup.