Today’s belated THURSDAY THOUGHT QUESTION is brought to you by the one and only Mikey. He graciously emailed me a picture of a thoughtquestion since the website is blocked at work and for that, I let him choose any question for me to answer. Thanks Mikey!
It’s incredibly cliché of an English major to choose a line from the Great Bard, but c’mon… people are English majors because they’re obsessed with Shakespeare whether they admit it or not. We aren’t all some lunatics like Mandella on 10 Things I Hate about You, who are romantically delusional or anything absurd like that.
Currently (I remain open to the idea someone might usurp this line eventually… there are many talented writers whose lines I have yet to read!) my all-time favorite line is from Romeo & Juliet, Act 1, Scene 3, line 99, spoken by Juliet. Her mother is asking her to observe Paris’s beauty and fall in love with him for it as he’d make a suitable husband.
“I’ll look to like if looking liking move.”
I love so much about this line: the sounds the words produce when constructed together in this sentence, the way they feel in my mouth when spoken, and the depth of meaning and complexity woven with just a few simple words.
I know alliteration is overdone and at times contrived, but I still lovelovelove it. It adds musicality to writing and once a musician, I appreciate the joining of the two arts. Forgive the further alliteration, but this one line defines lilting to me. It’s a measure of flowing legato by the master composer of words.
When observed in context of the play, it’s touching what a dutiful, yet honest daughter Juliet is at this precise moment. Pushing for what is deemed a suitable match, Juliet’s mother encourages her daughter to see Paris as the handsome man he is and from that physical attraction, spark romance. Juliet replies she’ll do her mother’s bidding and be open to love if all it takes is mere appearances but let’s be real: she’s got her heart set on our man Romeo.
Shakespeare, you old goat. How I love you so.
