Wherefore art thou?

Romeo and Juliet [PNGwing]

In Shakespeare’s notable romantic tragedy, Juliet hurls the question: “Wherefore art thou Romeo?” The meaning is ‘Why are you Romeo?’ Those who are familiar with the play will understand what Juliet meant. If Romeo’s name was different, their love would have met with no resistance. Romeo was the son and heir of the Montague family while Juliet was a Capulet. There is a violent feud going on between the two families and hence the love between Romeo and Juliet is not welcome. Juliet’s question, in fact, is: ‘Why are you a Montague?’

‘What’s in a name?’ A few moments later in the play, Juliet who has not turned 14 yet, will ask. That little girl who is yet to understand that there is much to a name will end up stabbing herself in the heart for the sake of love.

Wherefore art thou, Juliet? I am left thinking.

I turned 63 the other day. [Hitler and I share the same birthday!] Half a century older than Juliet, I ask myself: Wherefore art thou, Tomichan?

Why did Juliet exist? Why do I exist? Why does anyone exist?

Does life have a purpose?

Long ago, I chose to accept the existentialist absurdity of life. Today, as a senior citizen, I still accept the same absurdity. I haven’t been able to discover any given (by god or any sublime entity) purpose in human life in general. I do admit that there are millions of excellent human beings who live fabulously meaningful and purposeful lives, contributing tremendously towards the progress of human civilization, adding value to existence. Blessed are such people. They chose their purpose in life, I’m sure.

What we make of our life is our choice. Juliet also made that choice. She chose Romeo. She chose love, that is. What’s in a name? She would have been right. There’s nothing in a name where there is love.

But there’s no love, Juliet. That’s the problem with us human beings. We found religions in the name of love and then hate people in the name of those religions. We build up ideologies in the name of love for the nation and then go around killing people in the name of nationalism. We even kill in the name of love for cows.

There’s so much in a name, Juliet. Five centuries after you asked that question – What’s in a name? – the world hasn’t changed a bit. Name matters much. Identity matters. Which party you are matters. If you belong to this party, you can rape and kill, assault and plunder, with impunity. If you belong to that party, you can’t even crack a joke. So we keep changing parties according to the situation. We get paid for changing allegiances too. Fabulous sums of money. Dishonesty pays, Juliet. Deceit pays more. You died in vain as a child. You should have lived to understand human beings better. If you had, you wouldn’t have died for the sake of love.

I imagine you as a grown woman with grey hairs and wrinkled skin plus a lot of wisdom in your heart. Instead of stabbing your heart yourself on the realization that Romeo killed himself for your sake, I imagine that you accepted the tragedy with stoic resignation that wouldn’t have been hard to muster for a woman of your times. You would then grow up observing people and their follies. You would become wise through understanding the essential absurdity of human life. You would have gained a developed consciousness.

What makes God tolerate human beings must be God’s developed consciousness.

Wherefore didst thou die, Juliet, when nothing less than divinity awaited you? 

PS. This post is part of #BlogchatterA2Z 2023

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