Present Day Romance Tragedy: Romeo and Juliet Style

Welcome to this edition of Newsgram! 

I hope you are in the mood for romance because today we are going to explore forbidden Love and how overcoming some of our cultural taboos surrounding it can inspire Hope and even lead to World Peace.

Love is very powerful. Are you familiar with William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” you probably are. Its one of the most famous tragic love story of all time but I’ll do a quick summary — The setting — Verona, Italy. Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet meet at a party and its love at first site. However, their families were sworn enemies. Despite all that they decide to get married in secret. Lots of things happen and Romeo ends up killing Juliet’s cousin in a fit of rage, rather than being tried and jailed for his offense he is simply banished from Verona. A different time I suppose. Juliet, desperate to be with her beloved Romeo, takes a potion that was supposed to simulate her death.

Romeo, unaware of the plan, hears news of her death and returns to Verona. Seeing her lying there he takes his own life right beside her. Of course she wasn’t dead and upon waking she finds Romeo dead and subsequently takes her own life.

The reason I’m telling all this is to emphasize the high cost of hatred and division. You see it in West Side Story and many other famously tragic plays and movies but the bottom line is, if the elements of hatred and shame were missing, there would be no story. For the sake of entertainment value that would be a bummer but for the sake of peace it’s another matter entirely.

So, if you are the kind of person who understands that love can happen across cultures, or within different religions and that the penalty for crossing these boundaries should not lead to death, but in fact they might even lead to peace on an epic scale…then you are in the right place.

Entering stage left is David Evans….

David Evans – It all happened suddenly in 1993. I read an article in the Guardian of an Indian man who hanged his son in public because he married, a forbidden marriage bringing shame to the village; bringing shame to the families.

That’s David Evans, author of the book Present Day Romance Tragedy: Romeo and Juliet Style and 1993 was a pivotal time, which we’ll get into in a second.

David Evans – And the keyword really is shame brought by the children on their parents and the society and it leads to an impossible situation for the parents.

As we’ll see, nothing is impossible but that article led him down the road of discovering all kinds of public deaths in the name of forbidden love. Right or wrong, in some cultures death was an acceptable form of punishment for anyone breaking this law. You murder someone in America and depending on the state, you could be put to death. Same thing for marrying the wrong person if you are a member of certain cultures.

David Evans – I have a friend in Delhi who is interested in the same topic and sent me newspaper clippings about similar circumstances and this formed the basis of material that I could start a PHD thesis along the line of Romance Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet Style. That brought me in contact with all the wonderful literature of different cultures about stories of Romeo and Juliet Style which are in every culture.

And, as you might expect he compiled all the stories he found into a book making it extremely convenient for us to read and learn. The book is about a romance tragedy, about lovers who would die for each other rather than be separated. The is particular focus on India but there are plenty of fascinating stories of social progress in relation to forbidden Love that have implications for us all. And not all the stories are tragic, well…most are but not this one.

David Evans – There’s only one actually non tragic story that I really love and that is of Tutanekai and Hinemoa from New Zealand and Hinemoa swam at night across to the island where her lover lived and they got together and the next morning they didn’t know if there would be intertribal warfare or not but the chief and father gave in and they celebrated and lived happily ever after.

It’s a beautiful story, Tutanekai and Hinemoa met and fell in love. Tutanekai, a young warrior had to return to his village but while separated the lovers agreed that every night, Tutanekai would play his music and Hinemoa would let his song be her guide as she swims the three-thousand mile trek to Mokoia (Moe-Ko-E-uh) Island. No big deal if your Diana Nyad…

David Evans – But their wonderful stories of different cultures and they are all exciting to read.

Absolutely but I want to close the loop on a couple of points that we Brought up earlier and one is the year 1993 regarding the situation in India.

David Evans – 1993 was pivotal because these stories came to all India attention and they came to global attention. And that led to a social response now before 1993 these happenings in villages would be reported locally and ignored generally and nothing would change the system but when it came to public opinion this led to the authorities having to do something. In fact the high court eventually favored the death penalty for perpetrators of the killing of lovers. So, it’s a very action packed story, ongoing.

The suffering in these tragic stories is felt by people on all sides of the conflict and it ultimately goes even deeper to the fight for the right to make our own choices.

He says the slow gradual change from violence to non-violence’ to acceptance, to eventually celebration is a generational change that is not only welcome but that can inspire hope and he also says it’s important to examine how these stories can help bring about peace.

David Evans – the second part of the book is about the implications for, globally for pathways of peace, with so much strife in the world at the moment it tells you about some of the key mediators, people who win Nobel prizes for their peace work. You can read about Nobel Prize laureates . You can read about leaders of Peace thinking, you can read about various religious stances on peace and it’s all about our pathway to peace and I think if there’s a key message it’s education for peace which would start with children.

His book is called Present Day Romance Tragedy: Romeo and Juliet Style, and despite the somber theme, it’s going to leave you with a message of hope for a new generation. It suggests that even through tragedy, there is potential for peace, for positive change and for a better future for all of us.

David Evans – These stories are worth reading. They can be read virtually by everybody, young and old. And the conclusions are, everybody has a job to do in working for Peace, working up ways to solve conflicts and to work for Peace on a day-to-day basis.

We all have a job to do indeed. David is doing his part by bringing these issues to our attention through books and by lecturing at Peace conferences.

David Evans – It’s a lovely chance to talk all about this and talk about the lessons from the local situation that can be learned globally and be pointers to how peace can be achieved.

And you can’t talk about Peace without bringing up Ghandi and his three Pillars, Truth, Non-violence and Harmony. He talks about all of these in the book but I found a great quote on the website NobelPrize.org from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and I wanted to share it with you. He said, “Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.”

Peace and Love to all of you and thank you for listening. Present Day Romance Tragedy: Romeo and Juliet Style by David Evans,is available now at all the places you like to shop for books. There are links in the show notes to make that job easier for you andthat will do it for this edition of Newsgram from webtalkraido.com. 

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