"Just Dance” by Lady Gaga: This song pairs well with 1.4, the scene where Mercutio is trying to persuade Romeo to go to the Capulets’ party. Like the song, Mercutio tells Romeo he needs to “just dance” (even though Romeo insists he is too depressed for such things). Mercutio is a lot like the upbeat tone of this song, for he just wants Romeo to have a good time and stop being so depressed about Rosaline and his dreams. The line “roses have thorns they say” even sounds like what Mercutio tells Romeo when he says “if love be rough with you, be rough with love.” Finally, the verses of the song (featuring Colby O’Donis) sound like what Benvolio might be chiming in, for these lyrics talk about how many hot girls are at the club, just like Benvolio tries to tell Romeo that there are plenty of other girls besides Rosaline.
"Love story" by Taylor Swift
Taylor was inspired to write “Love Story” when she was going through a difficult situation with a boy she liked, whom she wasn’t “officially” with.
She chose to portray the story of Romeo and Juliet in the song, because she felt like she could relate.
The lyrics talk about disapproval against the relationship, and her desire to go somewhere far away with him, and escape the people who look down on them.
"I close my eyes, and the flashback starts
I'm standing there
On a balcony in summer air"
Juliet’s balcony is one of the most iconic settings of Romeo and Juliet. The best-known scene that takes place here is the second scene of Act 2, often dubbed “the balcony scene.” At this point in the play, Juliet is daydreaming about Romeo, not realizing he is in the garden below her, listening to every word she says.
When Romeo and Juliet meet at a Capulet family party in the fifth scene of the first act, Juliet is unaware that Romeo belongs to the Montague family. When she learns this, she is shocked to realize she has fallen for one of her family’s enemies.
In the play, Romeo never throws pebbles to get Juliet’s attention.
"See you make your way through the crowd
And say, "Hello"
Little did I know
That you were Romeo, you were throwing pebbles"
The Capulets and the Montagues had an ancient feud which forbade them from loving each other. Juliet’s father disapproved of Romeo and his family, and actually arranged a marriage for Juliet with another man. She has a protective father so this is how it reflects in a modern setting.
And my daddy said, "Stay away from Juliet"
And I was crying on the staircase
Begging you, "Please don't go," and I said"
In the play Romeo and Juliet, the couple did not run away together: they faked their deaths to get to one another, then actually died. Swift might be saying she’d like to have an even more romantic and dramatic love story than Romeo and Juliet did.
Since Juliet is only thirteen, her protective parents would be highly suspicious if she suddenly started going out alone. As a result, she can’t leave the house to see Romeo unless she was going to church, which is the one place she was truly allowed to go by herself.
To get around this obstacle, Juliet would sit out on her balcony at night and Romeo would go into the garden underneath it. The pair first do this in the second scene of the second act, and it proves to work for them. However, they have to be quiet, otherwise her parents will notice.
They pretend they’re not in Verona, (the setting of Romeo and Juliet) where they can’t be together because of the feuding between the their two families. They imagine they are somewhere else, where the two could be in love and get married. In a modern setting, it would be them sneaking away for some alone time.
When they met up, she confessed how sad being apart from him made her. She admits she spends her time waiting for him, and asks whether she’s second guessing everything.
“Is this in my head? I don’t know what to think” could be an allusion to Juliet’s thoughts during the Balcony Scene, which is the second scene of the second act. In the scene, after realizing that Romeo has heard her confess her love and admiration for him, she begins to question herself, “I should have been more strange, I must confess”
Taylor re-writes the tragic ending from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, in which Romeo and Juliet get married in secret, Romeo kills Tybalt out of rage & gets banished, Lord Capulet arranges Juliet’s “marriage”, she takes the potion, Romeo actually kills himself, then she kills herself.
In Taylor’s version, however, Romeo talks to her protective father and is able to marry Juliet with her dad’s permission.
The white dress is a reference to innocence and matrimonial/fairytale-like bliss. It was also a prominent feature in the accompanying music video.
In Shakespeare’s classic play, Romeo and Juliet were both teenagers when they met and fell in love, with Juliet being thirteen and Romeo being seventeen.
Taylor herself was young at the time of the song’s release. Born on 13 December, 1989, Taylor would have been 19 at the time of the song’s release.
