Post #4 - Memory

Photo: http://aeolus13umbra.blogspot.com/

Romeo: I dreamt a dream tonight. 

Mercutio: And so did I. 

Romeo: Well, what was yours? 

Mercutio: That dreamers often lie. 

Romeo: In bed asleep, while they do dream things true. 

Mercutio: O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you. 

She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes

In shape no bigger than an agate stone

On the forefinger of an alderman, 

Drawn with a team of little atomi

Over men's noses as they lie asleep. 

(50-58)

In the above passage, Mercutio uses a folkloric metaphor to illustrate Romeo's unstable memory of his dream. While this passage may first be read as figurative and fittingly cheeky for Mercutio's saucy character, these lines are actually indicative of how this text handles memory in relation to selfhood. Memory in this play is depicted as a malleable construct passed on through the Capulet and Montague lineages--a construct that plays a vital role in self-formation especially for the young lovers Romeo and Juliet. 

The feud between the Montagues and Capulets is most commonly referred to as "ancient" in the text. The use of this word invokes mystery and a certain loftiness that makes the feud's impetus inaccessible. Because the feud is so archaic, none of the living descendants have lucid memories of its catalyst. Rather than lucid memory, the rivals brandish internalized memories of conflict at one another--constantly grappling with the uncertainty and murkiness of their squabble. 

Photo: http://chrisandelizabethwatchmovies.wordpress.com/

Juliet: Go ask his name. --If he be married, 

My grave is like to be my wedding bed. 

Nurse: His name is Romeo, and a Montague, 

The only son of your great enemy. 

Juliet: My only love, sprung from my only hate! 

(135-139)

Enter two "star-crossed lovers," just rebellious kids, really. These two Shakespearean teenagers are wrestling with the same problems that twenty-first century teenagers face--how and when will they find themselves? Sarcasm notwithstanding, Romeo and Juliet are born into a polarized landscape wrought with inherited hatred for one another. Animosity between the Capulets and Montagues is passed down through generations and begins to control the creation of selfhood for characters on both sides of the dispute. The names themselves become signifiers weighted with incorporate memory. Memory gives way to the illicitness of Romeo and Juliet's love affair, which in turn seduces the adolescents even more. Once they have established their commitment to the forbidden love, self-formation continues. 

Photo: http://www.realstylenetwork.com/

Juliet: They save Jove laughs. O gentle Romeo, 

If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully.

Or if thou thinkest I am too quickly won, 

I'll frown, and be perverse, and say thee nay,

So thou wilt woo; but else, not for the world.

(93-97)

Romeo and Juliet's love affair gives both characters the chance to break away from their contrived selfhood--the selves that internalized memory has forced upon them. They are now free to embrace the untraceable opposition between their two families, and use that opposition as fuel for their fiery love. However, Shakespeare soon pokes holes in this convenient reading by exposing the disingenuous nature of Romeo and Juliet's love. In the above passage, Juliet anticipates Romeo's reaction to her ready profession of love. This anticipation comes from years of exposure to texts saturated with women's traditional roles as aloof figures to be desired and gazed upon. Juliet's learned understanding of love (mostly inspired by male hegemonic poetry) propels her in this scene. The same is true of Romeo--both perform their roles with the strict diligence that instruction provides. Genuine or not, this performance furthers both Romeo and Juliet's search for selfhood. Both trade in selfhood found on familial tradition for selfhood found on carpe diem, desire, and preconceptions of love. 

In keeping with Mercutio's musings on Queen Mab, Romeo and Juliet posits memory as an uncertain and fated construct. Memory can always be tampered with--in Romeo's dream, Queen Mab does the tampering. In Romeo's everyday life, his family's "ancient" baggage establishes the parameters for his memory. The same rules apply to Juliet and the Capulet lineage. In this play, Shakespeare exposes the causal relationship between memory and self-formation. In so doing, the play becomes an almost cautionary tale about internalized memory's dangerous (and deadly) ends.