Romeo and Juliet – Dire Straits: an alternate cut

Have you ever wondered what would have happened if Juliet had dumped Romeo or if they had been different? Well, Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler did! I don’t know if all of you are fond of cool rock music, but in case you are, this song is a must. Besides being a classic, this piece of greatness tell us about the things that would have occurred if Juliet had been famous and had decided to kiss-her-Romeo-goodbye forever.

The song talks about how Juliet becomes famous and decides to leave Romeo, which constitutes some sort of alternate cut of Shakespeare’s novel. To me, this song tell us the way their love story would have been different if they hadn't killed themselves and had given “their dream”—as the song says—a chance. Nevertheless, it seems their dream is over and just Juliet’s dream is the one to worth living (at least that is this Juliet's opinion), so she decided they had to grow apart. After all it seems that their love wasn't meant to be, right? Well, maybe it wasn't meant to be on Earth because, in the novel, their love made them eternal—or eternally dead.

Additionally, I would like to point out one similarity that the song has with the actual novel, and that is the fact that they came from different sides, but similar in terms of "shame": in the novel, they came from families that were enemies (the Montagues and the Capulets) and in the song, they lived in streets that were different. 

Come up on different streets, they both were streets of shame
Both dirty, both mean, yes, and the dream was just the sameAnd I dreamed your dream for you and now your dream is realHow can you look at me as if I was just another one of your deals?

What do you think, classmates? Did you like the song? What is your opinion about Mark’s version of this novel? And, finally, what do you think about the similarity I found? 

Kind regards!


Sources

Dire Straits. “Romeo and Juliet.” 27 Sept. 2009. Online Music Video. YouTube. 6 Sept. 2014.
"Romeo and Juliet". AZLyrics. Web. 6 Sept. 2014
"Romeo and Juliet (Dire Straits song)". Wikipedia. Web. 6 Sept. 2014.