Learn Something

"Wherefore" means why, not where.

Okay, because nearly everyone is subjected to Romeo and Juliet at some point in his/her high school education, I would think that this is common-ish knowledge. However, this is apparently not the case. I suppose this is fine for the general public, but there's no reason for professionals to perpetuate the misconception.

Yesterday, I watched a bizarre show on Animal Planet called Romeo and Juliet: A Monkey's Tale*, which documented a feud between two groups of monkeys in Thailand that escalated when a female from the temple group got it on with a male from the market group. The voice over narration was "from" the point of view of Tybalt, cousin to the female monkey, Juliet. While I seriously question the reality of this documentary--it seems to fit too perfectly with Shakespeare's narrative to be truly captured on film--it was amusing to see how Animal Planet adapted the classic story. I was enjoying the terrible puns on the famous lines penned by the Bard until "Tybalt" explained that Juliet would go to the train tracks where Romeo had skipped town and wonder "Wherefore was her Romeo?" Unacceptable.

I'm sure someone was paid good money to write the script, so why would he/she not spend some time learning about the play they're riffing rather than relying unchecked on the sketchy, general facts that reside in the public conscious? The issue Shakespeare's Juliet is pondering is not where did that hunky Romeo disappear to after the party, but why oh why is he a Montague--the one boy she can't (or rather shouldn't) have. So when she laments "Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo?" she is bemoaning his connections, not his location.

Okay, then? Got that Animal Planet? All clear?

*Sorry, after more than five minutes of internet searching, I can find no suitable link to point readers to for more information, ergo, you'll have to take my word for it!