I was searching online about Shakespeare and suddenly came across this eye-catching picture.
It depicts two silly potatoes. One lying on the ground pierced by a fork and a knife, blood(though made up by ketchup) pouring down from the “wound”. The potato on the left has a wide eyed and terrified expression on its face(if potatoes have faces). At the back stood two police figures, looking like judges of this terrible theme.
This theme looks funny and silly, but it is actually a mirror of Shakespeare’s best written work (and tragedy play):Romeo and Juliet. The “victim” potato represents Romeo after drinking poison, his dead body on the ground. Whilst the other potato represents Juliet, seeing Romeo’s death(and she, too, died soon afterwards as the story was told). The two police officers represent the Montague and Capulet family. These two families have been enemies since long ago in Verona.
The atmosphere of the picture builds up the scene of the tragedy, which is caused by family hatred. The two potatoes symbolizes the two main characters of the love story, and the officers symbolize fate and power, they acted this tragedy play together.
”HATE CAN DESTROY ANYTHING, EVEN LOVE.”
When families or groups hold onto anger and refuse to forgive, it creates a dangerous world where innocent people suffer. Romeo and Juliet’s pure love was killed not by themselves, but by their parents’ pointless hate. In the end, their deaths forced the families to finally stop fighting—but only after it was too late. The tragedy teaches us that quarrels and fights without purpose solves nothing; only peace can truly heal the pain.
That is a very interesting image!
However, since Romeo died by drinking poison, why does he have a knife and fork sticking out of his dead body? Perhaps it could be visual symbolic violence trumping literary accuracy?
Yeah. Actually, I’ve thought of that problem too, after I posted this.😅 It’s just to symbol the violence.
Everyone is welcomed to share their thoughts and opinions about this🙏