CREATED BY: William Shakespeare
FIRST APPEARANCE: Romeo and Juliet (written c. 1595)
AREAS OF INFLUENCE: Isn’t love, when all is said and done, the biggest influence of all? Few lovers have the fame enjoyed by Shakespeare’s star-cross’d ones. Or, rather, the fame they are saddled with. Their story—a family feud that could have been broken by the power of love, a tragic ending—has influenced fine art and pop culture (West Side Story, for one). Their words have influenced our language, from “parting is such sweet sorrow” to “what’s in a name?” to “tempt not a desperate man.” Romeo and Juliet inspired a new paradigm for thinking about the meaning of love, even if it’s one you wouldn’t want to follow.
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