Hey Tou Chiu: Response to Romeo and Juliet Balcony Scene

In Act II, Scene ii of Romeo and Juliet, we see Juliet at her balcony window talking to herself about her love for Romeo. Due to both of their family backgrounds, they are unable to be together as the Capulet’s and Montague’s are sworn enemies. Juliet wants Romeo to change his name and Romeo, who is hiding amongst the hedges overhears her issue, surprises her by offering to take another name.

At first, I was puzzled about what the characters were doing, but after re reading the script several times, the scene formed a question in my mind – “Does a word mean anything?”

In my understanding, a word is a tool we use to understand or describe something. Taking a book as an example, the book we see in front of us can be replaced by another ‘word’ that can still mean the object ‘book’. We know that the object we see is a ‘book’ because we have been taught so since we were young. Yet, we never questioned why it is called a ‘book’ and nothing else! Juliet points this out when she says “What’s in a name...Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d, Retain that dear perfection which he owes without that title”. Romeo will still be the same person with the same qualities, just that he would not be called Romeo but some other name. Similarly, the ‘book’ will still have a square shaped, still have pages that we read, even without it being called a book!

This issue leads me to question whether we can change words that we have always been using, replacing them with different words. When I think more about it, I think this is possible. I guess we never thought about this because we never had this idea of using a different word to replace an existing one already and when we do question why we don’t do this, we never actually get an answer.