5 Reasons My Life Next Door is the Modern Day Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare’s
Romeo and Juliet is the classic story of forbidden love. There have been many
remakes and interpretations of the tale throughout the years, but My Life Next
Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick is strikingly similar. From feuding families to
concerned friends, Shakespeare’s great piece of literature shows great
comparisons to this new piece of chick-lit.
1.
Jase and Samantha are star-crossed lovers, very
similar to Romeo and Juliet.
All her life, Samantha was so very
jealous of the Garret family (Jase’s large family). She had always wanted to be
a part of them somehow, but her mother did not approve. Just like in Romeo and
Juliet, where the Montague's and Capulet’s are pitted against each other, the
Reed family had a hatred for the fun-loving Garret family. So naturally, she
forebode her daughter to have any ties to the Garret’s. But of course, Samantha
and Jase fall in love without the knowledge of Grace.
2.
They had to keep their love a secret from
Samantha’s mother.
Similarly to the secrecy Romeo and
Juliet had to partake in, Sam and Jase also had to hide their forbidden love
from Grace Reed. Throughout the novel, they participated in secret meetings and
always met in their hideout spot. This shows parallels to Romeo and Juliet
because whenever they were to meet, it had to be in secret.
3.
Jase and Samantha fall in love very quickly.
Samantha had always known about
Jase and the Garret family, but she never had any interactions with them
because of her mother’s disapproval. After only meeting Jase a few times, Samantha
knew she loved him. While describing the feeling of being with him, she says,
“It was as if everything else in the world stops as we lie here in the summer
night,” (Fitzpatrick 253). Jase and Samantha had a love very similar to Romeo
and Juliet. Even though they knew each other a little bit longer than three days,
like Romeo and Juliet, Sam and Jase fell very hard and very fast, in love.
4.
The “incident” at the end of the novel resembles
all of the Tybalt-Mercutio-Benvolio drama.
Without giving away too much of
the book, the end draws a few parallels to all of the conflict between Tybalt,
Mercutio and Benvolio. Also throughout the book, Jase’s brothers are very similar
to Mercutio, in a way that they always gave him advice. His brother was a bit
of an anchor for Jase and they kept him level-headed. At the end of the novel,
they is a large blowout between the families, much like the fight between
Tybalt, Mercutio and Benvolio.
5.
Samantha spends a lot of her time on her
balcony.
Most of the major scene’s in Shakespeare’s
Romeo and Juliet take place on Juliet’s
balcony. This is also true in My Life
Next Door. Samantha and Jase had been neighbors for their whole lives,
alluded to in the title of the novel. Since Sam’s mother never let her hang out
with her neighbors, the Garret’s, she was always watching from her balcony
window. Also throughout the novel, Jase and Sam spend a lot of time sneaking in
and out of Sam’s bedroom window. “I sit up, edge over close to my window, and
push it open, then next turning back to Jase, ‘Come on’”(Fitzpatrick 301). This
scene is almost identical to the famous balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet.
Romeo
and Juliet may have been written centuries ago, it still has its modern
implications. Reading its modern day remakes gives us, as readers, a better
understanding of classic literature. My
Life Next Door may be a fluffy chick-lit novel, but it does draw some
parallels to literary writing as formal as William Shakespeare.
