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I was assigned Ethan Frome in a high school lit class and to this day I think it is one of the worst books to assign to emotional, angsty, experience-limited teens.
I also don't understand why Romeo and Juliet is the go-to Shakespeare work that we default to.
How do we handle complex romantic relationships? Suicide / attempted suicide, of course! Just what every teen needs to hear /s
Possibly because Romeo and Juliet were stupid teenagers and and part of the tragedy is about the impulsiveness of youth. A good teacher can sometimes get that across, but I suspect it doesn't really sink in. And if they didn't teach it with A Midsummer Night's Dream it's also a missed opportunity - Romeo and Juliet is satirized during the Pyramus and Thisby play-in-a-play.
I completely agree about Ethan Frome, but perhaps you'll like this video, which cracked me the hell up.
Amazing. 100% faithful to my memory of that book.