#brian gibbons
“Converted by the sight of the lovers and the revelation of their heroic fidelity, Capulet offers his hand to Montague, sealing the bond of marriage between the two families in a dowry of love, not gold. Both families are bereft of an heir, and the exchange of promises that each father shall erect a statue of the other’s child, in gold, symbolizes the alchemical transmutation of worldly wealth, property, earth, into the spiritual riches of the heart and the imagination. When the play ends the image of the lovers lying side by side remains in the mind’s eye, the passionate speed of young love commemorated already in sculpture, an art which is free from the dimension of time. The youth of the lovers is made immutable, the violence and darkness in their story absorbed in the golden, still image.”— Brian Gibbons, in his introduction to Romeo and Juliet.(viaarisefairsun)
