The Capulet-Montague Mediation

One year, four Chinese students presented a mediation between Mr. Capulet (Juliet’s father) and Mr. Montague (Romeo’s dad). The ground rules included “No swords” and “No iambic pentameter.”  

After an hour of deep active listening during which each father described the long bloody history of pain and wrongdoing inflicted by the other family,  the mediators asked the fathers to shift from thinking about the past to thinking about the future. What did they want to pass on to their children and grandchildren? What were their hopes and dreams for their descendants?  What legacy did they want to leave? 

In joint session, each father spoke about grandchildren and “dynasty” in ways that seemed more Chinese than Italian Renaissance, but through the mediators’ skillful follow-up questions, the two fathers realized that they shared some timeless, universal needs and values. They realized that if their children married each other, the two families would create a more powerful and sustainable dynasty than either family could create on its own. And they could spend their time, energy and resources building something together rather than trying to destroy each other.   

Mr. Montague and Mr. Capulet raised their goblets to celebrate their new understandings and future plans: Romeo and Juliet would be married in Verona’s grandest wedding ever, and their children would create the new Capulet-Montague Dynasty. Thanks to this agreement, “C-M” descendants are still the leading citizens in Verona today.  

However, not everyone is happy with this outcome.  Shakespeare fans might say that Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy for a reason. They might say that if Romeo and Juliet had lived, literature would have died.  

What do you think? Would resolving the conflicts between fictional characters destroy literature? Or could it help us understand the characters even more deeply so that we develop even more empathy than the author could have imagined?   

Mediation Through Literature: An Educational Opportunity

In my experience, teaching mediation through literature and teaching literature through mediation provides rich opportunities for students to explore both subjects more deeply and creatively, as I learned during my wonderful collaboration with Sybil Marcus, author of World of Fiction - Timeless Short Stories. Many of these stories work beautifully for negotiation and mediation role-plays for non-native English speakers. 

Which literary conflicts would you propose for negotiation or mediation role-plays?  Submit your responses here.

Instructors: Would you like to have your students participate in an online cross-cultural literary mediation in English? Imagine three classrooms in three separate cities, states or countries. One class prepares to role-play one character in conflict; the other class prepares to role-play the other character, and the students in the third class serve as mediators who know nothing about the conflict. 

Contact me and I’ll be glad to try to match you with colleagues who want to try this activity!