[Ribner provides a Christian interpretation of Romeo and Juliet in which he contends that the lovers' deaths are ordained by God to reconcile the feuding families. The critic notes how Shakespeare altered the play into something more meaningful than both a traditional Senecan tragedy, where arbitrary destiny causes the catastrophe, and a tragedy of character, in which the lovers are punished for their reckless passion (the term Senecan tragedy derives from the Roman statesman and philosopher Seneca, who in the first century A. D. wrote a number of violent, catastrophic dramas that later became models for Renaissance tragedy. According to Ribner, Romeo and Juliet mature as they experience evil, ultimately realizing that the world is in fact ruled by a benevolent God. Further, the lovers' suicides reflect their acceptance of death, resulting in the restoration of order and a "rebirth of love" in Verona.]

Critics have usually...