Juliet

Of course the song has to do with Romeo and Juliet. However, I think that it isn’t about Romeo and Juliet so much as it is using the allusion to help express the emotions presented by the song. The song is focused on Juliet’s emotions rather than what actually happens. I also say that it probably isn’t about the play because there’s a lot of controversy surrounding it, like the possibility that they aren’t actually in love, but it is mere infatuation intensified by outside forces such as separation, unattainability, loneliness, et cetera. We don’t know how long their love would last because they die pretty soon after they fall in love, and it can be argued that it doesn’t matter how long the love lasts as long as the intensity is there.

All this is relatively moot when you take the song into account, as it is about how someone who is experiencing true love, or at least really strong love, feels. That’s why I say that it’s using the allusions to the play as a device to compare the love the narrator of the song is experiencing to the love that Juliet experiences, implying that they are both experiencing at least strong love, if not true love.

The Chorus is as follows:

“Meet me beneath my balcony and say No one but you could ever fill my night Be the sunlight in my every day Underneath my balcony I'll say No one but you could ever fill my night Be the sunlight in my every day”

This obviously refers to Juliet’s balcony, where Romeo met her. There are references to the whole balcony scene in other lines of the song. The narrator is expressing their desire to be reciprocated in their love. The other lines in the song imply that there is already a level of reciprocation from “Romeo”, but it is unknown if they reciprocate at the same level as the narrator. The setting, underneath the balcony, is indicative of running away together or eloping, as they both have stepped outside their normal bounds at that time. Juliet is supposed to be in her room, Romeo shouldn’t be anywhere near the Capulet’s property. The Narrator (of the song) is experiencing the same need of reciprocation, but the whole balcony deal could be less literal and might not actually entail an obligation to run away because of defying social rules.

Another reference to the balcony scene would be the lines,

“Whispering in the air Hoping that my words find you somewhere.”

This refers to how Juliet poses questions to an imagined Romeo, unaware that he is actually right underneath her balcony and is perfectly capable of hearing everything she’s saying. The whole “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” deal. Outside of the context of the play, the Narrator could also be having hypothetical conversations with their lover or thinking of things that they really want to say to them. This does not have to include their “Romeo” creeping in their backyard, or even a balcony.

Another quote that relates to this,

“Do you hear me call your name I know we will never be the same.”

This more explicitly refers to the “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” monologue. Juliet is calling his name in the famous first line, and then proceeds to lament how they are in rival families who will only relax the feud over their dead bodies. Of course, they don’t know that they will end up dying by the end, but that joke was too good to pass up. At any rate, they will never be the same because their families would not back down on their rivalry just so that they can be together. Outside the context of the play, the Narrator could possibly come from different/rival communities than their lover, High School Musical style. Alternatively, the two people could be very different from each other individually, but continue to be in love anyway. In any case, it would be any situation where they are different, hence “never be the same.”

In the first verse we find more about this,

“You're in my stars you know Don't need no crystal ball to tell me so”

I think that this is about people deciding their fate, and not the other way around. Romeo and Juliet were, for these purposes, in love, despite the obstacles that were thrown at them. Of course it doesn’t end well, but they were making the decision to go with their hearts despite the consequences. They don’t consult anything or anyone to make their decisions, hence the not “needing [a] crystal ball to tell [Narrator] so,” but the narrator is still confident in saying that their lover is “in [their] stars” or in their future, basically saying that their love is assured. Outside of the context of the play, the Narrator may or may not have a few conflicts with the relationship between them and their lover, but regardless they are sure that their love is assured despite consequences.

Which leads to...

“The consequence is hanging there The sky will fall but I don't care”

Since this isn’t an explicit reference to Romeo and Juliet, it pretty much would mean the same thing for both the Narrator and Juliet. Basically, even though there are obstacles and consequences to their relationship, they don’t care as long as they have each other. It might not be as extreme in the Narrator’s case, but they are at least making sacrifices in other areas of their life for the sake of either the other person themself or spending time with the other person, but they don’t care about the consequences because they love the other person so much.

The intensity of the love is described in the lines,

“Your love is haunting me And all I want is more to set me free.”

This is fairly constant between Juliet and the Narrator, as again, there are no allusions to specific parts of the play. Basically, it’s saying that the lack of presence of their lovers are making an empty, dysfunctional hole in their spirits and are only cured when their Romeo are there with them.

Even so, the time they spend together is fleeting, as demonstrated from the final unquoted lines in the song,

“Even when I close my eyes I'll never recreate the time that flies.”

This means the same thing for both Juliet and the Narrator. Their recollections of the time they spent with their Romeo are nothing compared to being with them in real life, and the feelings that they have are gone as soon as Romeo does, leaving that empty, dysfunctional hole in their spirits.

At the end of the song, the melody of “Greensleeves” mingles with the remnants of the tune to the song thus far. It may just be because it’s a song about love that was from the same time period from roughly the same place as Shakespeare (Tudor England). Still, Romeo and Juliet takes place in Italy in the 1300s, and Greensleeves is about how some guy got rejected despite lavishing “[his] Lady Greensleeves” with servants and luxuries in the 1500s. If that is taken into account, it would mean different things in the context of the play as opposed to the Narrator’s situation.

In the universe of Romeo and Juliet, the song could easily be representative of Paris, who is betrothed to Juliet before the whole dying thing happened. He died when Romeo fought a duel with him outside the mausoleum where Juliet was laid to rest after faking her death. Since Paris thought she was dead, he could have seen that as a kind of rejection. Almost as if he was trying to find a song to apply to his plight. Still, the song was written a couple centuries after the play takes place, so if Emilie Autumn intended for this connection to occur like this, we can still give her artistic licence here. It still is from the same time period of Shakespeare, anyway.

The Narrator would have a different view on this entirely, considering that there is no implication of actual or fake death in the lyrics and no mention of an alternative suitor. If that is actually the case, it would be much the same as what happened in the universe of Romeo and Juliet.

If the Narrator doesn’t have a concept of what the full version Greensleeves is actually about and when it was written in comparison to when Romeo and Juliet takes place, then it could just have been their addition to the song to emphasise the theme of love in a very vague time period. If we assume that the Narrator does know about all that, there could be a lot of different situations.

The Narrator could be disillusioned in thinking that their “Romeo” loves them and is rejected later on. It is possible that the Narrator’s “Romeo” is under the impression that the Narrator doesn’t love them. Alternatively, there could be a third party involved in any number of convoluted situations.

At any rate, it still sounds cool. This is a way cool song as a whole.