Individuals are subject to the forcefulness of love and the inevitability of fate due to varying ideals and what is known as “meant to be”. This idea is explored in both William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1600) and Baz Luhrmann’s modern appropriation (1996), through personal values and separation between families. Baz Luhrmann’s film is a very successful appropriation of the original Shakespeare. Transforming the 16th century play into a contemporary popular culture film was done creatively by keeping the same values and language, but changing the context. The inevitability of fate upon different values which leads to the victim having their possibilities restricted. The forcefulness of love and inevitability of fate are thematic issues that captivate audiences in any era being themes that transcend time, hence they are commonly used in many texts. Set in a world where monarchy dictated how people lived, love is effectively used to create a mystery and complication. Using various modernising elements, Luhrmann achieves an appeal to the contemporary teenage audience and the changed in the film create a more comprehensible meaning to the audience because people can relate to it better and this is why the film is so engaging. The forcefulness of love is explored through the resilient, elated, overpowering force that prevails which surpasses all other values, loyalties and emotions. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, individuals are driven to resist family values and defy their social world for love. In Act 2, Scene 2, Juliet’s dialogue in “Deny thy father and refuse thy name,” illuminates the overriding theme of love through Juliet’s disobedience to her father to will for the one she loves. In Act 2, Scene 5, the dialogue "If all else fail, myself have power to die" is used to show how love can overwhelm a person as powerfully and completely as hate can. The symbol of the potion demonstrates Juliet’s determination to fight for Romeo. The potion also symbolizes human society’s tendency to poison good things and make them fatal, just as the pointless Capulet-Montague feud turns Romeo and Juliet’s love to poison. Romeo and Juliet portrays the chaos and passion of being in love, combining images of love,
William Shakespeare's "The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet," set in 16th century Verona, Italy shares differences with Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo + Juliet," set in modern day Verona Beach. These stories contain the same characters and conflict, however major and minor discrepancies are galore in the story lines of both formats of William Shakespeare's creation. Some major inconsistencies occur, such as Mercutio dying at a beach, portrayed as a hero, instead of being at a bar, looking like a fool, Friar Lawrence's letter is successfully sent to Romeo by mail carriers, however he does not have the opportunity to read it, unlike in the play version, where Romeo does not get the letter from Friar John, and is told the news by Balthazar, and nobody
Romeo and Juliet’s excessive love and blind love are the most powerful ingredients to their self-destruction. The young lovers, Romeo and Juliet’s idolatry for each other symbolizes excessive love by them willing to go against their families and committing suicide at the
Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, is a tragic love story about two young lovers who are forced to be estranged as a result of their feuding families. The play is about their struggle to contravene fate and create a future together. As such, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood would try and emulate Shakespeare’s masterpiece. This had been done before in many films. Prominent among them were, Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 “Romeo and Juliet” and Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 “William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet.” Both films stay true to the themes of Shakespeare’s original play. However, the modernised Luhrmann film not only maintains the essence of Shakespeare’s writings, Luhrmann makes it relevant to a teenage audience. This is
William Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, tells the story of the tragic love between Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet. The play has been reinterpreted throughout time and Baz Luhrmann’s film version, William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, uses a modern setting to tell the tale. Luhrmann’s cinematic understanding reinforces the key themes of love, fate and hate as he explores Shakespeare’s famous play.
Baz Lurhmann’s creation of the film Romeo and Juliet has shown that today’s audience can still understand and appreciate William Shakespeare. Typically, when a modern audience think of Shakespeare, they immediately think it will be boring, yet Lurhmann successfully rejuvenates Romeo and Juliet. In his film production he uses a number of different cinematic techniques, costumes and a formidably enjoyable soundtrack; yet changes not one word from Shakespeare’s original play, thus making it appeal to a modern audience.
The 1996 film, Romeo and Juliet, is Baz Luhrmann’s interpretation of William Shakespeare’s play by the same name. This film is part of Baz Luhrmann’s Red Curtain Trilogy where Luhrmann uses a theatre motif in each, with poetry and language being the motif used in Romeo and Juliet. This play was originally written by William Shakespeare who was an English poet, playwright, actor and a man who is considered one of the greatest contributors to English literature as he invented over 1700 now common words and wrote some of the world’s most famous plays. Romeo and Juliet was written in 1595 so Luhrmann had to give the film a contemporary twist but keeps the original themes of forbidden love and young romance to appeal to a modern audience. In the
“William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet”, as portrayed in Luhrmann’s 1997 film, reveals that the cause of love will always lead to the consequence of death. Luhrmann focuses on highlighting this connection through the usage of props, costumes, and symbols, the foreshadowing of Romeo’s and Juliet’s fate, and Romeo’s compassion for his friends and family throughout the film. These aspects of the film emphasize the connection of love and death and explore the harsh realities and truths relating to this connection.
Discuss the appropriation of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by William Shakespeare and ‘Romeo+Juliet’ by Baz Luhrmann
Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet was an accurate representation of the famous Shakespearean play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, and was very entertaining for today’s audience. First, this modern version presented the original play in both an appealing and entertaining way for the younger generation. People today are interested in movies that are more romantic yet action packed, and Luhrmann’s version of Romeo and Juliet met these preferences. The film included many scenes from the original play that were changed to be action packed and tragic, such as the gunfights between the Capulets and Montagues, which appealed to the younger audience because of their modern day thinking. Because the film was action packed, the audience took an interest
In the ‘timeless classic’ Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, the author brilliantly utilizes several literary devices to convey the motif that true love cannot be stopped. He does this by using many opposing ideas such as love vs. pain, day vs. night and
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Baz Lurhmann's Film Version Previously, in Act 2 Scene 6, we have seen Romeo and Juliet marrying one another thus binding the Montagues with the Capulets together. The marriage had to take place in secret, due to the war between the two families. We see at the beginning of Act 3 Scene 1, the behaviour between Romeo, Mercutio and Tybalt reflect the hatred between the Montagues and Capulets.
The idea of love for people, places, objects, and ideas affect the way we act and how impulsive we are if they were to be threatened or killed. In the tragedy Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, the love between Romeo, a Montague, and Juliet, a Capulet, causes them to make impulsive decisions that affect not just their lives, but also their families and the rest of Verona. These actions can present the theme as “Love is an overpowering force that
Shakespeare has created a quintessential tragedy in which deepens the audience’s understanding of the universal themes of love, hate, conflict and death. The recurring focus on the tension between love and hate makes us reflect on how these themes govern upon human behavior. In the play Romeo and Juliet, the main characters for which Romeo and Juliet the denial of love and dominance of hate creates extreme loss, in this case, death. In progress, audiences have recognized that the death of two young people is entirely imprudent, creating a need for acceptance.
In both versions of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Juliet voices her concerns about getting married too quickly; however, the Luhrmann version uses lighting and music in a static manner, which conveys a feeling of ignoring the seriousness of the scene, whereas the Zeffirelli version changes the music and lighting with the emotion of the scene to effectively convey Juliet’s concerns.
A tragedy is a play that has an unhappy ending and evokes strong emotions and sympathy from the audience. Because they are so emotional, they are also very dramatic. One of the most famous tragedies is Romeo & Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, which is about two teens who fall in love but are from separate feuding houses. At the turning point of the play, where it transitions from comedy to tragedy, a fight breaks out between the two houses and Romeo kills a member of the opposite house. This is one of the most important scenes in the play because it is the turning point of the story, and thus should have a mood that is emotionally and tragically dramatic. In two of the most famous adaptations of the book, the films directed by Franco Zeffirelli and Baz Luhrmann, there are different takes on the