Parallelism can be found between Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Barsocchini’s High School Musical. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet revolves around two teens, Romeo and Juliet, who try and defy the long feud between their families: the Montagues and Capulets. Their secret love leads to their tragic ending in death, so they can be together for eternity. On the other hand, Barsocchini’s High School Musical revolves around two teen, Troy and Gabriella, who come from two opposite worlds: the jocks and the geeks. Their love escalates quickly, and they must break free from the status quo. Many parallels present themselves between Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Barsocchini’s High School Musical, including fate and love; they can be found …show more content…
As Ruth Nevo states, “The plot of Romeo and Juliet stresses the accidental” (241). Their meeting emphasizes the role of fate in the book, which can be viewed in several other pieces of literature, and often inspires works such as High School Musical. The similarities between the two pieces start from the beginning, where the two teens meet: at a party. As Robert Smith put it, “In harmony with the prologue which tells us that Romeo and Juliet are to be revealed as ‘a pair of star-crossed lovers,’ we observe them repeatedly crying out against the accidents of Fortune.” (72) Fate begins by bringing Romeo and Benvolio the chance to go to a Capulet party when Peter asks them to translate the invitation and invites them to the party if they “be not of the house of Montagues.” However, Romeo and Benvolio, being Montagues, still go to the masked party in order for Romeo to speak to Rosaline. But at the party, Romeo gains sight of Juliet and falls in love with her almost immediately and forgets about Rosaline, chiming, “Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.” (1.5.51-52) At the party, Juliet also meets Paris, the man who wants to marry her, and tries to woo her and win her over because her father, Capulet, declares her too young to wed. Paris’ attempts fail, as Juliet already laid eyes on Romeo and realizes their …show more content…
Both teens then sing karaoke together on a stage at the party, at which point they sing a song entitled “The Start of Something New.” In this opening scene, they sing about how “anything can happen when you take a chance.” As a movie inspired by Romeo and Juliet, it tells the story of two teens and their fate. Later in “The Start of Something New” they sing the lyrics, “Who’d of ever thought that we’d both be here tonight?” touching on their fate of being in the same place, just like Romeo and Juliet when they happened to see each other and fall in love at Capulet’s party. This song acknowledges their fate of being together, similarly to how Romeo and Juliet viewed
The meshing of characters between Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Bernstein’s West Side Story formulate significant similarities between the two. In Romeo and Juliet the story of “Two households both alike in dignity,” (Montagues and Capulets) who have been feuding is parallel to the two gangs in West Side Story (Jets and Sharks). This grouping of loyalties keeps the segregation of the two groups at a dead lock, thus producing the tension that keeps the two lovers in each play (Romeo and Juliet, Tony and Maria) in the unattainable, intangible realm of their idealistic love. It is these two groupings that cause the star-crossed
The Tony award winning musical West Side Story shares much of its themes and characters with the infamous tragedy Romeo & Juliet, and it can be argued that the creators of the musical used the old tale as a template. They do this by developing characters of which are parallel to those in Shakespeare’s drama, as well as, following the same plot in which two born enemies share a forbidden love. This is done to develop the concept of two enemy characters falling in love unexpectedly, thus, forming the plot of their struggle to have a relationship whilst everything is going against them.
Despite their love for each other, Romeo and Juliet
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
However, at the party he meets Juliet for the first time, and immediately falls in love with her: “Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! / For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.” Romeo, who was in love with Rosaline until a moment ago, completely forgets about her and is now all focused on Juliet. But what is very surprising is not the fact that he is in love with his enemy’s daughter, the astonishing thing is the speed at which he falls in love with her. Soon, in fact, he and Juliet kiss each other: “Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged.” However, Romeo’s characteristics to love so deeply Juliet is just a symbol of his lacking the capacity of moderation for intense feelings of all kind. Had Romeo stopped himself from being so deeply caught up by Juliet’s beauty, the tragedy would have never happened.
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.
Romeo becomes convinced that Juliet is the most beautiful creature he has ever seen and ever will see. “Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.” (I, 5, 57-58). Romeo says that his heart has never loved before that moment and that his eyes confirm that Juliet is truly a beauty to be sought. This quote shows how Romeo quickly forgets his lovesickness for Rosaline and falls deeply in love with Juliet. He says that he has never loved before showing that by fate directing Romeo to the party and Juliet to his heart, that fate brings Romeo and Juliet together.
Juliet trusts that Romeo will be with her forever, even when she dies, he will be shining down on her like stars in the night. Therefore, the two characters are convinced the stars are at fault for their love for one another.
Even before Romeo and Juliet met, fate had already made plans for them. When they would meet, they would forget all about their past about who was a Montague and who was a Capulet, all they would focus on would be the love of each other. For example,
Romeo and Juliet’s fate as star-crossed lovers is unavoidable, no matter what decisions the characters make. The entire basis of their relationship begins when a servant, who coincidentally happens to be illiterate, asks Romeo for help in reading the list of attendees to the Capulet ball. Romeo sees Rosaline, his love at the time, on the list and is convinced to attend a party he should not be at. Fate intrudes and causes Romeo to completely forget about his previous love, Rosaline, and becomes instantly infatuated with Juliet. The two happen to fall in love with the one person they are not allowed to pursue a relationship with, and are destined to have an arduous correspondence.
The story of Romeo and Juliet not only portrays teen love, but also
Romeo is solely captivated with Juliet because of her physical appeal, having never felt this deep of an attraction before he confuses his lust with love. When Romeo first sees Juliet he seeks her out because “[her] Beauty [was] too rich for use”(692) and “that first did prompt [him] to inquire”(701) If Juliet had not been so fair then their
In Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare explores the tragic story of two star-crossed lovers. Set in the Northern Italian cities of Verona and Mantua, tells the story of Romeo and Juliet and their love for each other, even though their families are enemies. For generations the Capulets and Montagues have been at each others necks over everything, but this does not stop the two star-crossed lovers. Meeting one another at a masquerade ball and falling in love overnight. These two lovers do countless things behind their parents back and keep numerous amounts of secrets from their loved ones. Making multiple decisions without thinking of the consequences leads them to their tragic ending. So,
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy that involves young lovers, their “untimely death,” and a feud between their two families. The Capulets and the Montagues war against each other. The feud continues to escalate and provides the background for the story of these “two star-crossed lovers.” This literary masterpiece is still relevant today since it involves parental ambition, family fighting, and young love.
However, the relationship between Romeo and Juliet challenges this. Upon meeting