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Romeo And Juliet 1996 Essay

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‘68 or ‘97: Which Adaption Exceeds? An important element in any film is the story. Shakespeare, a renowned playwright, was a master at crafting story elements. His works have been represented in a variety of ways over the centuries. One such film manages to capture the original intentions of Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet. Thus, the 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet by Zeffirelli is the best film version of the play due to the fact it is more accurate to the words and intent of Shakespeare’s original writing. The order of events that take place in Romeo and Juliet are set in a very deliberate manner to give both obvious and very subtle hints to different plot points. The Zefferelli film opted to favor the storyline and accuracy instead…show more content…
Relationships play a central role in every single one of the actions in Romeo and Juliet. The way the characters feel about each other directly affects what ends up happening to them. In Shakespeare’s original play, the relationship between the Nurse and Juliet is especially prominent. The Zefferelli rendition of the play represents this by duplicating a scene from the play. ‘“Fall’st upon thy face? Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age. Wilt thou not, Jule?” It stinted and said “ay.”’ (1.3.55) Because the movie incorporated this scene, the viewers can truly understand how intimate and important the relationship between the Nurse and Juliet is. This relationship being represented allows the viewer to understand just how much Juliet relies on the Nurse for support. Her father and mother don’t openly express their love for their daughter, and had even gone to the point of getting another person to breastfeed their daughter. That person being the Nurse, their relationship understandably developed into an important one for…show more content…
One could argue that this version of Romeo and Juliet is better at representing Juliet’s true emotions, like her love for Romeo. More importantly than representing their love is representing the anger and betrayal Juliet feels. The passage “Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend! Is it more sin to wish me thus forsworn, Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue Which she hath praised him with above compare So many thousand times? Go, counselor. Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain. I’ll to the friar to know his remedy. If all else fail, myself have power to die.” (3.5.240) This shows the reader how betrayed Juliet feels because the Nurse had simply said she should marry Paris. Whilst the Zefferelli leaves this scene nearly in full, the Luhrmann film flops completely in this front, representing her emotions in a very quick scene that hardly convinces its viewers she is all too hurt. In fact, it seems she is simply upset that Romeo had been banished, which is not the intention of Shakespeare to convey in that particular scene. The way that the Zefferelli version goes about representing this scene is fully accurate to the play. This is critical because in Shakespeare's own writing Juliet feels the ultimate betrayal. If the Nurse had not been portrayed as such, as it was in the Luhrmann film, the viewers would never understand that Juliet was left with very few people to rely on. Those
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