First, a reader must understand the way gender was understood in Shakespeare’s time. “If we are going to insist in understanding the Elizabethan dramatic artifice, let us also insist in examining Othello according to the traditional values which Shakespeare has injected implicitly and explicitly into the play (Kirschbaum, 284).” This quote given by another author shows the importance of understanding the original texts. The original text, while maybe outdated, is still vital in understanding the culture and history behind the play. A student must understand the implications that Shakespeare originally intended to be understood by the audience. There are three main characters in the play. These women are Desdemona, Emilia, and Bianca. These women all show true, strong affection to the main men in their lives.…
William Shakespeare is very intentional about character choices and their personalities. Each character plays an important role in setting the tragedy in motion. For this essay, I have chosen to analyze Tybalt, the Friar, and Benvolio’s personalities and explain how they contributed to the tragedies.…
The Zeffirelli and Luhrmann versions of William Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, are similar in several ways. One way that they’re similar is at the beginning of Act I, scene i, Samson and Gregory are at the public place in Verona are talking. When they see the servants to the Montague’s walk by the Capulets servants, one of them bite their thumb at them. Another thing that is similar is when they draw their swords in the Zeffirelli version. In the Luhrmann version, they have guns that are known as “swords” but which are drawn in both versions of Shakespeare's play. In the Luhrmann version, the “swords” they use is a gun. On the clip of the gun, it says Montague or Capulet depending on who the servants belong to. In the Zeffirelli version of the play, the actors would use real swords in the fight scenes. To conclude, there are multiple similarities of William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet.…
The characters do have some differences, since they are created in another place and time. For example, Doc is more helpless than Friar Laurence; Det. Shrank shows the dark side (not the wiser side) of the law; the religious side of Maria and Juliet comes from a different motivation. There are also other possibilities for comparison--are the characters Anybodys and Action similar to Shakespeare's clowns in the way they comment on society? Are Rosalia, Velma and the other women Romeo's Rosalind--stereotypes of women by naive men?…
Romeo and Juliet are two lovers during the Great Depression living in Georgia. Romeo comes from a wealthy family, whereas Juliet is from a formerly rich family who lost all their money in the stock market crash. They met in a diner where Juliet was with her friends and family. Romeo’s family disagrees with marrying someone so poor, so they are banned from seeing each other. Juliet is poor: she wears old hand-me-downs from her mom, and has long brown hair with mismatched shoes. Romeo is rich and wears formal outfits and nice clothing; his hair is cut short and slicked down. The scene with Lord Capulet yelling at Juliet for denying Paris takes place in their trailer home. Paris is the son of a local factory owner, and has a chance on making steady income.…
Nowadays, it is almost impossible to revive old traditions from the past and appreciate them in our modern and exponential times. However, there still are possibilities to cherish some of the archaic literature today that were written so long ago. Celebrated as one of the greatest dramas of all time, Romeo and Juliet depicts a tragedy of two lovers who come from feuding families. The play was first written in the 1500s by William Shakespeare. Almost four-hundred years later, the tragic play was made into a movie in 1968 by Franco Zeffirelli. There are similarities in props and scenes, and distinctions between the original play and the 1968 movie considering the moods and plot details. Either way, the play and the 1968 movie both have glorious presentations.…
In Romeo and Juliet, women have minor roles in the society in the time this play was wrote within the 16th century. They are expected to be obedient and to follow the word of their husbands, but still each women plays a important role which contributes to the outcome of the play "Romeo and Juliet".…
In Zootopia there is some racism to some of the predators. For example the foxes of the city are always know as sly trying to be sneaky and hustling people. Or that there is stereotyping of animals. For example bunnies aren’t the type of workers that do hard labour like being a cop. So the film Zootopia isn’t a perfect place and neither is Romeo and Juliet. These issues in particular don’t exactly fit in perfectly with Verona’s society but they can fit.…
Stephen Evans’ “Study guide for Romeo and Juliet” quotes Anthony Fletcher’s definition of patriarchy as: “the institutionalised male dominance over women and children in the family and the subordination of women in society in general (xv)” (Evans, 4) Looking at this definition, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet displays examples of “patriarchy” in many ways. While Fletcher’s definition focuses on women and children there can be an argument that, from cradle to grave, all members of Verona’s society are subject to the male-dominated patriarchy in one form or another. By studying the familial structure of the major players, the social roles of the populace, the hierarchical structure of leadership, and the interactions between each, the motif is a very dominate one.…
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is set in the small renaissance Italian city of Verona Italy, in 17th century. In that time men had power over women, and they were seen as being superior. In Shakespeare's play, men played the roles of the men as well as the women. The society back then was seen as being patriarchal they believe in magic, fate and destiny. This was reflected in the prologue where phrases such as "star-crossed lovers" and "death marked love" are used to show the love the two main characters have for each other, and also to show that their fate lies both in love and death. Theatre was performed differently during Shakespeare's time. They had fewer props, and did not have as many sound effects. Shakespeare uses a classical orchestra. The audience then still found the play interesting. The costumes used was one of the ways to make the play more interesting, they reflected the gender of the character being played, which were always played by men.…
On Sunday, May 14th a fight breaks out in Verona Square. The feud between the Montague family and the Capulet family turns into a fight between; Capulet servants and Montague servants.…
"Sweet, sweet, sweet nurse, tell me, what says my love?" (RJ 2.5.55) In Zeffirelli's version of Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 5, Juliet seems bratty and impatient because the nurse fails to deliver the information about Romeo as soon as she walks through the door. Luhrmann made his version more modern, and makes the characters kinder to emphasize their relationship. These movies contain some similarities and differences; they both use some of the same lines, but portray the characters in diffrerent ways and the characters wear different types of costumes.…
Equal rights have always been a major issue and dispute. Analysing the role of women in the Elizabethan Era, through Shakespeare’s representation in Romeo and Juliet, and comparing them to the role of women in the 21st century, will help to demonstrate that equality of the sexes has been achieved, and come a long way in the past 400 years. Three ways in which equality of the sexes has been achieved is the role of a married, and unmarried woman, and roles of women in society.…
William Shakespeare’s As You Like It is a pastoral comedy featuring characters who flee to the Forest of Arden in order to take refuge from the societal constraints of city life. The leading female characters, Rosalind and Celia, flee to Arden after Duke Frederick, Celia’s father, banishes Rosalind from the kingdom; like Rosalind’s father, Duke Senior, Rosalind is condemned to live in banishment. Rosalind and Celia decide to disguise themselves as Ganymede and Aliena, a gentleman and a feeble woman, concealing their true gender and class identities. Jean Howard, a literary critic, indicates that female crossdressing threatens the sex-gender system as well as the social order; she views crossdressing as a symptom of an unstable society and contends…
Throughout Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare shows many examples of the main theme, forbidden love. In this story two feuding families, the Montagues and Capulets, each have a child who falls in love with the other. The young Juliet Capulet and Romeo Montague meet and fall in love at first sight. They know they cannot be together because of their names, and that is how the main theme, forbidden love, comes about.…