Preview

Similarities Between Romeo And Juliet And Baz Luhrmann

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
927 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Similarities Between Romeo And Juliet And Baz Luhrmann
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet presents us with an array of timeless values that are depicted through Baz Luhrmann's filmic adaptation of the text. The main contrast between Baz Luhrmann's film and the original text is that the film context takes place in a modernised society much like ours today, carrying the same notions that are present within the original text into a society relevant to ours. The Concept of family is a key moral in both Baz Luhrmann's and Shakespeare’s texts that is intertwined with religion and ideas of a patriarchal society forming a complex text that highlights many ideas existing within today's community.

The value of family is majorly emphasised in Luhrmann's film which enables us to connect more easily with the film
…show more content…
Metanoia used by Lord Capulet in “I think she will be ruled in all respects by me” portrays a sophisticated tone and highlights his control of Juliet. This is a part of the patriarchal society from the Shakespearean era and shows that a daughter’s choices are expected to be shaped by her father’s will. This aided by the accumulation of hateful words in “And you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets” which reveals the lack of care and love that Juliet’s father has for his daughter and the control over women in the patriarchal society. Juliet and other women were simply treated as little more than a possession that a man can misuse and exchanged without a second thought. Negative connotations used in “Hang thee, wreck’d baggage. Disobedient wretch.” belittles the power of women and outlines the fact that they are but the mere property of their fathers. The use of commodification labels Juliet as a possession by using words such as “baggage” and “disobedient” which further strengthens this idea. The soliloquy used by Juliet in “I am sold but not enjoyed” demonstrates that the role of women in the Elizabethan era was a but a commodity to their parents. Shakespeare’s text of Romeo and Juliet was used by Baz Luhrmann to allow the modern audience to relate and contrast to our own ideals and view the progress humanity has made in these

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    In the opening scene of the modern adaptation of "Romeo and Juliet", the qualities of the feuding families: The Montagues and The Capulets are successfully exposed to the audience by the use of presentational devices. The director, Baz Luhrmann, has paid deliberate attention to these areas, which successfully portray the rival family member's temperaments. The use of different lighting, colour, music, sound effects, costume and make up are applied to represent the different families to show the distinction of the two. Areas such as framing, location, camera angle and movement help to express the diversity of the two families, making it apparent to the audience the existence of the two families resentment towards each other. This essay will…

    • 2003 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    ‘Romeo and Juliet’ written by the great man William Shakespeare is a title that everyone knows about. It’s a story that talks about both love and conflict in different types of relationships. Parental relationships are an eternal issue which often involves tensions even conflict. Relationships differ even today between parent and child, and the way it may be interpreted is affected by women’s role in society in Elizabethan England. In Elizabethan England, women were expected to adjust social restrictions by showing obedience and respect to the men in their lives. We describe this as being a patriarchal society, where men are more dominant. In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare explores the effects of being part of a patriarchal society. In this assessment, I will examine just how the way Shakespeare presents the relationship from the literary heritage between Juliet and Lord/Lady Capulet with backed evidence.…

    • 1754 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Baz Luhrmann's film, Romeo and Juliet, is very successful as an appropriation of the original play by Shakespeare. Transforming the pre-16th century play into a contemporary popular culture film was done creatively by keeping the same values and language, but changing the context. This is illustrated by the use of anachronisms. For instance, daggers and swords are replaced by guns as well as cars stand in for horses. The disputes between members of the two families (the Capulets and the Montagues) evoke associations with multi-ethnic gang warfare. Their feud reflects the behaviour of mafia families. Using these modernising elements, he achieves an appeal to the contemporary teenage audience and the changes 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.…

    • 1215 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Texts and ideas from texts are appropriated and transformed into other text forms and other compositions in a different context. An appropriation is a text that is appropriated or taken over by another composer and presented in a new way. ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is a well-known high culture text that is a tragedy about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. In the 1997 film, Baz Luhrmann has taken what is valued about the original play of ‘Romeo and Juliet’; the themes, evocative language and poetry, the timeless storyline and humour, and has placed it in a context which is accessible and appealing to a modern audience. This essay will demonstrate how and why Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ has been appropriated and valued for modern audiences in relation to: variations in the reactions to the text over time, differences and similarities between language, settings, prologue and chorus, themes, characterisation, techniques, values and contexts, as well as different readings of the play and other appropriations.…

    • 2536 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dusk of July 1st another brutal brawl between the feuding families of the Capulet and Montague unfolded on the streets of Verona. Tybalt Capulet and Mercutio Escalus were found dead. Since their deaths, Romeo the son of Montague has been banished. When both households came to know, they were filled with anger and grief and swore revenge against each other.…

    • 464 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    However, in spite of the many differences, there are similarities between the two stories. Romeo and Juliet and “Teen Couple Executed by their Parents…for daring to fall in love,” both involve the deaths of the couples all happening at a young age, all of them dying before the age of 19 before any of their parents died. Throughout both stories a common factor is that the couples were forced to make adult decisions about their lives and love lives; while, the adults around them were making many poor decisions. Unlike many love stories where the strong, handsome male saves the damsel in distress, the female protagonists in both of these stories appeared to be stronger than their male counterparts. Maybe that is why when the time came, both mothers…

    • 337 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Juliet’s personality and character is one of the most obvious and significant element that has been recontextualised. In Shakespeare’s play, Juliet is described to be more than just a pretty face; she’s smart, witty, determined and mature. She knows what she wants, and she gets it as it is Juliet who proposes to Romeo not the other way around. In the text, she is written to be thirteen years of age and begins the play as a naïve child who has thought little about love and marriage, but she grows up quickly upon falling in love with Romeo. Being a girl from a high social class family, she has none of the freedom Romeo has to roam around the city or climb over walls at midnight. However she shows amazing courage in trusting her life and future to Romeo, refusing to believe the worst reports about him and even willing to shut important people out of her life (nurse) the moment they turn against Romeo. "And when I shall die, take him and cut him up in little stars, and he will make the face of heaven so fine that the entire world will fall in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun." Juliet’s role in society is very minor and simple. She is the pretty, ‘prized’ daughter of the Capulets and is expected to be obedient of men in their families. In the novel, she receives little guidance and help from her family and is expected to marry Paris as her father decided. This gives a clear example of women’s role and its unimportance.…

    • 896 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    William Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, is surface on the tale of love. Somewhere within the play we see many different connections between violence, hate, and death. Romeo and Juliet’s death is cause by the unbending and strict society that would not allow them to be together. The connection between violence and love is to be determined. The drama is able to advice readers more or less with the meaning of gender, love, and fate, and it will provide examples of how our society is today.…

    • 184 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Controlled Assessment

    • 4047 Words
    • 17 Pages

    The iconic tragedy written by the world’s most honoured writer William Shakespeare, ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is a title the world is familiar with. Its impact on modern society is impeccable, whether related to love, tragedy or both moral and academic education, the modern media adopts its philosophy. Shakespeare is trying to educate, and the ever-pending battle is the matter of character vs. society; relationships differ even today between parent and child, and the way it may be interpreted is affected by women’s role in society in Elizabethan England and how the audience’s perspective of prejudice and patriarchy. Shakespeare explores emotions and allows adjustments in the relationship in an attempt to drop the audience’s jaws open in eras of both old and new. In this assessment, I will examine just how the way Shakespeare presents the relationship between Juliet and Lord/Lady Capulet with supported evidence.…

    • 4047 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shakespeare depicts love that can empower one to challenge the convention and the tradition in the world in which they live. In the patriarchal society, it is unthinkable for the daughter to defy her parents. Juliet goes against all social restraints when she contradicted her parents with, “I will not marry yet; and when I do, I swear it shall be Romeo.” Even her father’s outburst of rage in “young baggage, disobedient wretch!” did not change her plans. And in the world where names mean more than just a way to address oneself, she advises Romeo to "Deny thy father and refuse thy name… And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.’’ Young Juliet experiences love that gives her courage to challenge all that is expected of a young unmarried lady of noble background. Therefore her love liberates her from the bondage of the social mores of the time.…

    • 782 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    No matter what critics say, Luhrmann’s film was a masterpiece. He was dared to make something new, whereas in this matter, as it seemed, everything has been told, seen and created. The film was an experiment which can be described as blending two substances, of which no one would have ever thought that they can go together this well. It was a kind of play with conventions, which was based on an assumption that if one takes a work of a great dramatist, a couple of talented actors, adds some modern set and seasons it with good music, the outcome must be delicious. And actually the assumption turned out to be right. The ‘modernisation of Shakespeare’ tends to be one of the few possible ways of popularisation of his plays within the contemporary society.…

    • 947 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, the introduction of Romeo to the audience is haunted by a melancholic mood. The scene is set in Verona where Romeo’s family is worried about him due to his rejection in love from a woman, Rosaline. However throughout the scenes studied, it seems that love is the primary driving force behind most of Romeo’s actions and words. In general, the theme of love and the course of it intertwine with the fate of the violent peacefulness of this tragedy. His determined desolation from his family stirs unease in his cousin, Benvolio. During the course of this tale, Romeo blooms to become a mature man, who has experienced the double edged blade of love itself.…

    • 1715 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Baz Luhrman's "Romeo and Juliet  is set in a modern city; a striking contrast to the Elizabethan England of William Shakespeare. Consequently, the attitudes embodied in the film differ from those conveyed in the play. As contemporary…

    • 505 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Romeo and Juliet

    • 1147 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Parenting is a responsibility beyond compare. The parents of today’s society carry the task of raising our next generation of adults. Both modern day parents as well as children face circumstances and issues that are particular to the 21st century. With today’s newfound technology and means of transportation, the scenarios that take place in Romeo and Juliet appear utterly ridiculous to us. The formalities and customs of the 1500’s were vastly contradictory to those of our era. Young girls, as young as age twelve, were married off to adult, sometime much old men. The story of Juliet Capulet and Romeo Montague is a textbook case of the “norm” in the 1500’s. Shakespeare emphasizes that extreme parental restriction and control can lead to destruction of true love, and sometimes, young lives as well.…

    • 1147 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Romeo and Juliet

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages

    William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, written in the Elizabethan era, retells the story of two young teenagers from feuding families who tragically fall in love. Out of the fabled pair, Juliet’s character experiences a greater change. From a naïve, innocent girl, Juliet changes and develops prominently into a rebellious and defiant young woman due to her infatuation with Romeo. As result of her love for her sworn enemy and his banishment, she changes her allegiance between family and lover, disobeys her parents and changes her beliefs and values.…

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays