One is that young people in love have a tendency to lose their perspective. Shakespeare, as usual, is trying to tell us many things. What does this play tell us about people? Another way to put this question is, “What was Shakespeare trying to tell us in this play about the way that people act?” Instead, they act quickly and do not consider anything but their love.ģ. The same is true of Juliet, when she awoke to find Romeo dying or dead. He could have devoted his life to helping others or become a monk. He could have lived to cherish her memory and bring peace between the Capulets and the Montagues. Romeo, finding Juliet dead, need not have renounced his life. Their love blinds them to the other possibilities of life. They love too strongly, and they act rashly. Romeo and Juliet both have a tragic flaw. See Discussion Questions for Use With any Film that is a Work of Fiction.Ģ. To plumb the depth of this tragedy both children and adults will benefit from seeing several different productions of “Romeo and Juliet,” each with a different emphasis.ġ. This is not to say that this film is not an excellent introduction to the play.
Do Juliet and Romeo see how corrupt and flawed their world is? Do they ever understand that love so intense as theirs is self-destructive and cannot last? Do they really come to terms with life and with death? All of these questions can be better answered than they are in this production. There is less insight and defiant anger in this production than can be found in the text. The hero and heroine do not ripen in understanding, and their deaths are conceived too simply. The Zeffirelli production of “Romeo and Juliet” has been criticized for emphasizing the sentimentality and pathos of the story at the expense of tragedy. Text and line numbers from The Complete Works of Shakespeare Hardin Craig, editor, Scott, Foresman and Company, Glenview, Ill. Mercutio: A plague o’both your houses! I am sped. Juliet: What’s in a name? That which we call a rose Juliet: O Romeo, O Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? Shakespeare’s schematic transfer tells us everything we need to know about Juliet - and Romeo’s feelings for her - in just four simple words. In these particulars at least, she is indeed the sun. Romeo is inexorably drawn by her gravitational pull. On the surface, Juliet is nothing like the sun. The beauty and breadth of this metaphor are nothing short of phenomenal: Romeo: But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It seems she hangs upon the cheek of nightīeauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!, Romeo: O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! Juliet: It is an honour that I dream not of.
For more on the West’s rejection of arranged marriages in favor of love-matches, see the Helpful Background Section in the Learning Guide to “ Pride and Prejudice“.
The final step is the current situation in the United States and Europe in which children simply inform their parents of their choice of a husband or wife. The necessity of a father’s consent to marriage figures in many works of art. This lasted longer for girls than for boys. In later centuries when children were able to choose their spouse, they were still required to obtain the consent of their parents, usually the father, for a marriage. Later, Capulet reverts to the old style, demanding that Juliet marry Paris, on pain of disinheritance. Lies my consent and fair according voice. At first he tells Paris, Juliet’s suitor:īut woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart, Juliet’s father, Capulet, is ambivalent on this issue. Later, children could veto a parents’ choice. They married the person their parents selected. In Antiquity and the Middle Ages, among the upper classes where issues of property and power were important, children were their parents’ chattel. Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo, Claire Danes as Juliet, Harold Perrineau as Mercutio, Paul Sorvino as Fulgencio Capulet, Pete Postlethwaite as Father Laurence and Miriam Margolyes as the Nurse.Įuropean-based civilization has had an evolving attitude about how a spouse should be chosen. Olivia Hussey, Leonard Whiting, Michael York, Milo O’Shea.ġ997 Academy Awards Nominations: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration Australian Film Institute Best Foreign Film British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards (BAFTA) Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music, Best Production Design, Best Screenplay – Adapted, David Lean Award for Direction.
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