Comparison between the two versions of Romeo and Juliet

GCSE English

Prologue

Two households, both alike in dignity,

In fair Verona (where we lay our scene),

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;

Whose misadventured piteous overthrows

Doth with their death bury their parents strife.

The fearful passage of the death-marked love,

And in continuance of their parents rage,

Which but their children’s end nought could remove.

Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stay

The which of your with patient ears attend,

What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

The difference in the movies

We have watched two versions of ‘Romeo and Juliet’. One was made in 1968 by a man called Franco Zeffirelli and was set in Verona, in the Middle Ages. A man named Baz Lurhmann made the other movie in 1996 still set in Verona. This version is very modern. The stars in the Zeffirelli version were Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting. The Lurhmann version starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.

One of the main differences between the two versions of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ was the opening. The Zeffirelli movie had quite a slow opening, in contrast to fast and furious opening of Lurhmann’s version. Both films used Shakespeare’s play properly, but their outcomes were very, very different. Zeffirelli’s version of the opening was set in a market square, whereas Lurhmann’s opening was in a petrol station. When the Montagues and Capulets have a confrontation in Zeffirelli’s film, the argument is quite courteous, in a mocking way. But in Lurhmann’s version, everyone is frantic, especially the ‘Montague Boys, but they still manage to put a shouted ‘Sir!’ at the end of each sentence. Also, before the ‘Montague Boys’ were shown at a petrol station, a newsreader is saying the prologue of ‘Romeo and Juliet’. The newsreader then fades out and the viewer is shown empires, belonging to the Capulets and Montagues. This is meant to show you that the reason for the Montagues and Capulets rivalry is down to the business empires, belonging to the two families. In Zeffirelli’s film, there was no reason for the bitter, ancient grudge.

Love in Romeo and Juliet

In each version, there are a lot more evil words than there are nice ones, e.g. ancient grudge, civil blood, fatal loins, death-marked and rage but the only word to do with love in the prologue is ‘star-crossed lovers’. In the prologue we can already tell the sort of story that it is going to be. A love story with violence and worry in it. After the prologue, it goes back on itself because we are introduced to Sampson and Gregory who make many sexual jokes and are very vulgar. They do this by referring to women as the ‘weaker vessels’ and says he will rape the maids of the Montague household because ‘Women being the weaker vessels are ever thrust to the wall’ and then carries on by saying ‘I will push Montague’s men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall’ They obviously see women as objects, not people. This was very common in Shakespeare’s time. Families were extremely patriarchal. Romeo shows he has experienced true love with Rosaline but he knows that he can’t have her and he shows it because he continues to mope around about her. He meets Juliet at a party he gatecrashes because he thinks that Rosaline is going to be there. It shows he didn’t show as many feelings for her when he met Juliet. At the beginning just after the prologue, he also says ‘Out of her favour where I am in love’. Arranged love was also experienced a lot in this time too. The family thought not of love, but of wealth and the family status. Juliet’s mother and father were married this way and Shakespeare shows that they had a bad marriage. Again, there was a lot of anger in the marriage with Lord Capulet describing her as nothing but a ho and didn’t treat her with respect at all. ‘What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!’ This was a fine example of how life was in Shakespeare’s era. Girls were expected to be obedient and give full respect to the men of the family.

This is a preview of the whole essay

When we first meet Juliet, we see her as a good girl and always obedient to everybody. When her mother calls her, she replies ‘Madam, I am here. What is your will?” but then she meets Romeo and her attitude changes. I think this could be because it was love at first sight, and she was only 14 and hadn’t experienced true love. When she met Romeo, there was also a problem because her parents had already got an arranged marriage for her to Paris but the difference is that with Paris it is lust, not love. Shakespeare describes it as a ‘bawdy love’. A bawd was an Elizabethan word for a whore. The play also uses bawdy humour with Mercutio being the best example ‘This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs, That presses them and learns them first to bear, Making them women of good carriage. This is she-.’ The friar and the nurse act very like substitute parents to Romeo and Juliet by comforting them both. There is very little love in each family but a lot of family pride which is the reason why they are still fighting.

Although the Montagues and Capulets hate each other, there is a sense of honour and respect between them. ‘Tybalt, the reason I have to love thee…’ The reason why the friar agrees to marry them is because he thinks it will reunite the warring families. Despite their quick marriage and their lack of responsibility, I think they are in love because they are prepared to die for each other and they wanted to be together all the time. We know this because after the party has ended, he goes back to see Juliet. It was love at first sight for them I think the characters of Romeo and Juliet develop because of the love they have for each other.

Different film adaptations

Baz Lurhmann’s version of this world famous love story attracted a lot more people from a lot of different classes by making it more modern so that people could relate to it better and wouldn’t lose concentration as easily like in Franco Zeffirelli’s version. Baz Lurhmann made the film with modern and lively images such as swimming pools and petrol stations. He made it very well and managed to pull off what nobody else had managed before and made it interesting and not a chore for students in schools to study Shakespeare. His main target audience was for teenagers studying this subject. He made it interesting by adding in on-screen action and violence, soppy love scenes and references to sex. By adding all of this, we can say that he aimed it very well for everyone. An action film which is fun to watch and a soppy romance film for the girls. A lot of the text ad to be edited to keep to a suitable length for a film but this was soon to be replaced by his use of images and can even add to our understanding of the language. The Franco Zeffirelli’s version is very hard to understand as the pictures are boring, and there is not much to keep you wanting to watch. Imagery is used a lot throughtout the whole play which was obviously just Baz Lurhmann’s idea to do so. In the images it shows the loyalty that each family member shows to their family by the family crest on the butt of their guns.

In the film, he uses a lot of images that show symbolic meaning such as water throughout the film. Water shows purity and clears thoughts. Romeo washes his face at the party to clear his head of the drugs and sees Juliet clearer. He first sees Juliet through a fish tank full of water and as Mercutio and Tybalt die, there is water present (seaside and the fountain).

While the prologue was being said, there was a lot of loud music being played and sharp pictures to add effect and to get the people who are watching excited and want to see more. There is a lot of contrast between each section to show the way people are feeling and acting. This is shown after Romeo and Juliet get married which is followed by Mercutio being killed by Tybalt. This is the point where everybody thinks their marriage isn’t going to work out.

Who was to blame for the Romeo and Juliet tragedy?

I think Romeo and Juliet killed themselves because of the hassle and anger between both of their families. All the fighting made them miserable and unhappy and I think this is the reason why they tried to keep themselves out of it so much. Everyone was interfering with them but they were so deeply in love that they couldn’t be split from each other so then this led to their deaths. Throughout the play, the characters are blaming fate for almost everything from their love (“star-crossed lovers”) to the death of Tybalt (“O, I am fortunes fool!”). These are my reasons why everyone could be to blame.

Mercutio

Mercutio was one of Romeo’s best friends and fought long and hard for the Montague family. Mercutio changed the course of events and was responsible for Romeo meeting Juliet at the party where he took Romeo to get over Rosaline. Mercutio also fought Tybalt in town encouraging his death upon him. If Mercutio hadn’t died, Romeo would have felt no need to have to kill Tybalt, which caused his banishment.

The nurse

The nurse acted as Juliet’s second mother and guided her through everything she came face to face with. Not only did Mercutio change the course of events, but the nurse did also. How do we know that if she hadn’t gone behind Lord and Lady Capulet’s back like she did they wouldn’t have fell for each other as they did. If the nurse hadn’t acted as a messenger for Juliet, maybe Juliet would’ve given up on the idea of getting married to Romeo so quickly and this could’ve also stopped the deaths.

The friar

The friar was friends with Romeo and gave the potion to Juliet to take to stop her from marrying Paris. He also married them both in secret and without the permission of either parents. This potion he had given Juliet was a very drastic measure to take and maybe if he had not given Juliet the idea or the potion, they would never have been together because Juliet would have had to marry Paris and wouldn’t give Romeo a second thought. Also, if the friar didn’t give the lethal drink to Juliet, she would never see Romeo again and may have committed suicide anyway.

Tybalt

The cousin of Juliet and the most feared and worst enemy of the Montague family agreed to fight with Romeo in the town. He made a lot of fun of Romeo’s late friend Mercutio in front of Romeo, causing Romeo to feel the need to fight him. This caused Tybalt to die and Romeo’s banishment which lead onto the future events.

Romeo

Romeo was the youngest son of Lord and Lady Montague and also Juliet’s husband. He had a major influence on the death of each of the lovers. Romeo was a very hasty character who did things before thinking. Examples of this are when he asked Juliet marry him after only three days and he also rushed back to Verona when hearing of Juliet’s death too quickly. Romeo acted very violently when he killed Tybalt as he rushed into it again as usual. Maybe if he’d thought about what he was doing before he did it, maybe the lovers could have been together a little bit longer.

Juliet

The daughter of Lord and Lady Capulet and loving wife of Romeo also had an influence on the events leading up to them dying. Like Romeo she was to quick into getting married to Romeo. Juliet also disobeyed her parents which could have had an effect on the deaths. She knew she was already engaged to marry Paris but still said yes to Romeo. Until she met Romeo, she was very pleased with her parents choice. She was extremely fickle to have fallen in love in one night at the age of fourteen to someone she’d only known for a few hours.

This shows a difference between these days and Elizabethan times. They believed very much in fate but we like to think these days that we are in control of our future. I think that Shakespeare wanted us to believe that no matter which path you take, you will always come out with the same end, a bit like what happened with Romeo and Juliet. Throughout the play, there are a lot of quotes that support this right through the play. In the prologue it says:

‘From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whole misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.’

This means that the lovers were doomed throughout their love lives. The quote ‘star-cross’d’ means they couldn’t have helped the way their romance went, it was fated by the stars. The play refers a lot to astrological outlooks. Another example being:

‘I fear, too early: for my mind misgives
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date’

This quote is when Romeo is refusing to go to the party where he shall meet Juliet and if he had gone with his first instincts, he would have never met Juliet and all the death and fighting would continue. I think he refers a lot to the stars because in Shakespeare’s time, people believed the stars held everyone’s lives and their future and told them what was going to happen.

After Juliet has met Romeo, she is on her balcony talking to the stars saying:

‘My only love sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
That I must love a loathed enemy.’

Juliet thinks that the meeting has been too special for it to be coincidence or fate. She also uses contrast by saying he was her ‘only love’ but also her ‘only hate’. This gives the audience an impression of confusion but also excitement as it gives us an idea of where their relationship will be going.

These are only a few of the countless remarks to fate in the whole script of the famous 16th century play. This gives us the valuable information for who, or what, was to blame for this tragedy. Shakespeare meant for his audience to interpret that the happenings of this play were influenced by a higher power, not certain people.