Comparison of Romeo between play and film.

In both the film adaptation and the play, Romeo‘s maturity is seen to be improving particularly after marrying Juliet.  One of the scenes this is shown in the modern version is during Mercutio and Tybalt’s death scene.  In this scene there is links to Western cowboy films through the intertextuality of western music and the positioning of the characters using a low angle shot to make them seem more powerful. However upon arriving Romeo, instead of fighting Tybalt surrenders, thus breaking the rules of the fight. This is a great contrast to how Romeo would have behaved at the beginning of the film; furthermore it shows him to be much more mature than his friends and is choosing his love for Juliet over fighting his enemy.  

In the play Romeo’s along with being shown as mature, his status is also increased and he is portrayed as to be equal to Tybalt during the fight scene.  This can be seen through both Tybalt and Romeo speaking in the same pattern of; mentioning a name, love then a villain and also both using 10 syllables per line. Similar to the film adaptation, in the play Romeo puts love before fighting a Capulet. This is indicated in Romeo stating ‘I have to love thee’ and ‘therefore farewell’.  These phrases show that though Romeo dislikes Tybalt he refuses to fight so he does not hurt Juliet, thus showing his character to be growing and becoming self-less.

The significance of Romeo is shown through camera angles throughout the film, an example of this is the bird’s eye view camera shot of him after killing Tybalt, from the point of view of a statue of Jesus.  The use of this shot makes Romeo seem less important, appearing to be a tiny figure in contrast to the statue and takes up a minute fraction of the screen.