Discuss Baz Luhrmann's depiction of the characters in the opening scene of the 1996 film version of Romeo and Juliet. As a director, how would you have portrayed the same characters on Shakespeare's stage?

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Discuss Baz Luhrmann’s depiction of the characters in the opening scene of the 1996 film version of Romeo and Juliet. As a director, how would you have portrayed the same characters on Shakespeare’s stage?

In the opening of the play, we are introduced to various characters of both houses; the Capulets and Montagues. We immediately sense the family feud when we see how the boys from each house are fighting with the boys from the opposite house. Both the Capulet and Montague boys are seen in the first scene to use bawdy humour, and this scene is all about machismo and agression. We sense that the boys of both houses are full of bravado and strutting bravery. There is a lot of sexual innuendo, along with punning and word play. The boys’ sense of humour is based on low, simple, crude jokes, which are very unsophisticated. This was possibly due to the low status of the audience who watched this play being performed during the Shakesperean era. Furthermore, there is an implication that the Capulet and Montague boys are oozing testosterone in the very primitive idea of male domination, and how each male wants to have his enemy’s female. For example, Samson, who is from the house of Capulet, describes “I will push Montague’s men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall.” Moreover, it is clear that the boys are quite young, as they wind each other up over who is the strongest and bravest, and who can dominate females better, which is a rather boyish thing.

        Indeed, it is quite obvious how the boys from both houses are so similar in thinking and in humour. From the first scene, we cannot identify any real differences between the boys, other than the fact that they are from different houses. Therefore, it is rather ironic how they extremely hate each other, when they are both very similar in many ways. On the other hand, Tybalt’s entrance highlights a different character. His words are piercing, and he talks about hating peace, unlike the rest of the boys who talk about bawdy humour.

        Tybalt’s character in the play is one-sided – he is an aggressive, hot-tempered young man who hates all Montagues. In the first scene of Act 1, Tybalt only speaks five lines, but they tell us a great deal about him. His entrance to the scene is a very hostile one, as he suddenly mocks Benvolio for fighting with servants. In his second line, he draws Benvolio into a fight. However, Benvolio is seen as the peace-maker in this scene, as does not want to fight Tybalt. “I do but keep the peace” were Benvolio’s words. Here, Tybalt talks of the word “peace” and says “I hate the word”, which he then realtes towards his hatredness of “hell, all Montagues, and thee”, referring to Benvolio. These words highlight his extremely agressive and violent character. It is already very obvious how Tybalt dislikes the Montagues. Tybalt’s hatredness drives him to fight Benvolio, and the entrance of the officers and the Prince is what stops this.

Completely contrasting Tybalt’s aggression, there is Romeo, the son of Lord and Lady Montague. He is clever, excelling at the kind of elaborate wordplay that was popular in Elizabethan times. He uses witty puns when he jokes with his friends and elaborate and stylish poetry when he talks about love. At the beginning of the play, Romeo is infactuated with Rosaline and his language is clever but artificial.

        Romeo is different to the rest of the boys to some extent, and he doesn’t talk much of bawdy humour. He is a more romantic, poetic soul, who is always seen throughout the play to be in love, whether it’s with Rosaline or with Juliet. He is the complete opposite of Tybalt’s hostile character, who is full of hate and not love, and we sense that Romeo generally likes to keep peace. For example, when Tybalt wants to fight him later on in the play, Romeo tries his best to keep the peace between them, and doesn’t fight Tybalt. He only kills Tybalt when Tybalt kills his best friend Mercutio.

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In the opening scene of the 1996 film version of “Romeo and Juliet”, Baz Luhrmann’s depiction of the characters is quite different to that of the original stage version displayed in Shakespeare’s text.

        After Luhrmann’s televised introduction to the story, which represents the prologue in the original text, we are introduced to the Montague boys, who are driving in a sunny yellow car with an open-top roof. They are a fairly riotish group of lads, which is suggested by their shaven or pink-dyed heads, their dark shades, their indiscriminant shouting which is rather offensive although they do not use bad ...

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