In this essay I shall be discussing the differences and similarities between two film versions of Shakespeare's tragic play "Romeo and Juliet".

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                                                                                                     Jennifer Stephenson 10 A

Romeo and Juliet essay

 

In this essay I shall be discussing the differences and similarities between two film versions of Shakespeare’s tragic play “Romeo and Juliet”. Before hand I will have analyzed the text from three sonnets “The Prologue”, “Lady Capulet’s praise of Paris” and “The lovers first meeting”. I will have given some information on the sonnet form and structure and also briefly explained the sonnet tradition. I will then move onto producing a film-based version of the three sonnets using my own ideas. Finally I will end my essay and conclude what I have learnt and enjoyed.  

A Sonnet is a 14-line verse with the rhyming scheme AB AB CD CD EF EF GG. Shakespeare had a style of verse called Iambic Pentameter, this is alternating stressed and un stressed syllables. These contain 10 beats in every line. Iambic is a Greek word and means pattern of stresses in each line and Pentameter is a Latin word mean 5 pairs of stresses to each line. They were very popular in the time under the rule of Elizabeth the first. The language in Romeo and Juliet shows strong influence of an Italian poet named Petrach who lived 1304 to 1374. He was very popular with English poets in Elizabethan times. The English poets drew on Petrach's themes and styles writing about courtly love such as in Romeo and Juliet, Romeo loves Rosaline an unattainable unrequited love; this shows very strongly Petrach’s influence. The influence of sonnets in Romeo and Juliet are Shakespeare’s neat and deliberate use of rhyming schemes, elaborate conceits such as the metaphors for war, word play of wit, puns and repetition.

Verse and prose are both used at different times in Shakespeare for specific purposes. Shakespeare used verse for important speeches and serious subjects, where as he used prose for general conversation and particularly with lower class characters. Shakespeare’s verse is always written in Iambic Pentameter, as we know about. The punctuation shown and spelling shown in editions of Shakespeare’s plays are not necessarily his own. Shakespeare’s earlier plays followed a rigid format, but as he developed he began to play around with accepted patterns of verse and rhyme and started to use increasingly complex imagery.

Here is an example of sonnet form and structure using sonnet 29:

I have colour coded the lines in the rhyming scheme colour's as above, showing the elaborate rhyming pattern and complexities of sonnets.

SONNET 29

When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,  

I alone beweep my outcast state,                                                      

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,  

And look upon myself, and curse my fate,

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

Featured like him, like him with friends possest,

Desiring this man’s heart, and that man’s scope,

With what I most enjoy contende

least;

Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,

Haply I think on thee, - and then my state,

Like to the lark at break of day arising

From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;

For thy sweet love remember’d such wealth brings,

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Once colour coded you can easily see the rhyming scheme.

Shakespeare uses verse for serious and important speech. He uses prose however for everyday and lower class characters speech. He does this to define between serious and comedy moments and upper and lower class characters. For example. When Romeo is talking to his “cousins” Shakespeare chose to use prose, however when he is meeting Juliet for the first time he uses verse.

I attempted to write my own sonnet, which is shown colour coded below:

And I can see through her golden eyes true,

The beautiful way you feel about me,

I don’t know how you do the things you do,

You unlocked me heart and through out the key,

You make me feel special and good inside,

You make me strong oh so healthy and meak,

You are the one from which I can not hide,

A feeling different you make me weak,

Oh how you watch me fall to my knees,

There’s no need to help me for I am gone,

And you comfort me; I’m already there,

You have bewitched me with what you have done,

It must be true you are sent from above,

You are my angel, my savior, my love.

As you can see I managed the rhyming scheme however did not get the stressed and unstressed syllables. It was very hard to try to use Petrach’s influence in my sonnet. I was also very unaware of how to introduce complex imagery into my sonnet. Brian Reade once said “Quite simply the finest word smith in the history of writing, in his years the Bard wrote 38 plays, 134 sonnets and introduced 600 new words to the English language, but those facts described only a fraction of the mans genius” referring to Shakespeare and I certainly agree with Reade after I have had my attempt and have not lived up to Shakespeare’s standards in the least.

The prologue

This is a sonnet at the very beginning of the play. It is a kind of introduction to the play that also informs the audience of what happens incase they miss bits of the play. It is a very clever idea as Shakespeare’s audiences would be drunk, inattentive and loud and therefore would miss parts of the play. This sonnet builds suspense and keeps attention through its clever use of stressed and unstressed beats in sentences such as “where civil blood makes civil hands unclean” making the words “blood” stand out.

It has been colour coded using the rhyming scheme and underneath a line-by-line translation. He uses tension laying words such as fatal, mutiny, fearful, these words all bring up an image in everyone’s mind of terror and make us interested, hungry for more.

Two households, both alike in dignity,

In fair Verona (where we lay our scene),

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

Where civil blood make civil hands unclean,

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

A pair of start-crossed lovers take their life:

Whose misadventured piteous overthrows,

Doth wish their death bury their parents strife

The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
The continuence of their parents rage,

Which but their childrens end nought could remove,

Is now the two hours traffic of our stage:

The which if you with patient ears attend,

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

The translation in modern English:

Two upper class families,

In Verona where the play is set,

An old grudge is still,

Where locals fight each other,

From the parents of the two hates,

The two lovers commit suicide,

Unfortunate pitiful disappointment,

When they die their parent’s grudge is removed,

The scary time of their death brought love.

The rage of their parents,

Which only death of their children could stop,

Is now the two-hour play,

And if you patiently listen,

What has not been said here will be filled in throughout the play.

Join now!

Zeffirelli’s version of the prologue. He uses lines 1 to 8 of Shakespeare’s text and these lines are spoken slowly and calmly in a male voice. The camera pans as the man is speaking and then does a close up on the sun with the words “William Shakespeare” around it, this is written in an old style of text. The text is in an average size of about 48 on the computer. The camera zooms into the castle and there are horses and carts in the courtyard, this is when the text “Romeo and Juliet”, written in the same ...

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