In the play, the audience observes that the relationship between Juliet and her mother is dreadful as the relationship is very formal between Juliet and Lady Capulet. Shakespeare portrays this by Juliet calling her mother, ‘Madam’. This implies that Juliet is distant with her mother as she addresses her in a formal tone and this is not what you would call a mother. This illustrates that the relationship between Juliet and Lady Capulet is so bad, that she is equal to a stranger. Baz Lurhmann does not cut out this part, but, the camera angle faces Juliet to show the respect Juliet has for her mother. The effect created by this action is the audience can see that Juliet has deference for her mother even though she addresses her as a stranger, not as a mother and Luhrmann expresses this well. The Nurse cannot be seen at this time, which makes it more personal between Juliet and her mother. Baz Luhrmann and William Shakespeare both portray the terrible relationship between Juliet and her mother in the same way. However Baz Luhrmann has an advantage of camera use to depict the relationship between Juliet and her mother, whereas the audience will be watching all the characters in the play and they will not gain a sense of personal relationship which Luhrmann portrays through the camera angles. As a result, Baz Luhrmann and William Shakespeare both express the relationship using similar ways.
In Shakespeare’s times, people lived in a patriarchal society, where the parents choose how they want their child to live their life and when they would get married. Capulet, living in a patriarchal society expects Juliet to do as he says. Shakespeare displays Capulet’s shock through the structure of the sentence. Line 140 ‘Soft-take me with you’ suggests that Capulet is shocked as he probably hasn’t been argued with before, this is the moment where you find Capulet shocked for words as this was certainly unexpected. Shakespeare uses the hyphen to his advantage, as the hyphen indicates Capulet’s shock and that he’s speechless. Baz Luhrmann, does not include this in the film, the effect of this action is that Baz Luhrmann portrays Capulet as a strong character throughout the whole film, and that he never loses his authority. From this we can infer that the relationship between Capulet and Juliet is awful. Luhrmann uses different camera angles to his advantage he also uses non-diegetic sounds which build up throughout Capulet’s speech which symbolises his rage. After Capulet storms off out of the house in rage, the music is high and tense. Luhrmann presents the bad relationship between Capulet and Juliet as he flies into an incandescent rage which outlines that he is angry due to Juliet denying his wishes. Baz Luhrmann presents the relationship between Capulet and Juliet as appalling, but in Shakespearian times, this was normal and we can’t compare that with the modern day society as that would be anachronism as patriarchal societies don’t exist in the modern day society. However, this means that the relationship between Capulet and Juliet is not so bad in the play, but it is pretty bad in the film as Baz Luhrmann has done well to present the patriarchal society, and that only men take the decisions.
Finally, I think that in both the film and the play, the relationship between Capulet and Juliet is not very great; however it is better in the play as he doesn’t get angry with his daughter quickly and doesn’t fly into an incandescent rage when she denies him. He also tries to give the news to Juliet about her getting married by saying a poem. We can observe that the relationship between Lady Capulet and Juliet is not very good in the play but the relationship is very good in the film as Lady Capulet gets hurt for Juliet when Capulet is shouting at Juliet, the moment where Juliet deceives her mother is not shown in the film, and also when Lady Capulet makes the comment of her daughter being dead, Juliet tries to hold back tears. From this we can observe that the relationship between Juliet and her parents is shown to the audience by Shakespeare using different styles of writing, structures of sentences such as the hyphen, dramatic irony and he also uses iambic pentameters
