In William Shakespeare’s time, society was a lot different from the society we know today. The audience Shakespeare had to write for was very demanding. The audience consisted of two major groups; the upper class and the lower class. The upper class was a group of civilized people who were entertained so long as the story of the play was intriguing. The lower class was harder to deal with though. These citizens were most often arrogant drunks who would yell and throw things on stage if they were not pleased by the play. These “groundlings” surrounded the stage on three sides in section where there were no seats, which made them less comfortable and more threatening to the play. To control these audience members, Shakespeare had to please them. He did this by adding fight scenes and a bit of crude humor. As long as the groundlings were entertained, Shakespeare could run his play without interruption. William Shakespeare wrote his play, Romeo and Juliet masterfully to entertain both upper and lower class citizens.
In my version of Romeo and Juliet, a comic book version, I exaggerated the action scenes and diminished the less exciting scenes of poetry. I did this because comic book readers do not read comics to enjoy poetry. Instead they are entertained by good illustrations of action as well as good dialogue to accompany them. For this reason, instead of using elaborate wording like Shakespeare had done to express emotion in each character’s dialogue, I showed they’re facial expressions in well drawn illustrations. I also used illustrations to show the setting of the play clearly, instead of using long descriptions of each setting like in Shakespeare’s version. I could portray these important elements through detailed artwork, without words. The illustrations are a very important element in determining the quality of a comic book. Therefore, it was important that I told the story through pictures as well as dialogue, and not just through literature. In my version of Romeo and Juliet, I showed the power of not only words, but art as well.
To adapt Shakespeare’s original masterpiece Romeo and Juliet to better suit my audience, I converted many ideas from the story into artwork. The artwork of a comic is what determines the quality of the book. I believe that in comic books, the wording used in the dialogue is not nearly as important as the artwork it goes along with. I used artwork to portray deeper or more extreme emotions rather than using quite elaborate words as Shakespeare had done in his version. By showing emotions along with scenery through illustrations, I can be sure that readers have an image of the story in their minds. Another adaptation I used to better suit the targeted audience was the changing of Old English words into more understandable Modern English words. Some passages in Romeo and Juliet are hard to understand by the young readers of today. Therefore, I modernized the wording and emphasized every scene through illustration, rather than confusing literature. I believe I have adapted the story of Romeo and Juliet effectively to suit my audience very well.
My version of Romeo and Juliet follows the original version written by William Shakespeare despite the many differences in language and style of presentation. I altered the presentation of Romeo and Juliet to more effectively tell the story to readers of today’s generations. Although the story is 400 years old, it is not and never will be an outdated story. As long as love exists, the story of Romeo and Juliet will be a story for all generations to enjoy.
By,
Kevin Quigley
