Romeo And Juliet Comparison Essay

The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is a classic play that has been made into numerous film adaptations over the past several decades. Many parts of those movies are quite similar to the original play, but there have been some variations between the different movies. Basically, in Verona, Italy there are two rival families: the Montagues and the Capulets. One young Montague named Romeo falls into love with a young woman named Juliet, a Capulet. With the help of Juliet’s confidant, called the Nurse; and Lawrence, a Friar, Romeo and Juliet secretly get married. Unfortunately, due to a miscommunication between Romeo and Friar Lawrence, Romeo believes that Juliet is dead, but she has only taken a potion given by the Friar to fake her death. Because of Romeo’s ignorance, he kills himself next to Juliet. Then when Juliet wakes up, she sees Romeo dead and then kills herself, …show more content…
In the end, Juliet wakes up from her potion right when Romeo picks up to drink the poison. She is just too ignorant to notice that he is about to drink it, and she touches him right after he drinks all of the poison. Her ignorance lets Romeo die, which is why the way Juliet’s character is developed is appropriate to the ending of the Luhrmann film. Juliet talks to Romeo before he dies, saying “Romeo. What’s here? Poison. Drunk all, and left no friendly drop to help me after” (Luhrmann). In the original play-text, Romeo dies before Juliet wakes up, and Friar Lawrence also comes to the tomb. Juliet asks, “where is my lord? / I do remember well where I should be, / And there I am. Where is my Romeo?” (V.3.153-155). These differences show that the ignorance of both Romeo and Juliet in the Luhrmann film make the ending appropriate, since their ignorance lets Romeo die. As for the Zeffirelli movie, it follows the original play-text more closely so the ending for that film also is