William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet and its interpretation by Baz Luhrmann.
By Madhav Mishra. A little over four centuries ago, William Shakespeare published the modern day classic Romeo and Juliet, a tragedy about two star-crossed lovers who marry each other against the will of their feuding families. Ever since its first performance, the play has spawned a number of interpretations and adaptations of the original. A recent noteworthy adaptation of the play by the well-known director Baz Luhrmann is Romeo + Juliet (1996) which takes the play, originally set in the middle ages, and adapts it into the 20th century. The movie retains much of the same dialogue, characters and plot of the original, albeit in a contemporary setting, …show more content…
Stage directions such as, [Draws his sword] (Act 3, Scene 1, Lines 68-69), present throughout the play are meaningless in the film as swords are not used and are instead replaced by guns, but the guns still serve the same purpose they did in the original; they warn the audience of the threat of violence. Despite compromising, Luhrmann still attempts to recreate the original and follow it as closely as possible by changing the thrusting of the sword to a shard of glass, again, serving the same purpose as the original. Luhrmann is able to raise dramatic tension by using composition of non-diegetic music and dramatic techniques such as entrances and exits, and the use of props. Luhrmann uses music in times where the play could not have raised the tension as much and has it used in times where there is a lack of dialogue, with a range of different music styles depending on the part of the movie. While Shakespeare had dramatic tension in the original play, Luhrmann increases it by the use of these techniques. The music used in the movie is both used to increase dramatic tension and fit the scenes better into the modern world, as the music from Elizabethan times would have been incompatible with the film. Overall, Luhrmann is able to make the adaptation more modern while keeping the original intent of Shakespeare, as well as incorporate music, props, entrances and exits to amplify the dramatic tension Shakespeare had in the
By Madhav Mishra. A little over four centuries ago, William Shakespeare published the modern day classic Romeo and Juliet, a tragedy about two star-crossed lovers who marry each other against the will of their feuding families. Ever since its first performance, the play has spawned a number of interpretations and adaptations of the original. A recent noteworthy adaptation of the play by the well-known director Baz Luhrmann is Romeo + Juliet (1996) which takes the play, originally set in the middle ages, and adapts it into the 20th century. The movie retains much of the same dialogue, characters and plot of the original, albeit in a contemporary setting, …show more content…
Stage directions such as, [Draws his sword] (Act 3, Scene 1, Lines 68-69), present throughout the play are meaningless in the film as swords are not used and are instead replaced by guns, but the guns still serve the same purpose they did in the original; they warn the audience of the threat of violence. Despite compromising, Luhrmann still attempts to recreate the original and follow it as closely as possible by changing the thrusting of the sword to a shard of glass, again, serving the same purpose as the original. Luhrmann is able to raise dramatic tension by using composition of non-diegetic music and dramatic techniques such as entrances and exits, and the use of props. Luhrmann uses music in times where the play could not have raised the tension as much and has it used in times where there is a lack of dialogue, with a range of different music styles depending on the part of the movie. While Shakespeare had dramatic tension in the original play, Luhrmann increases it by the use of these techniques. The music used in the movie is both used to increase dramatic tension and fit the scenes better into the modern world, as the music from Elizabethan times would have been incompatible with the film. Overall, Luhrmann is able to make the adaptation more modern while keeping the original intent of Shakespeare, as well as incorporate music, props, entrances and exits to amplify the dramatic tension Shakespeare had in the