Romeo & Juliet: Beliefs & Values

A special essay blog post today. This essay isn’t written by me, it was written by one of my students, but I reckon it should be posted here. Throughout the term, this student showed so much enthusiasm and put a lot of hard work into this essay. Because of that I was very happy to help him develop ideas, link these ideas to the text, and structure his essay. The end results speaks for itself. Keep in mind also that my student is only in year 9! This is very impressive work, so enjoy the read.

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The values and beliefs presented in William Shakespeare’s play, “Romeo and Juliet” are represented through the protagonists Juliet and Romeo, however in Baz Luhrmann’s appropriation of the play, in the 1996 film “Romeo and Juliet”, these values are also adapted to portray the beliefs of contemporary society. These include the inevitability of fate, the notion of patriarchy and the limitless power of love as these beliefs are important parts which determine how a society functions.

Both composers develop love as a powerful force; however the degree of this power varies between them. The characters of Juliet and Romeo, and the interactions between them, illustrate both the corrupting and reconciling power of love. The motif of light is used in the play to represent the public society which feeds the conflict of the Capulets and Montagues, whilst the motif of darkness is used to represent privacy, passion and ultimately reconciliation. The metaphor “More light and light, more dark and dark our woes,” illustrates how Romeo and Juliet desire for the darkness and how light is the source for their conflict and troubles. In Luhrmann’s film this light/dark motif is replaced with the fire/water motif. The fire motif is shown in the film after the conflict at the gas station, the fire which covers the whole screen clears the buildings each representing the two families appears, showing that the fire is a symbol for their conflict. The water motif is a symbol for reconciliation. When Romeo and Juliet first met, the fish tank is in between them, symbolising that water is the tool which Luhrmann has used to represent love and will eventually extinguish the fire. This motif continues in the pool scene where Romeo and Juliet are consumed by the water. Shakespeare believes that love has a reconciling power which is evident when Capulet and Montague resolve, “O brother Montague, give me thy hand,” illustrating that Romeo and Juliet’s sacrificial love has the power to remove the “ancient grudge” however in Luhrmann’s appropriation, this reconciliation is omitted, which implies the unifying power of love is not as strong in today’s society, and is instead based more on lust and desire.

Fate operates through the characters of Romeo and Juliet. Throughout the play, “stars” are referred to as metaphors for this greater controlling force, suggesting the strength of this belief, and forcing people to accept their social status as destiny. As Romeo states that he is “fortune’s fool”, this personification of “fortune” implies that fate is valued as a real, tangible and physical force, capable of controlling and possessing him. However, Romeo and Juliet chose to defy fate. Dramatic irony is present in Juliet’s dialogue, “but be sworn my love, and I’ll no longer be a Capulet,” which illustrates her willingness to defy her family, destiny and the norms of society, however it is this defiance which ultimately brings about her death. Both Shakespeare and Luhrmann utilize foreshadowing throughout the course of their pieces to give them a sense of fate. Near the start of the play, as the Friar gave advice to Romeo, “wisely and slow, they stumble that run fast,” this prophesises the rash course of Romeo and Juliet’s love. As the two lovers depart, the simile “As one dead in the bottom of a tomb” gives a deathly sense to Romeo and how the next time Romeo and Juliet meet is when they will die. As the conclusion of the play draws near, more foreshadowing is noticeable when Juliet ironically says “myself have power to die”. This foreshadowing of Juliet’s sacrificial death highlights one of her many similarities to Christ. Luhrmann has adapted foreshadowing visually into his film by using brief and recurring images of a giant statue to prophesise the climatic death which will occur at that place. Therefore, fate is embodied within Romeo and Juliet’s relationship.

Patriarchy as a social norm was heavily embedded in Elizabethan society, and also in Shakespeare’s plays. However, in both the play and film, the character of Juliet challenges patriarchy by repeatedly disobeying her father and family. This parallels to Christ who challenged what was preached in his time also using love as a vehicle or motive. Christ’s sacrificial love for his people is also similar to Juliet’s love for her Romeo. Additionally, in the climax Juliet wakes from her sleep after being thought dead, which emulates Christ’s resurrection. Therefore, the character of Juliet embodies a force which challenges patriarchy. In the film, “the scene of the dancing woman”, a woman wears skimpy dress and slowly dances sexually at a man, highlighting the more common forms of patriarchy in contemporary society. This shows that patriarchal Elizabethan society was more explicit, whilst in Luhrmann’s film, patriarchy has morphed into more subtle and common forms.

Many values and beliefs are embodied into the characters of Romeo and Juliet, and these are adapted by Luhrmann to a more contemporary context. Shakespeare, to highlight the power of love, utilizes his characters Romeo and Juliet to challenge the social norms of his times whom defied the accepted notion of fate and patriarchy. In contrast Luhrmann’s power of love is not as strong showing that contemporary society is more two dimensional.

By Johnson Su, 2009