Analytical review of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is wonderful to read in its original text, because it is as relevant today as it was in the 16th century. This is why the play is continually interpreted and revised for the times, such as West Side Story. For example, the 1954 film Romeo, Juliet and Darkness was set in Nazi Germany, and 1996, William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was produced with modern-day music, dress style, and setting in Verona Beach, Florida. What if Shakespeare was alive today and wrote Romeo and Juliet and incorporated modern technology? Would the ending be any different? Would it be worth viewing? Or would something literally be lost in the translation?

William Shakespeare, believed to be born on April 23, 1564 in Stratford-on-Avon, is "not of an age, but for all time," wrote

Ben Jonson in 1623, and that sentiment is continued today. No other writer in any language comes close to the long-lasting interest that Shakespeare has enjoyed. "No one else in any artistic endeavor has projected a cultural influence as broad or as deep" (Andrews 267). Shakespeare was the oldest of five children. His father, John, was a tradesman in gloves and other leather items, who was very involved with the town's civic affairs, and Mary Arden, the daughter of a gentleman farmer. While attending school, Shakespeare most likely was versed in Greek and Latin as well as Italian and French. He learned about medicine, theater and poetry and probably attended many of the surrounding events.

Shakespeare married quickly at the young age of 18 a woman who was 26 and pregnant. They later had twins, but lived 100 miles apart, with Shakespeare in London, during their 20-year marriage. By 1592, he had already acted and written three plays. Later, he also became co-owner of the Globe theater when it opened in 1599. Shakespeare's financial success allowed him to retire and return home about 1610 until he died in 1616, some believe on his birthday. The play Romeo and Juliet relates the love between two individuals from the feuding Montague and Capulet families in the city of Verona. Their relationship caused tragic results, as revenge, love, and a secret marriage force the young lovers to grow up quickly and commit suicide in despair. This is one of Shakespeare's most notable romantic plays and well-known plays of all.

Although dress, language, and technology has change considerably since the 1500 and 1600s, many of the same problems exist today as they did several thousand years ago. Parents still try to break up their children's relationships, and people from different backgrounds and lifestyles still feud, with violent words and sometimes even weapons. This is why the play Romeo and Juliet is produced and enjoyed just as much today as it was previously and it is directed in a wide variety of time periods.

In his 2007 book, Romeo and Juliet, a Modern-Day Sequel, author James Edwards significantly changes the plot: When Romeo Montague dies, his spirit chases Juliet through time until he wakes up in modern-times on a Hawaiian volcano and meets a wise Zen Master. Sadly, however, there is no sign of Romeo's beloved wife, Juliet. With the passing years, his memory of Juliet fades. Then, one day he logs into an Internet chat room and begins talking with a young actress by the name of Emilie. For unexplained reasons, they fall in love almost instantly and then realize that they are reincarnated. They fight through many obstacles before they actually are together again. It seems that this is too much of an adaptation, and the readers concurred in their critiques (not that it was a best-seller!).

The singer "Dire Straits" song about Romeo and Juliet, brings the play up to the present with some rhyming that is somewhat contrived:

lovestruck Romeo, sings the streets of serenade

Laying everybody low with a love song that he made

Find a streetlight, steps out of the shade. Says something like,

You and me, babe, how about it?"

Juliet says, "Hey, it's Romeo, you nearly gave me a heart attack

He's underneath the window, she's singing Hey, la, my boyfriend's back"

This is a very different take than the original from Act II, Scene II:

ROMEO

She speaks:

O, speak again, bright angel! For thou art

As glorious to this night, being o'er my head

As is a winged messenger of heaven

Unto the white-upturned wondering eyes

Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him

When he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds

And sails upon the bosom of the air.

JULIET

Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?

Deny thy father and refuse thy name;

or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,

And I'll no longer be a Capulet.

British actor, director and playwright Robert Rawles went one step further and used his passion and expertise of the theater and Shakespeare to rewrite Romeo and Juliet in a true modern-day language version called Rikki and Julie to help students better explore the play and its meaning. In typical 2008 language, the play included the line: "O rikki, m8. Wr 4 art u? Plz B. my bf 4 eva, I luv u." The feuding houses of Montague and Capulet are instead two different English schools -- a comprehensive and a grammar school, with all updated dialogue in the film in modern-day language and all roles played by teenagers. The play is being changed, according to Rawles, to help students deal with such topics as peer pressure, parent/child relationships, drug abuse, gang culture and knife culture.

In the 1996 movie version of the play that was done with modern music and dress, by Baz Lurhrman, William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the action occurs in a modern Verona Beach in Miami and parts of Mexico City. This is actually a made up world, with a little from the 1940s, 1970s, and 1990s, and using a number of older well-known movies, such as Rebel Without a Cause for a backdrop. The movie includes racing cars with revving engines instead of horses, guns instead of swords and daggers. The camera is always moving around to get the action, instead of the play that moves very slowly. The director has fast cuts from one scene to another with blaring music that almost looks like a rock video at times with its color, special effects and lack of plot. In fact, the dialogue is sometimes even difficult to hear and parts of the romance are lost.