Romeo and Juliet defy their parents to marry one another. Romeo even defies the law of the land, to return to Juliet, and Juliet defies her father's will when he tells her to marry Paris. The Italian couple's loyalty to one another, to the passions they feel overrides family, country, and kin.
Bonnie and Clyde's devotion to one another was similarly unswerving: "It is said that Bonnie never killed anyone....she apparently justified her criminal activities because she did not want to leave her man's side. She would stay with him no matter what -- even though it meant the death of nine police officers" (Rosa, 2007). True, "Bonnie was a gum-chewing waitress and Clyde was a two-bit hood out on parole," Bonnie was not the daughter of a wealthy patriarch like Capulet nor was Clyde the son of a well-connected family like the Montagues (Ebert, 1967). This hardly gels with the beautiful, romantic image that many people have of "Romeo and Juliet." Yet the romanticizing of "Romeo and Juliet" in popular culture makes transposing of the tale of the star-crossed lovers even more important to an unromantic, more familiar era.
Consider that Shakespeare's play begins and ends with the young expressing their anger at society though violence. The play begins with the Montague and Capulet servants arguing, and ends with a bloody confrontation in a tomb, followed by the two lovers' suicide. Although Shakespearean love may be beautiful, especially love forged out of passion and the laws of a society that denies the freedoms of the young, it is not the society of Renaissance Italy that is beautiful and romantic. The fact that love can exist even in an atmosphere that a modern audience can identify as hopeless, crime-ridden, and decadent like Depression-era America will underline the most important aspect of Shakespeare's play, elements that might remain hidden in a production set in the Renaissance. Adult society...
Bonnie and Clyde rob banks, but during that era before banking reform many Americans lost their money in the stock market, or in bank runs, thus showing a lack of regard for the laws was something that was endemic to society and government, not just the outlaws.
Yes, Bonnie and Clyde killed, as Romeo and Juliet kill themselves, and one might call Bonnie and Clyde's final shoot-out with the law a kind of protracted suicide, given that Bonnie's poems indicated that she knew the couple's days were numbered. But the tales of both lovers show how in a society that seems to have no future and not value the young, desperate young people seeking validation and autonomy resort to desperate measures.
Works Cited
Bell, John. (2004). "Great Lovers: Episode 4. Romeo & Juliet." Radio National
Interview. Retrieved 28 Jun 2007 at http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bigidea/stories/s906672.htm
Brians, Paul. (2000). "Study Guide for Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet (1591?)." Last updated Feb 2000. Retrieved 28 Jun 2007 at http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/love-in-the-arts/romeo.html
Bonnie and Clyde." (1967). Starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunway.
Ebert, Roger. (25 Sept 1967). "Bonnie and Clyde." Chicago Sun Times. Movie Review.
Retrieved 28 Jun 2007 at http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19670925/REVIEWS/709250301/1023
Shakespeare, William. (1591). "Romeo and Juliet." The Shakespeare Homepage.
Retrieved 28 Jun 2007 at http://shakespeare.mit.edu/romeo_juliet/
Rosa, Paul. (2007). "The Story of Bonnie and Clyde." History Buff.
Retrieved 28 Jun 2007 at http://www.historybuff.com/library/refbonnie.html
