Harry Grubb's English Journal

This is my essay where I will be exploring the ideas of fate and interpretation used in the play and film by William Shakespeare and Baz Luhrmann. I will also write a bit about the film and the play and explain what they showed differently.

I really liked the play as it was a gripping play and every time I heard the bell go off in school, I felt sad that I could not read more. But the film was also really gripping so I knew straight away that I would enjoy this topic.
As we were reading the book and watching the film, I saw that there was a connection from them both and that is called interpretation. The first example I saw was right at the start of the film were Romeo and his mates( like benvolio, tybalt and mercutio) were fighting. In the book, the battle was shown by fighting with swords ,however, in the film it was shown by fighting with guns called swords.

Also, William Shakespeare developed the play to be shown in the globe theater where the top plays would perform. so baz lurhman wanted to put a bit of that in the film so he decided to call the pool club at the beach ‘the globe’.

Now on to fate which was a big thing in the film as they showed it more than the play. The only one i picked out from the book was when romeo did not get the note from friar Lawrence and so he killed himself before Juliet woke up.

As on the other hand, the film had quite a few examples of fate. The first one i found was the first time they saw each other. it started when romeo was invited to this masked party but he was thinking about not going because of his one true love Rosaline. But said to his mind that he should go for some fun and so, he came across a girl who he thought was attractive and that was Juliet.
So fate decided to take Romeo down the path to get over rosaline and meet Juliet.

If we go back to the play, I noticed something what was a bit unusual to see.
If you look really closely, you could see that William Shakespeare is playing the role of god by steering people down paths which are good but some were bad.
For example, when friar Lawrence’s letter to Romeo didn’t quite get to him, he decided to play around with that letter so they will end up killing themselves.

However, in the film, Baz Lurhman showed it by Romeo not being in his caravan when the post man came to give the leter to him and so he left a note saying that he came but no one was in. But Romeo didn’t see that letter so he saw Juliet laying there dead when she weren’t and so he killed himself before Juliet killed herself.
But, he made the audience feel sad as when Romeo stepped on the note when he was going to Juliet.

The other sad cliffhanger Baz left us on was when Romeo drunk the potion just before Juliet touched him. That was sad because in the play, Romeo killed himself way before Juliet woke up so it was unexpected but really, really good piece of filming.

After I read the play and watched the film, I really thought that it was best story I heard of because of the ideas of fate and interpretation William Shakespeare and Baz Lurhman used. They used it so much, that was what the film and play was all about.

I hope you enjoyed reading my essay on Romeo and Juliet. But I will leave you on my favourite quote from the play:

Juliet: “When he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.”

― William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Harry Grubb.