Themes of Romeo and Juliet - Parents and Children

Themes of Romeo and Juliet

The Relationship between Parents and Children

While I was investigation the rhyming couplets in Romeo and Juliet, I found Shakespeare's Globe, Playing Shakespeare, which had an article on them. However, I also found an article on the same website about "The Generation Gap". I started to look through The Generation Gap, originally thinking it was going to explain why the feud started. Instead I found that it was about the theme of Romeo and Juliet's relationships with their parents, and was drawn into it's arguments.

The Generation Gap provides examples and effects of Romeo and Juliet's possible actions. The first example talks about Romeo and Juliet both young and living with their parents. The effect of this is they have to obey the 'house rules' and their parents. When Juliet says 'deny thy father and refuse thy name' you may not realise this would have been a major breach in the social order of Shakespeare's time. This would lead to Romeo being disowned and having him left with nothing. The last example that the Generation Gap provides, is when Romeo and Juliet are married in secret, they are going behind their parents backs to do so. The article does not mention the effect on the play, and instead asks the reader if it is seen as a good or bad thing to the other characters, and how it makes you feel about the couple.

The Generation Gap provides an exploration of the theme "Children and their Parents". It provides examples and the effect of Romeo and Juliet's possible actions. As I reflected on the article I remembered it saying that Shakespeare's daughter was Juliet's age when the play was being written. I then contemplated that Romeo and Juliet might be a message to Shakespeare's daughter about listening to her parents and the consequences of not doing so.

The Generation Gap

Romeo and Juliet: A light bulb moment

While doing my Act II questions I was having trouble trying to find the importance of Shakespeare use of the balcony in Scene II. Why have a balcony at all? What is the difference to the actors being at the same level?

There is a good article on how Shakespeare uses light and dark imagery, which was to do with the balcony scene (II.ii.). The website talks about how light is traditionally perceived as good and darkness as bad in most stories, however, often Shakespeare uses the opposite, where darkness is good and light is bad.

The Light and Dark of Juliet's Balcony

In the article, there were multiple examples of this from the play for both sides, such as:

I v 44: “O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!” (In the Capulet's party) for the light is good side

III v 36: "More light and light, more dark and dark our woes." (which is when they are trying to pretend that it is still night when it is actually light) for the dark is good

I also found examples of both types in the text:

Light is Good, Darkness is Bad:

II ii 15-24: “Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven ... That birds would sing and think it were not night”, Meaning that, to Romeo, Juliet's features figuratively seem to be able to light up the sky so you wouldn't even be able to tell if it was night or not, which talks about how nothing can be bad when Juliet is there.

Light is Bad, Darkness is Good:

II ii 85: “Thou knowest the mask of night is on my face,”, meaning that, literally, her face is in the dark, but also that her face is blushing and happy that Romeo is there, even if you can’t see it because of the darkness.

So an important use of the balcony is helping to provide the contrast between light and dark, high and low, love and despair.

This article really helped my understanding of the balcony scene and the rest of the play too and, in particular, the difference between darkness and light, good and bad in Shakespeare’s sense.

http://www.studymode.com/essays/Romeo-And-Juilet-Imagery-77016.html

Gnomeo and Juliet

While researching Romeo and Juliet I remembered the kid’s movie called Gnomeo and Juliet that was based on it. As you can guess, the movie is about gnomes, but with the plot of Romeo and Juliet. I decided to see what I could find out about the similarities and differences between the play and the movie, as Gnomeo and Juliet is one of  the newest adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.

According to jmunch929, there are similarities in Gnomeo and Juliet and Romeo and Juliet. Gnomeo and Juliet is set in Verona Street with two neighbours who dislike each other. Each house has it's own set of garden gnomes which are respectively coloured red or blue. When the occupants of the house leave, the gnomes come to life. The gnome sides both hate each other like the two houses. Jmunch929 also describes some differences. Tybalt's character has become a cruel and hated old man. Friar Lawrence also gets a remake, becoming almost irrelevant and playing almost no role at all! In Gnomeo and Juliet they even removed Lady Capulet and Lord Montague.

Bricastro’s website first describes one similarity between the movie and the play. Gnomeo and Juliet still fall in love at first sight and secretly meet with each other. He then describes how there are many differences. Gnomeo and Juliet the love is very childish in comparison to Romeo and Juliet. Gnomeo and Juliet also get married after the feud is over where as Romeo and Juliet get married behind their families backs. On top of that the movie contains absolutely no death, even the suicide is changed. Near the end of the movie there is an all out war and in that, Gnomeo tries to save Juliet from being hit by a lawnmower as she was glued to a castle. As he was trying to save her the lawnmower hits the castle, self-destructing. In all of the smoke the two families think Gnomeo and Juliet have been killed and end the feud, the families then discover that Gnomeo and Juliet are alive and start to celebrate.

Gnomeo and Juliet is a great kid's movie and has  good messages, funny dialogue and cute animations. Although it strays from the Romeo and Juliet story, it is still a great movie and get's most of the intended message across, even when there are characters missing. During my investigation, I found the two useful websites helpful to gain more insight on the comparison:

Compare and contrast of Romeo and Juliet and Gnomeo and Juliet By jmunch929

Compare and Contrast "Romeo and Juliet" and "Gnomeo and Juliet" By bricastro