Romeo e Giulietta (WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE)

Romeo e Giulietta

(WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE)

The balcony scene is more than a great lovers' meeting place. It is in fact the same as if Romeo had entered into a private Eden. He has climbed over a large wall to enter the garden, which can be viewed as a sanctuary of virginity. Thus he has invaded the only place which Juliet deems private, seeing as her room is constantly watched by the Nurse    or her mother.

He's the hero of the play, but on the surface he doesn't seem too heroic. He starts out in love with one girl (Rosaline), decides he likes another one better (Juliet), marries her but doesn't let anyone know about it, gets his best friend killed (Mercutio), kills his wife's cousin (Tybalt), runs off, returns, thinks his wife is dead, doesn't check, and commits suicide. He sees Juliet as light and calls her 'the sun.' He claims that even the moon, the traditional symbol for a woman's beauty and purity, is envious of Juliet. This characterization is not merely dramatic. The use of these superlatives is meant to convey Romeo's deep feeling.

Romeo steals Juliet's secret, hidden in the darkness, and suddenly appearing he brakes

the enchanted atmosphere. He's excited by Juliet's words and wants to swear by everything, refuse his name and marry his "fair sun". In Juliet's behavior there are the traces of the future event. Whereas she used to obey the authority of her nurse, she now disappears twice, and twice defies authority and reappears. This is a sure sign of her emerging independence, and is a crucial factor in understanding her decision to marry Romeo and defy her parents.

From balcony's scene it's easy deduce Juliet's character. She is a  true woman, who can feel deep sentiments and live on that. Her Love for Romeo is as quick as lightening and she sudden abandons herself to him. She belong to the same social class of Romeo and as well as him she knows the courtly language :during their first meeting she give him a reasonable answer weaving intricate loving metaphor with him. The Juliet's language is full of rhetorical ure as well as Romeo's but in her the exterior ornamentation acts is functional for the communication. The Juliet's language is more actual than Romeo's: she wants to reach the substance of love: it's not the name of the things that she wants but the same things(That which we call a rose ,by any other name would smell as sweet)The demand to Rome of refuse his name is heart-felt demand, an invitation to abandon himself to the true feeling. The Juliet's words respond to the things that she wants to mean and once they were said she pawns herself forever and the demand made to Romeo it's the same way: "if thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully. Their rhetoric uses metaphors, personifications and similitude: they often invoke nature as witness of their love. Besides natural references, they use religious terms to declare their love in this scene: Romeo replies to Juliet's entreaty for him to change his name, 'Call me but love, and I'll be new baptiz'd,' and Juliet tells him to 'swear by thy gracious self, / Which is the god of my idolatry.'

Zeffirelli vs. Luhrmann

William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet leaves a lot of room for creative elaboration. From this has come countless versions of the play. The two most famous are Zeffirelli's and Luhrmann's variations. Both spawned from the original and brought new concepts to the stage. They were both distinct and profound in their own execution of the play.
The Zeffirelli's adaptation of the play is not for the uneducated American audience. Rather, one must be able to comprehend the quick banter of English accents that constantly flow through the film. Furthermore, unlike Luhrmann's variation, there are no clues in the setting to help understand meaning or tone. On the other hand, Zeffirelli's production presents a more concise version of the play to the viewer, accurately portraying setting, characters, and atmosphere. It brought me new understanding and significance to the play and aided me in comprehending the intricate world of William Shakespeare.
Lurhmann's 1996 edition of Romeo and Juliet provided a brilliant contrast to Zeffirelli's adaptation. His portrayal delivered more contemporary aspects to the stage. The setting was modern, yet maintained a hint of architecture from Shakespearean times. An example of this classical architecture was the Capulets' magnificent staircase. Another benefit from this edition was the cleverly added foreshadowing and numerous additional connotations that were enclosed in the background of the film, providing new treasures to be found with each viewing.Although I found Zeffirelli's version of the play accurate and enjoyable, I preferred the modern connotations of Lurhmann's later adaptation. It was a refreshing renewal of Romeo and Juliet and shed new light on the literary masterpiece. Romeo steals Juliet's secret, hidden in the darkness, and suddenly appearing he brakes the enchanted atmosphere.