Romeo and Juliet

We read Act 1 Scene 5 in class last week and we watched two movie versions of it. I think that with each interpretation of this scene the director uses a little bit of a different tone. For example, in the older version of the movie, it seems more serious because Romeo and Juliet are at a party with adults and there is more conversation rather than flirting. In the newer movie version, there is a lot of dancing and flirting amongst the characters. The tone seems lighter because of this. I understood both of the movie versions and the actual play pretty well because the plot was relatively simple and the language wasn't too challenging.

Basically all that happened was Juliet's family had a large mask party and Romeo went to see the girl he love (Rosaline). When he got there, he immediately saw Juliet and fell in love with her beauty. They talk for like a minute and then just start kissing, which is really weird. This is all happening while Paris, the man who is supposed marry Juliet, is "wooing" her. Weird. Romeo claims he is in love with Juliet but I don't understand how they can be in love after meeting each other for just a brief moment. I think they are in love with the way the other one appears rather than the actually person and their character. I think that within the next few scene Romeo and Juliet will actually fall in LOVE not in lust, though.

A lot of the language was very cheesy although I could understand it. For example, the entire time that Paris was trying to "woo" Juliet he was making really weird references. Also when Romeo was talking to Juliet he was really cheesy and was comparing them to pilgrims and such which was odd. I guess this was just how it was back then.

 

 

 

Newer Movie Version