Why Is Romeo And Juliet Remained So Popular

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorHigh School, 11th grade February 2008

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For over four hundred years, William Shakespeare?s ?Romeo and Juliet? has remained one of the most popular stories and plays of all time.

Writers, literary critics and the general public all agree that ?Romeo and Juliet? is a story of the ages. ?Romeo and Juliet? is popular because it deals with a variety of issues that most people can relate to. The play deals with themes such as love, hate, death, fighting, sexual issues and friendship.

Contemporary audiences find ?Romeo and Juliet? enduring for many reasons. It deals with issues that adolescents are dealing with at that time of their lives. Adolescents also find the play appealing because of the language and how it is used, and also the sexual undertone of some of the script. Romeo and Juliet were also very young, which makes many of the characters easy to relate to.

Baz Luhrman?s film interpretation of ?Romeo and Juliet? was very different from other interpretations, such as Zefferelli?s film. Zefferelli?s ?Romeo and Juliet? was closely set to the original text. It was set in medieval times, with the script remaining basically as was originally written. In comparison, Baz Luhrman?s ?Romeo and Juliet? was set in modern times in an Hispanic city, with all the fighting done with modern day weapons instead of swords. The script also remained mostly unchanged, but the meaning behind some of the words differed slightly. Therefore, comparison and discussion about these two interpretations can be easily achieved.

Two key episodes in ?Romeo and Juliet? are Act 2, Scene 4, when Mercutio teases Romeo and the Nurse, and Act3, Scene 1, when Mercutio meets his fate. One might say that Mercutio teasing Romeo and the Nurse is...