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Romeo and Juliet: Difference between revisions
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Despite the heavy subject matter, like all of Shakespeare's plays, there are many lighter moments. This, combined with the impression that some have of the title characters as immature and selfish, has led to [[Applicability|productions of different moods]]. Quite a few directors have made comedic productions which can, in the right hands, become [[Black Comedy]] at its finest.
Has been adapted for silver screen numerous times, most famously by the Italian director Franco Zeffirelli in 1968. That production is widely regarded as an exceptional movie, though it's gained a measure of infamy for featuring teenagers Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting partially naked. Perhaps more well known today is Baz Luhrmann's zany 1996 adaptation which moved the story to a modern setting.
Note: The play's full title is ''The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet''. No one uses it, though.
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* ''[[The Lion King|The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride]]'', which followed up the first film's [[Lighter and Softer]] African ''[[Hamlet]]'' with a similarly brighter version of ''this'' story.
* ''[[Shakespeare in Love]]'', in which we learn the ''real'' story behind the production of the play.
* ''[[
* ''Romeo & Harriet'', a musical parody of Romeo and Juliet.
* ''Romiette and Julio'', a 2001 novel by Sharon Draper about two teenage lovers dealing with the taboos of interracial dating.
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* [[Bromantic Foil]]: Mercutio to Romeo.
* [[Brother Chuck]]: Benvolio, one of the main characters in the first three acts, does not appear in the fourth or fifth. Nobody seems to notice this, which is weird since he's just about the only young person left alive at the end.
* [[Bus Crash]]: Lady Montague, who has an important role in the first scene, then disappears almost entirely until the last scene where Montague mentions she died offstage.
* [[Cannot Spit It Out]]/[[Poor Communication Kills]]: Tybalt might not have killed Mercutio and subsequently gotten himself killed by Romeo if he'd kept calm long enough for Romeo to explain that the reason Romeo didn't want to fight him is that Romeo and Juliet had recently gotten married.
* [[Chekhov's Gunman]]: Balthasar, a servant who has a small appearance in the first scene of act 1, ends up indirectly causing Romeo's suicide in act 5.
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* [[Death by Despair]]: Lady Montague, who died after learning of Romeo's exile. Also the presumed cause of Juliet's first "death" by those who don't know about the Friar's potion.
* [[Death Is Dramatic]]: Mercutio dies offstage, but there is no lack of drama there. [[A Plague on Both Your Houses]]!
** And Lady Montague, a much less important character, gets a couple lines for her offstage death. [[Death Is Dramatic|"Basically, the spectacle involved in a character's death is proportional to the importance of the character to the story."]]
* [[Demoted to Extra]]: Most adaptations seem to forget Paris. His death is one of the most frequently omitted sequences, even though it makes a nonsense of the Prince's "I have lost a brace of kinsmen" lines.
* [[Diabolus Ex Machina]]: Repeatedly. The line about "star-crossed lovers" in the opening narration is a [[Lampshade Hanging]]; the stars - meaning Fate - are going to make sure everyone ends up miserable.
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* [[Elopement]]: Romeo and Juliet run away to Friar Lawrence to get married, and apparently plan to run further away to get away from their families.
* [[Emo Teen]]: Romeo is this at first, moping around and reading emo poetry because of his one-sided love on Rosaline. And when he has to be separated from Juliet, he gets even ''worse'' than he was at the beginning.
** It is also worth noting that Romeo's lines regarding his romance of Rosaline are ''very'' over-used cliches at Shakespeare's time, but as soon as Romeo starts describing Juliet, his lines become very creative and much more poetic.
* [[Enter Stage Window]]: Probably the [[Ur Example]].
* [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"]]: The Prince and the Nurse. (Although on the character list the Prince's name is given as "Escalus" and Capulet calls the Nurse "Angelica" at one point.)
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* [[The Fighting Narcissist]]: Mercutio's description of Tybalt's ornate fighting style implies that Tybalt may fit this trope.
* [[Foregone Conclusion]]: It's stated in the very beginning that the title characters die... on line '''six''' of the Prologue, to be precise. Supposedly, there was a happy alternate ending that contemporary audiences could vote for in lieu of the tragic ending. No one has ever discovered it, though.
* [[Forbidden Fruit]]: Arguably the whole basis of Romeo and Juliet's relationship.
* [[Fourth Date Marriage]]: The titular characters get married less than 24 hours after meeting, and plan their marriage the night they meet. The entire plot unfolds over all of four days.
* [[Gallows Humor]]: "Ask for me in the morning, and you will find me a grave man."
* [[Genre Busting]]: It was the first play to combine the idea of comedies and tragedies. In a typical comedy, there are young lovers who live [[Happily Ever After]]. In a typical tragedy, there are political figures and families that feud and kill people. All of this happens in ''Romeo and Juliet''. [[Dissimile|Except]] [[Downer Ending|the happily-ever-after part.]]
* [[Genre Shift]]: It looks exactly like your typical Shakespearian comedy until Mercutio kicks it in Act III. [[First Law of Tragicomedies|From there on in, it's a tragedy]]. The only other comedic character was the Nurse, and even then, after Mercutio dies, she and Juliet have a falling out.
* [[The Ghost]]: Rosaline. Though she's not even that important anyway.
* [[Grey and Gray Morality]]
* [[Hanlon's Razor]]: Two teens in "love" die because of a problem with the post. Not much malice against them from anybody except Tybalt, who proves pretty pathetic.
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** Also Romeo talking about his "Well-flowered pump." "Pumps" were shoes, which would be adorned with flowers at dances and other gatherings.
** There are several with Capulet as well, such as "You are a saucy boy" and "You are too hot," the latter being said to him by his wife.
* [[Hot-Blooded]]: Tybalt. He's responsible for most of the fighting that goes on.
** Romeo, too. When Mercutio kicks the bucket, his immediate reaction is going to Tybalt and fight him.
** Romeo's reaction to Paris threatening to arrest him was to fight him. He won, as well.
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* [[Hurricane of Puns]]: The beginning of the first scene, or act 2, scene 4. Despite it's hidden in Shakespeare's archaic English, they're in there.
* [[Idiot Ball]]: Friar Lawrence for coming up with faking Juliet's death and Juliet for thinking it would work.
** Romeo was holding the idiot ball long before that. If he had turned in Tybalt for killing Mercutio instead of going after him himself, the entire rest of the play would not have happened.
* [[Impeded Messenger]]: Due to the black plague sweeping through Europe, a priest carrying a vital message to Romeo never reaches him. Many places would close their doors to priests, who were believed to carry the plague as they visited those with it for religious ceremonies.
* [[Incredibly Lame Pun]]: A good handful of the characters, though Mercutio seems to live off of them. He even belts them out as he lay dying...
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* [[Mortal Wound Reveal]]: Mercutio's death is often played as this in modern versions - crops up in both Baz Luhrmann's ''and'' Franco Zeffirelli's screen adaptations.
* [[Name and Name]]
* [[Nice Guy]]: Paris, although how nice he is depends on the staging.
** Romeo is also implied to be this, considering the fact that Lord Capulet doesn't actually care when he's told that Romeo is at his party and says he's heard nice things about the boy. Keep in mind, this is the guy that was trying to kill said boys father less then 24 hours earlier for no other reason than some old rivalry that no one remembers the cause of.
* [[Noodle Incident]]: During his [[Big Lipped Alligator Moment|"Queen Mab" speech]], it soon becomes clear that Mercutio was once greatly hurt by a woman.
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* [[Villain with Good Publicity]]: Tybalt sees Romeo as this; when Tybalt tells Lord Capulet that Romeo has come uninvited to the Capulet masquerade ball, Lord Capulet lets it slide because Romeo has a decent reputation (not to mention Lord Capulet didn't want any trouble).
* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: Friar Lawrence's speech to Romeo in Act III is basically him calling Romeo out for crying like a baby, not realizing how lucky he is that he's not dead as a result of his idiocy, and for generally not manning up.
* [[Women Are Wiser]]: Juliet is far and away the more sensible and level-headed one of the title duo. Also, when a street brawl breaks out, Lords Montague and Capulet try to fight, and their wives have to hold them back.
** Even between the Nurse and Friar Lawrence, this trope is applicable - although in a darker way. Friar Lawrence sets about making tons of risky plans that, although well-intentioned, have a thousand ways to go wrong. The Nurse {{spoiler|tells Juliet to be sensible and marry Paris, and give up Romeo for dead, because it involves less risk and heartache.}}
* [[Young Love Versus Old Hate]]: The young lovers come from families that have been at war with each other for generations. The hatefulness of the older generation eventually led to the death of both characters.
* [[Youth Is Wasted on the Dumb]]: The fights are often portrayed as this.
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