Analysis Of Mercutio In Romeo And Juliet

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Romeo and Juliet presents an ongoing feud between the Montague and Capulet families whose children meet and fall in love. Markedly, the meeting scene depicting love at first sight continues to be praised by today’s critics. Romeo and Juliet then receive the label of star-crossed lovers whose tragic demise, death, is written in the stars. In fact, Shakespeare 's work is well received and its numerous adaptations have made it one of his most enduring and notorious stories. The cinematic world brings to the screens a disastrous approach by Baz Luhrmann to do the play justice. A glance at Baz Luhrmann’s productions allows audiences to assume he delivers movies which are unlike those of any other filmmaker today, or perhaps ever. Therefore, blending …show more content…

When suddenly Baz Luhrmann nineteen minutes into his work presents a drag Mercutio dressed scandalously in a ridiculous white wig and wearing red lipstick to top it all off, it seems he has no regard for the original Romeo and Juliet. In his portrayal of a character as crucial as Mercutio, Luhrmann crosses the fine line between the individual possessing eloquence and profuse wit Shakespeare creates, and a downright maniac. Before entering the Capulets’ mansion Mercutio’s acclaimed Queen Mab Speech in Act One, Scene Four, displays the aforementioned eloquence and vivid imagination of the character. Specifically, Mercutio claims, “Oh, then I see you’ve been with Queen Mab/...True, I talk of dreams,/Which are the children of an idle brain,/Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,”(I iv 53, 97-99). Anyone with a rational mind does not expect Mercutio to deliver his lines about dreams being merely the result of the anxieties and desires of those who sleep while grasping ecstasy and jumping agitatedly. Luhrmann offers an insane Mercutio in his take on Romeo and Juliet and all it achieves is a massacre of the brilliance of the dialogue. The unconventional director stages the exchange to end with Romeo ingesting a psychoactive drug inducing him in a euphoric state, then shattering any proceeding potential romantic mood. …show more content…

Any director worthy of recognition is aware of his or her audience and aims to draw pleasing reactions. The 1996 film surely offends masses as images concerning religious beliefs are depicted next to outrageous elements. The Elizabethan playwright scripts the host of the event exclaiming, “You are welcome, gentlemen.—Come, musicians, play./(music plays and they dance)/A hall, a hall, give room!—And foot it, girls.—/More light, you knaves! And turn the tables up,/And quench the fire” (I v 25-30). Capulet 's hospitable words form an image of a formal prestigious event. In contrast, the costume party hosted by the Capulet family in Baz Luhrmann’s vision kicks off with the unforgettable dance number of a man dressed in feminine attire. The director continues to insist on an absurd innovation when Shakespeare does not leave room for audiences to imagine a guest as eccentric as Luhrmann’s Mercutio to make an

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