Comparing Prologues of Romeo and Juliet by Franco Zefirelli and Baz Luhrmann

Comparing Prologues of Romeo and Juliet by Franco Zefirelli and Baz Luhrmann

Analysis and comparison of the presentation of the prologue in film

version of 'Romeo and Juliet', one by Franco Zefirelli, the other by

Baz Luhrmann

The prologue is the introduction, which gives an overview of the play.

It tells us what happens at the end of the play, in this case in

'Romeo and Juliet' it is told in the introduction, for example the

lines, 'a pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life', 'doth with

their death bury their parents strife'. These two lines say that Romeo

and Juliet both deep in love with each other, die at the end of the

play, the reason being that their parents hated each other. It also

sets the scene of 'Fair Verona' and it explains the contents of the

play, 'Two households', and 'break to new mutiny'. The prologue is

said by the chorus. This means it is an idea of a group of people

taken from ancient Greek tradition. The prologue does not introduce

the audience to the characters in the play; it just talks briefly

about the events within the play.

A prologue at the beginning of a play is a style commonly used by

Shakespeare to open up a play. It is also common that Shakespeare uses

the use of a sonnet to produce the prologues. A sonnet always has

fourteen lines in total. It is a very precise piece of poetry. The

rhyme scheme is very tight and controlled-

a,b,a,b,c,d,c,d,e,f,e,f,g,g. They consist of three quatrains with a

final rhyming couplet. It is very controlled, yet very subtle. You

would tend to notice the story telling first and then later realise

that it is a poem with rhythm. There are ten syllables in each li...

... middle of paper ...

...y

through giving the audience a good idea of the peace and beauty of

Verona. Luhrmann of course presented the prologue in a different way,

almost a complete contrast to what Zefirelli did. He changed 'Fair

Verona' into urban sprawled Verona.

I think that the presentations of the prologue were both appropriate

for their interpretations because Zefirelli wanted to keep his

production of 'Romeo and Juliet' original and alike Shakespeare.

Luhrmann wanted to interpret the play into something slightly more

modern and unlike Shakespeare's original version. In Luhrmann's

production he emphasised the complications between the two households

and the alterations he had made to the film, like how he set his

production in an urban city and called it 'Verona Beach' instead of

setting it in the original city of Verona in Italy.