Romeo And Juliet And Wizard Of Oz Comparison

“Classic. A book which people praise and don’t read.” Those are famous, but very true words of American award-winning author Mark Twain. If anyone knows anything about classics, it’s Mark Twain, writer of “The Great American Novel” The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. That quote applies to two of the most known classics there are: William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet and Otis Turner’s The Wonderful Wizard of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz film. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz have many similarities and differences in what makes them classics, those of which include the areas of timeless themes, broad audience appeal, and style and originality.

The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz each have their own timeless

themes strong enough to carry into today. One of the largest is youthfulness and the characters’ impulsiveness to do things without thinking. In Act II, Scene ii of The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, when Romeo and Juliet are consorting the morning after their first meeting, they both decide that they are going to get married. This shows the impulsiveness of them being young—they decide to get married the day after they met without giving it the least of thought. Similarly, Dorothy in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz decides to run away from home because a lady tries to take her dog. She reacts quickly, ignorantly, and way too largely to something that does not deserve that much attention. Discretely, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet largely represents the theme of love and hate. Love and hate signifies that the two do not mix well and will cause dilemmas. Throughout the entire story, every character is troubled because of the hate between the Montagues and Capulets and the love between one from each family. For example, In Act V, Scene iii, Romeo and Juliet both end up committing suicide because of the love and hate involved in the preceding events. Things like this still happen today, including discrepancies with arranged marriage, showing that love and hate will always be present no matter the time period. On the contrary, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’s “There’s no place like home” isolates it from many others. At the end of the movie, the requirement for Dorothy to return home is to say “There’s no place like home.” three times. This theme is common today, especially in reality. Family legacies are often specifically in one area because after people grow out of their childhood, most of them come back to where they originated. There’s no place like home.
Broad audience appeal is something possessed by both The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet and The Wonderful Wizard Oz. When The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet movie of 1936 came out, the total box office sales were $2,075,000, and when The Wonderful Wizard of Oz of 1939 was released, its total box office sales were $3,017,000. They are both similar in total revenue, as they were both in the top 15 most grossing movies of their year. Separately, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet’s theme of love is a major part of what makes it appeal to so many people. All but a few people in the world have some sort of love in their life, and it might be desire. When people desire love, they read and watch things about love. This is so they can think about how great it is or would be. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz on its own brings out the theme of fantasy. People like fantasy because it means they get to leave their imperfect world. They can’t actually do this, but they can get pretty close by watching The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Although the style and originality of The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz are similar, they are also different in numerous ways.

Both The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz contain instances of figurative language. For example, in Act II, scene ii of The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Romeo’s famous metaphor is “It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!” In chapter 12 of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy dumps a bucket of water on the witch and the witch melts. It then says the simile “. . . to see the Witch actually melting away like brown sugar . . .” The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is made up of dialogue and stage directions (script format). On the contrary, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is written in third person.

In conclusion, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz have many similarities and differences in what makes them classics, those of which include the areas of style and originality, broad audience appeal, and timeless themes. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz are both examples of Mark Twain’s famous statement. No matter what happens, everyone is going to know about these

classics.