The Two Central Topics “Love“ and “Perspective“ in "Romeo and Juliet". A Comparative Study of the Film and the Play

“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?“
This quote might be the most famous one from the love story of Romeo and Juliet. It is known by many people around the globe and translated into various languages. It is also known, that the tragedy deals with the ideal of true love and attends to the contact with insurmountable disparities.

Down to the present day they are numerous variations of the original plot, for instance in ballet, classic theatre or movies. The tragedy´s popularity is not deniable, and wittingly or unwittingly the story seems familiar to almost every reader or viewer. This has the cause that in almost everybody´s life there is or was at least one point, where most of the people can relate their personal love-fate to this of Romeo´s and Juliet´s; A loving couple separated by the hate-filled relationship of their families.

At that point, it is nonessential if the separating barrier is represented by parental home, origin, social class, religion, or financial background. Due to this, Romeo and Juliet still is of current interest and affects readers emotionally even centuries after its publishing. This is, for me personally, fascinating, and I want to research into the play to understand Shakespeare´s way of thinking and intentions as well as to explore the limitations and possibilities when it comes to transfer this demanding work by Shakespeare into twenty-first century scenarios.