Dissertation de Littérature Étrangère

Thème 1 LELE :

I'm going to explain the first notion : The Character and its transformations

Our issue is about great characters revisited : for better or for worse?

we studied Shakespeare's doomed lovers : Romeo and Juliet

So, we saw Romeo and juliet's prologue of shakespear :

The prologue tell us the story, the Capulets and the Montaigues Who is 2 big families living in Verona, take their children, Romeo and juliet's life. Their death bury their parent's strife. Its about Roméo and juliet's fate story where love is impossible and fatal. The story of those 2 lovers and the strife between these 2 families will be the topic of the play. The prologue sets the scene and tell us what is going to happen so that the audience attends the play knowing that the lovers will not be able to scape their fate.

It is a 14 Lines sonnet, it describe 2 noble families and their Kin of verona.

Roméo and juliet are a pair of star crossed lovers, its a fate story.

And we studied the balcony scene of shakespear : this is the most famous scene of this play.

Romeo and Juliet reveal their love to each other.

Then we compared Zefirelli and baz lurhman's movie

Franco Zeffirelli's movie has been created

In 1968 and Baz Luhrmann created his adaptation in 1997. The two films present very different settings. Luhrmann's is based in modern-day America and Zeffirelli's is based in traditional Italy. For exemple, the prologue's scene, As soon as the two films begin, there is an obvious difference in the way they are started. Franco Zeffirelli has chosen what I would say was a very typical and predictable opening for the Shakespearian play, the opening scene is a man saying the prologue in a very formal English tone and there is a picture of Verona. Whereas Baz Luhrmann has opted for a very different and unexpected approach to the prologue, although I suppose this is due to the fact that it is a modern adaptation of the play. Instead it is a black woman, with an American accent, announcing the prologue as if it is a news report on the television.

As a personal opinion the Franco Zeffirelli production is more appropriate for educational uses as it gives a fair representation of both houses and it is more based on the Shakespeare text, but I personally find the Baz Luhrmann production more engaging and easier to understand.

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