Four Star Crossed Lovers

Romeo & Juliet and Tony & Maria

The stories are similar, a boy and girl meet and fall in love, but this is not a love destined to last long. Romeo and Juliet will take their own lives for fear of living without each other, just as Tony seeks out death upon believing that Maria is dead. These two sets of young lovers are so blinded by their infatuation with each other that they are incapable of ever seeing themselves live without the other one. Baz Luhrmann takes the story of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and places it in a modern, urban setting while retaining the essence of the Shakespearean English text. Meanwhile, Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise, and Arthur Laurents set our story in the streets of a 1950's New York. Robbins, Wise, and Laurents keep the basic outline of the play while they take liberties with the text, and add numerous choreographed song and dance numbers. The hearts of both stories still lie in the idea of an ill-fated love, of two young kids from opposite worlds falling in love, and not being able to overcome the obstacle that hate creates. Both films are able to uphold the basic structure of Shakespeare’s story, and prove that hate breads hate and that for some love alone cannot conquer all.

Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet opens with a television news reporter delivering the lines of the prologue. It then quickly cuts to a myriad of images being quickly thrust upon the audience. They are images of the city of Verona Beach, police, newspaper headlines, and violence as a voice over restates the beginning of the prologue as the opening credits begin to flash across the screen. In this modern day adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, Luhrmann takes many creative liberties. While the Capulets and Montagues are now gun-toting teenagers and the heads of the families are rival business owners, Luhrmann does keep the language strictly Shakespearean.

Luhrmann’s 1996 adaptation of Shakespeare’s work stars Leonardo DiCaprio as our tragic hero, Romeo Montague and portraying his ill-fated soul-mate Juliet Capulet, we have Claire Danes. DiCaprio’s Romeo first meets Danes’ Juliet at a masquerade ball at the Capulet Mansion. Romeo has entered the ball as an uninvited guest, and while the room is spinning around him, as this Romeo has been taken on a little LSD trip, he seeks refuge by way of drowning his face in a sink full of water. After dousing himself with the cold, reviving water he turns to admire an enormous aquarium filled with numerous tropical fish in bright hues of blue and yellow. While leaning in for a closer inspection of said aquarium, his eyes set their gaze upon the eyes of fair Juliet on the other side. They continue to stare at one another through this aquarium for a while until Juliet is whisked away by her Nurse. After a quick dance with Paris, Juliet is pulled away by Romeo speaking of his desire to kiss her. After much vain protest they steal away for a kiss. They are found kissing in the elevator by Juliet’s Nurse who informs a lovesick Juliet that Romeo is indeed a Montague, all the while their love theme, “Kissing You” is being sung in the background. This realization comes too late, as they have already fallen hard for each other.

Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise take Romeo and Juliet to the urban world of 1950's New York Street gangs in West Side Story. The rival gangs of the Sharks and the Jets replace the Capulets and Montagues, but the heart of Shakespeare’s story still remains. Tony and Maria are West Side Story’s adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. Tony, a prominent Jet, falls for Maria, a Puerto Rican and the sister of the Shark’s leader Bernardo. Just as in the story of Romeo and Juliet this is a love that is ultimately fated to fail.

There are many reasons why West Side Story is not an ideal adaptation of Shakespeare’s famous play, but it is still easy to see that Arthur Laurents and Jerome Robbins got their inspiration for this musical from the classic tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet. One can find obvious differences in that West Side Story is much more loosely based on Shakespeare’s play than Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet. The setting and language are much different, but the story is still about two star-crossed lovers with warring family and friends who discover that love cannot always overcome hate.

In West Side Story, the two young lovers again meet at a dance. Maria is going to her very first American dance, and is quite excited, though not as excited about Chino being her date. The two rival gangs take opposite sides of the gymnasium, and in true musical fashion, begin a dance off. The entire room, however, slows down and fades away as Tony enters and he and Maria lock eyes for the first time. They seem to be magnetically drawn to one another, and they talk. They can not believe what is happening, and Tony wants to make sure that it is real, that Maria is not simply tricking him, but of course she is not. Just as the magic moment of their first kiss begins we are suddenly jarred back into the reality of the dance as Bernardo interrupts our new couple. Bernardo is less than thrilled that his little sister would be with such a Jet. Once again the knowledge that Tony is a Jet, and that Maria is Bernardo’s sister, has come too late, as Tony and Maria have, like Romeo and Juliet, fallen hard for one another.

Luhrmann uses the visual of water many times throughout Romeo + Juliet. Water is first seen as Juliet submerges her face in a tub of water much like what Romeo does later at the ball. The aquarium is quite obviously filled with water, and this is where the two young lovers first catch glimpse of one another. Then of course, there is the swimming pool. The main action of the infamous balcony scene has been moved into the swimming pool. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet water is not a key element, that was a creative choice on Luhrmann’s behalf. The water seems to come into play at times of escape. Juliet is hiding from her mother, Romeo is hiding from the craziness of the party, they both are hiding from the guards, Juliet’s Nurse, and essentially from everyone. It is in those moments, staring into an aquarium or delving into the swimming pool, that they are alone. They are able to block out everyone else around them, everyone that would come between them, and they can be alone, together.

Similar to the concept of water being repeatedly used in Romeo + Juliet, the color red is used quite dramatically throughout West Side Story. From the opening of the movie the audience is bombarded with the color red. The Jets and Sharks are wearing red shirts and red jackets, and Maria wears a red sash upon her white dress. Most dramatically, there is a red hue that covers the screen during the song, “Tonight,” as the Jets, the Sharks, Maria, Tony, and Anita all sing their own version of the song. Just as each one has their own meaning for the song, “Tonight,” there are many meanings behind the choice of the color red. Red, when used for the Jets and Sharks symbolizes anger, blood shed, and ultimately death. Anita’s red more likely symbolizes passion and lust, as she is singing of the time she will spend with Bernardo later that night. The most innocent of the meanings, of course, comes from Maria and Tony. For them the color red is more representative of their love and new-found passion for one another. The innocence of Maria was represented by her white dress at the dance, but upon her white dress she wore a red sash. That red sash represents all the things her brother “Nardo” is trying to shield her from, but that is an impossible task, but she is no longer a child that must be looked after. She has become a women in love.

While there are many reasons to compare these two films as loyal Shakespeare adaptations, there is an obvious difference between how the two films choose to handle the final scenes. In Act V Scene III, Romeo slays Paris and then our dear Romeo drinks the apothecary’s poison, and with a final kiss laid upon Juliet, he dies. Juliet then awakes from her drugged sleep of death only to find her husband lay dead beside her. In true over-dramatic teenage heart-break fashion, she takes Romeo’s dagger and thrusts herself upon it. Our young couple is dead by the end of the play, there is no happily ever after for young Romeo and Juliet.

Luhrmann creates some wonderful imagery here in the final scene of Romeo + Juliet. After Romeo has arrived at the Capulet’s church/tomb he does not kill Paris, as Paris has not been seen for sometime in this film. This was an interesting choice on Luhrmann’s behalf. Why he would choose to let Paris live speaks for the desire to feel that Romeo is still the hero of our story. While Romeo has killed Tybalt, that is forgivable since Tybalt had killed Romeo’s best friend. To have Paris die at the hand of Romeo would take something away from Romeo’s character in the film. Instead of committing murder, Romeo reaches the church after being chased by police cars and helicopters. Once safely inside the large locked doors Romeo comes face to face with the reality of Juliet’s “death.” There are glowing crosses and hundreds of candles all glowing around where Juliet has been laid in state. Romeo is undeniably upset at seeing his young wife so lifeless, yet he is amazed at how beautiful she still is. While sobbing and weeping over the loss of his one true love and his impending suicide, Luhrmann begins to have Juliet awaken. Her eyes flutter, her fingers twitch, her head moves upon the pillow, but oh how poor Romeo is so stricken with grief that he does not see this. Instead he takes out his vile of poison and drinks, just in time to hear Juliet speak, and realize he has made a tragic mistake. After their final kiss, Juliet takes Romeo’s gun and aims at her temple. Again our young couple is dead. While Luhrmann keeps the ending as we all know it, he chooses to leave out the death of Paris for time reasons perhaps, or maybe to keep Romeo’s name clean. Luhrmann also lets the audience see that Juliet is alive, each time she moves one is compelled to yell at the screen, “look Romeo, she’s alive, don’t drink that.” This is such a compelling part of the film. It makes the ultimate ending truly tragic.

Just as Paris does not die in Romeo + Juliet, neither does his West Side Story counterpart, Chino. In the final scenes of this film the message that Maria is dead is delivered to Tony by Doc. However, Maria is very much alive, and the real message sent with Anita was not of her death, but that she will be late, but after Anita is harassed by the Jets she tells them that Maria was killed by Chino after he found out about her and Tony. Upon this news Tony is distraught. He goes into the streets screaming for Chino to kill him too. Without his Maria he feels no reason to live. Tony runs and screams throughout the streets until he sees Maria coming towards him. Just as he realizes that she is indeed alive, and they are running into each others arms Chino finds him. Tony is shot by Chino, and falls into Maria’s arms. As Tony dies Maria sings “There’s a Place for Us,” but for Tony and Maria there is no happy ending. Maria gets the gun used by Chino and asks how many she can kill, and still have a bullet left for herself. She is now full of hate and is capable of killing too. Unlike Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Maria does not choose to kill herself. It is said that in the original script Maria did use the gun on herself, but in the end they felt that to have both young lovers die at the end was too tragic. Once again we are faced with the character representing Paris, Chino, alive at the end, and once again it is for the same reason. For Tony to kill again would be unforgivable in the eyes of the audience.

These two films take the story of Shakespeare and they put it on a level that is understandable by a modern youth audience. To read Shakespearean English can be difficult for many to follow and understand, but to see the scenes on the screen puts it all in context and makes it much more accessible. While these two films undoubtably received much criticism about how the interpreted Shakespeare’s story, they both were able to accurately portray the innocent love between our two young characters, and in the end the tragedy that befell them proved that sometimes love is not always enough.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. The Unabridged William Shakespeare. Philadelphia: Running Press, 1989.

William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet. Dir. Baz Luhrmann. Perf. Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. Twentieth Century Fox, 1996.

West Side Story. Dir. Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise. Perf. Richard Beymer and Natalie Wood. MGM, 1961.

The Scarlet Letter and a Lesson in Forgiveness

John Chapter Eight begins with a notation “The Earliest Manuscripts do not include John 7:53-8:11,” I wondered why as I continued reading one of my favorite stories of Christ’s forgiveness. After much searching I discovered that according to Bruce Metzger;
It was absent from important early and diverse New Testament manuscripts. He writes, ‘At the same time the account has all the earmarks of historical veracity. It is obviously a piece of oral tradition which circulated in certain parts of the Western church and which was subsequently incorporated into various manuscripts at various places… Although the Committee was unanimous that [this passage] was originally no part of the Fourth Gospel, in deference to the evident antiquity of the passage a majority decided to print it, enclosed within double square brackets, at its traditional place following Jn. 7.52.’

To me this has always been one of the most profound accounts of Christ’s forgiveness. “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7). It is a small account, only nine versus in John Chapter Eight even talk about this adulterous woman. The account does not even appear in all Bibles, but yet the meaning goes so much further than one woman and one affair. The message of John Chapter Eight Versus 3-11 is forgiveness, love, compassion, and setting a clear law of who is responsible for judgment.

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the story of the adulterous woman, Hester Prynne who comes to town as an unwed mother and is forced to wear the scarlet letter ‘A’ upon her dress as a sign of her sin. It is later found out that the town’s very own Reverend Dimmesdale had his own letter ‘A’ scarred into his chest. What we take away from the story is that everyone in the town should have been wearing a scarlet letter of some kind. Everyone sins. It is an inescapable fact of life. We are born, we breath, we sin, we die. It just happens. So for one person to judge another’s life as sinful is simply ridiculous. As the old saying goes, “Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.” When writing The Scarlet Letter there is no doubt that Nathaniel Hawthorne, a writer who often scored his works with many religious references, was familiar with John Chapter Eight, and Hester Prynne was his unnamed adulterous woman and the whole town were the Pharisees, so full of sin themselves, yet never wanting to look at their own hearts only the obvious sin of Hester.

John Chapter Eight begins with Jesus teaching the people at the temple at the Mount of Olives and then the scribes and Pharisees interrupt by bringing a woman unto Jesus that they had found committing adultery. “The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery’” (8:3-4). There are a few things about this scripture that make the Pharisees look bad. First, they are interrupting a lesson that Jesus is teaching the people with their little scheme to trap Jesus into doing something that can be used against Him. Secondly, they only bring the woman. If she was caught in the act of adultery then the man should have been there as well. It is implied that it was a set-up, and that possibly one of the scribes or Pharisees was the irresponsible male that tricked the woman in order to further their plot against Jesus. It is important to note that in Chapter Seven there is a great division among the people. Many believe that Jesus is the Christ while others believe that He is deceiving them and that He is to be arrested. “‘Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?’ This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground” (8:5-6). This was a test, for if Jesus would have stoned the woman surely He would have been arrested for Jews were not allowed to give out such a penalty. However, if He let her go then they would claim Him a breaker of the laws of Moses and He would be condemned either way. Instead He went on writing in the dirt. Soon he stood and said, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her” (8:7). He once again continued to write in the dirt while the other men took their time walking away as they realized that they were not without sin themselves. “But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him” (8:9). It was easy for the men to find someone sinning, but it was impossible for them to find someone not. Finally, once all had left, “Jesus stood up and said to her, ‘ Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more’” (8:10-11). Jesus was left standing there alone, the only one who could say He was without sin, and yet He did not throw the stone. Why then would we, mere sinners ourselves, constantly choose to throw stones at one another? Jesus was without sin, but was full of love, compassion, and forgiveness for the sinner. These versus remind us that while God hates the sins we commit He loves us more than anything. He is willing to forgive us for all we do over and over again. His love knows no boundaries and it never ceases.

The book of John is considered by many to be a love story. John is the fourth Gospel to be found in the New Testament. It tells the story of Jesus. His life, His journey, His death, and His resurrection. It is in John that we learn of the many miracles that Jesus performed. We hear of how He turned water into wine. We learn that He fed five thousand with five loaves and two fish. We discover the many that He healed and that He even brought Lazarus back from the dead. We then are faced with the greatest act of love that has ever been committed for us, we read of how Jesus suffered, how He was hung upon a cross to die for our sins. He hung upon that cross and chose to die for the sins of the world, He chose to die for the sins of that adulterous woman that we met back in John Chapter Eight. Jesus took that sin upon His back as He hung on that cross. Everything before that point, everything after that point means nothing compared to what Christ did upon that cross.

The story of the adulterous woman in John Chapter Eight shows only a fraction of the love and forgiveness that Christ offers us all by sacrificing Himself upon the cross. Just as Jesus did not condemn the woman in Chapter Eight, He does not now condemn us, but rather offers us salvation and forgiveness through Him and the sacrifice He made for us at Calvary. The story of the adulterous woman is one of the many stories of Christ’s love and forgiveness that is found in the book of John. It is also one of the many stories of someone betraying Christ that is found in the book of John. Just as the Pharisees were trying to set up Jesus, so too does Judas and Peter. Judas, in John Chapter 18, turns Jesus over to the soldiers. Then later in Chapter 18, Peter denies Jesus the first of three times. Jesus is faced with betrayal and is made to suffer so that we can have forgiveness. In John Chapter 15 Jesus says “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you” (15:18). I think this is another important aspect of John Chapter Eight. Forgetting for a moment the adulterous woman, because after all she was just a ploy in the Pharisees plot to set up Jesus. In John Chapter Seven is where the controversy surrounding Jesus really begins. There are many are beginning to doubt that Jesus in fact the “Christ.” The people were forgetting that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and focusing on the fact that He lived in Galilee. In Micah 5:2 the scripture had said that the leader or Christ would be born in Bethlehem, and Jesus was, but thanks to the Pharisees many people were wrongly assuming that since He lived in Galilee that He was also born in Galilee. So, the division among the people grew, and many people were seeking the arrest of Jesus. The plot with the adulterous woman was just the first of many plots to catch Jesus doing something that would allow them to arrest Him.

John Chapter Eight begins a great story of Christ’s love. He loved the world so much that He was willing to die for it. The story in Chapter Eight is a great illustration of the compassion of Christ. As well as the fact that while the Pharisees tried their hardest to out smart Jesus, they were not able to, because He still managed to take the high road, and left it upon them. When Jesus turns to the woman and says, “..Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more,” to me it is one of the most powerful examples of His forgiveness.

Works Cited
1 Cramer , Robert N. Bible Texts. 1996. 26 Apr. 2005
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2 Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: The Modern Library, 2000.