blog 5

Remember that given circumstances refers to the WHO/WHERE/WHEN/WHAT of a character including: present circumstances (setting) recent/immediate past, historical past, possible future, relationships, character strengths, character vulnerabilities. The motivation includes the character's main goal for the scene, the overarching goal for the play, and the obstacles that are presented in the way of achieving the goal.

I play the role of Tybalt Capulet in Act 3 Scene 1. Tybalt wants to have a fight with Romeo because he thinks Romeo insults the honor of their house by sneaking into their party. He writes a letter to him offer about the battle and Romeo just doesn’t get the message. This is the background information which I should know. What is happing in our scene is that Tybalt kills Romeo’s close friend Mercutio which irritates him. Romeo revenges his friend by stabbing Tybalt to death.The fight happens in a street. We ignore the existence of Benvollio because we don’t have enough people to play the roles and we try to focus on the conflict among Mercutio, Roemo and Tybalt. Benvollio is not playing as important as these two charactter. I pick this scene because this scene is definitely a highlight in the play. It leads to the possible future different possibilities according to different readers. For example, I am worried about what will happen to Romeo and Juliet becuase Juliet has to choose from her own cousin and her just-married-husband. I also eager to know what will happen to Romeo because he may be punished by killing Mercutio and I wonder Juliet’s reaction. Some people may think they will still be together; some others may think they will break up after this event. It kinds of makes the sence more interesting. Tybalt is easy to perform because his characteristic is straight forward. His strength is his obstinate honesty to his house. His goal seems to kill Romeo. However, in my opinion, he is defending for the honor of his house. I appreciate his honesty to Cpulet Family frankly but I dislike his stubborn. He is also an arrogant person because he thinks he can beat Romeo in sword battle. He underestimates his enemy. He is killed by his arrogant. I want to show his proud of being a Capulet and scorn to the Montague. For the reason that he doesn’t achieve his goal at last, I want to show his regetful and unbelievable at the last moment. We separatethe scene into two parts. The first part I will emphasize on Tybalt’s arrogant and scorn to Mercutio. Mercutio is not a Montague though, he is neither a nobility. There is not only hostility to rival family but also the discrimination to lower classes. He is dominating at first. When Romeo involves in their argument, things have changed. His arrogance reach the peak when he humiliates Romeo and Romeo tries to make peace. I will empasize the tense atmosphere by creating serious background music, exaggerating Tybalt’s facail expression and body gestures. Just before he is defeated by Romeo, I will emphasize his desperation, unbelievable facail emption, and reget.

act idea

• Costume

Claire(Tybalt)

Blak blazer, white shirt, black suit pants

reason: Tybalt is a mean guy in the play. For audience to better recognize him, he should dress in black. He is born in noble family, so he should be in suit to show off his fame and wealth. He is going to have a battle with Romeo and he takes it seriously. That’s the reason why he is in formal kinds of suit.

Ethan( Mercutio)

Casual outfit, shorts, flip flop

reason:Though Mercutio is Romeo’s friend. He is not one of the member of the Montague. We should state the differece between social class. In addition, he is normally hanging out with friends, he doesn’t have to be in formal.

Jack(Romeo)

Fashion clothes in golden color

reason: He is dating with Juliet. He has a bunch of reason to dress himself as fancy as he can.

• prop idea

Claire(Tybalt)

arrogent, impolite, angry in scene one

a little bit of fear in scene two

Ethan(Mercutio)

Irritable, ironic

Jack(Romeo)

peaceful, reasonable in scene one

furious, uncontrolale, regretful in scene two

quiz #4

A) Act 4 is all Juliet. She considers options, defies her parents, gets advice, goes against the advice of one trusted counselor and agrees to trust a more unknown one, makes a decision, faces real fears, chooses to make sacrifices, chances death, takes an unknown potion, embarks on an adventure that risks exile or worse. Discuss her character and personality. What does this act reveal about her that we didn't know before? How has her character changed since we first met her in act one? Be specific. Also, while Juliet is going through all of this, what is Romeo doing? How are their characters contrasted by this juxtaposition? What is Shakespeare perhaps suggesting about gender in this act and how does that also contrast from how the gendered "normal" world was presented earlier in the play?

We know in Act one she makes a vow that she will never marry to anyone. However, she does fall in love with Romeo at the frist sight and forgets about the vow. In my opinion, she is an impulsive and immature teenager. Though, she is seriously in love with Romeo, she doesn’t consider the relationship between two famliy, the future of both of them, the possible flaws of Romeo and the establishment of inner communication. She plays a naive, sweet, and kind female character as always in Shakespeare’s play. However, she is quite different from Ophelia, Desdemona, and Cordelia. She is rebellious and willing to fight again the destiny which makes her remarkable. This act reveals her rebellious personality deep down her heart. It shows us the awakening recognizion of her emotion and personal feeling. She is a traditional home girl but, to our surprise, she sleeps with Romeo only three days after they have known each other. She is a sensible teenager at the first act because she has her own logic and thoughts about marriage but now she is enchanted with first-sight love and even threaten Friar Laurence with her own life which is defintely can not be discribed as a calm or reasonable act. Also, she is so sensetive because she believes in Romeo instead of her cousion who has been living with her for thirteen years. While Juliet is going through the sorrow, Because of being banished, Romeo finds Friar Laurence too for help. He promises that he will arrange their first and last night as soon as possible. Juliet is treated just like a piece of property,while Romeo is being banished even though he kills Juliet’s cousion. I think Shakepeare infers that the women’s role is not as important as men’s role during that time.In the first Act, we can feel that Juliet have little right to choose her husband. She is treated like a piece of property in this act which will call on people to focus on women’s feeling.

C) Consider the ending of the play. Is it a tragedy even though the city's natural order is restored by the ending of the feud? Were the deaths worth it?

From my point of view, I don’t think it is still a tragedy after all; instead, I consider it as the best-fit ending of the play. Even though both of Romeo and Juliet are dead, they exchange perminent existance for their love. They exchange their love for forever peace between two hostile family. Because there is no foundation for their first-sight love, it is possible for Romeo to fall in love with the other girl rapidly. Friar infers that the speed of Romeo changing girlfriends just like driving on a highway. It’s hard to explain that how can he prove that he will be responsible for Juliet forever and not break the vows. How can Romeo discovers that there are girls more beautiful than Juliet who are willing to flirt with him outside Verona? It is hard to imagine that when Juliet finds out Romeo is not flawless. He will be old and bad-tempered sometime. What will she do when she realizes that Romeo is not the Mr Right she is dreaming of? What will she do when she figures out that he is just a normal people who she thinks too positive for ? Will they understand and tolerate each other, or they can’t heal the disappointment and break up?  It’s the best for both of them to sacrisified for each other when they reach the climate of the love. As we all known, feeling and passion decrease from time to time. Their deaths worth because they are dare to fight against the rule and tradition at that time. Their love is beyond hatred. It will inspire the audience that the good will always be long-lasting. I don’t feel really sad for them, constractly, I feel glad that they are dead for each other when they are willing to devote their lives for love.

F) Choose either Romeo or Juliet and analyze their portrayal in the film. What characteristics are highlighted and how? Be specific? Is this faithful to the original play? Why or why not?

Juiet is a lady who is more than a pretty face. She has her own values; she is dedicate;she is rebellious but she is still a teenage who is not mature. Juliet is not that into Paris because she doesn’t think wealth and nobility is the first priority to marriage. Instead, she thinks love foundation and feeling is more important. She is different than other girls around her age. In my opinion, her passion is highlighted in the film. She is anxious about knowing any information about Romeo. I can remember a monologue in the film. Juliet says: “It, which refers to marriage, is like a kids owning a new clothes, but not allow to wear it.” She compares her feeling to the kids urging the wear new clothes. It is imagery and impressive. I can understand her passion to see Romeo. When she says goodbye to Romeo, she risks herself being found out by Lady Capulet to give Romeo her necklece. I notice that it is a cross. We know that Juliet is a Christian so it can represent her true love to Romeo. I feel it is quite immature for Juliet in the film because she easily believes what Romeo has said. They exchange their first kiss after Romeo says something fancy to her. It illustrates her passion to Romeo too. It is faithful to the original play but is exaggerated. Shakespeare tries to build a female character who is not a puppet of her parents and families. Deep down in her heart she has her passion, pursue and love.

1996 Romeo and Juliet

Baz Lurhmann’s film of Romeo and Juliet is a nowadays adaptation of the original. It follows the plot of Shakespeare though sets the scene at recent. The movie diractor sets the fights between Tybalt and Mercutio beside a beach. When both of them are dead, the sunny weather changes into storms which is not mentioned in Shakespeare’s version. In addition, they use mordern weapon such as guns to fight instead of swords. The movie director changes the plot too. Juliet wakes up before Romeo drinks his poision. They have the last conversation. As an audience, I can’t deny this adaptation is really appeal to pathoes.I feel more pity seeing them just miss each other. At the last two act, things go on really fast. First three part is developing slowly which create the romantic atmosphere and give the audience a sympathetic impression of chracters. Act 3 is the turning point of the movie. The audience are not prepared for the plot changing so fast. As one of the audience I feel pity for the couples, feel sad about people are dead, and feel angry about the meaningless hatred between two families. Especially when Mercutio is dying, he says it’s only a scretch. The weather starts to change. He cruses the two family including his best friend Romeo’s. I feel so shocked and angry for him. I thought it was only a scretch at first but he knows he is dying. The editor gives him a role of crown in the fim which give the audience a very positive impression of him. This is the first time and last time I see him so angry. I feel so sorry for his miserable death. I feel astonished for him drawned into uncorrelated complicate relationship between two family, I feel woeful for his youth wasted on meaningless hostility. The movie sends the message by creating a character that is favored by all audience and then let him died innocently. This will push the emtion to a upsurge which successfully create the tragic atmosphere. Mercutio’s role is more important in the film than he is in the book because it will make great commercial affect by creating a comedy role and resonate the audience’s sympathy. Also, it push the story forward and accelerate the development. Also, the movie create a very plaintive adaptation of the last scene. In the original text, they don’t have chance to see each other. However, the movie editor changes it into another ending. Romeo and Juliet are dead eventually, but in the movie, they have last conversation. The last dalogue is unforgetable. It gives the audience intense sorrow for the two character which is more cliff-hanging to the audience. The movie also create the melancholy atmosphere by using sad background music and dim light. The echo of the shot push the audience’s emotion to a climate again.