뮤지컬, 영화화된 셰익스피어 극과 원작과의 비교연구 : 󰡔로미오와 줄리엣󰡕의 죽음과 화해의 장면을 중심으로

Abstract

Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare has been made into a musical piece, West Side Story and two pieces of movies, Romeo and Juliet directed by Franco Zeffirelli(1968) and Shakespeare”s Romeo+Juliet by Baz Luhrmann, all of which have gained great popular success. Analyzing how each of the popular works deals with the last scene of death and reconciliation and comparing them with that of its original work by William Shakespeare, I was to find the answer to what Shakespeare tries to tell through the senses and sensibilities of the 14 or 15-year-old boy and girl. Romeo+Juliet by Baz Luhrmann, tries to show that time error or fortune is the decisive factor to cause young lovers’ death. The intensity of the moment of death makes us forget the importance of the entrance of Friar Laurence in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Friar Laurence enters between the death of Romeo and that of Juliet in Shakespeare’s play, which makes us somewhat yawn. Nevertheless, Franco Zeffirelli intentionally cross-cuts by inserting the Friar Laurence scene between the two deaths. Friar Laurence presses her to leave the tomb, when Juliet sees Romeo’s death and firmly refuses to go out and remains with dead Romeo. Shakespeare shifted the focus from death to choice behavior by inserting the scene of the entrance of Friar Laurence and by showing a strong-willed 14-year-old girl. Zeffirelli read delicately Shakespeare’s intention and never missed its core that gave their love “mythic intensity”(Fisher 21). In West Side Story, Maria lives after the death of Tony and makes the ancient grudge of two immigrant gangster groups in 50’s be resolved. By putting stress on resolving the national and racial problem of America, this musical piece has lost the original intensity and meaning of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet which shifts the focus from death to the choice behavior.