Romeo and JulietCulminating Task

How can adaptations enhance or detract from the themes of the original text?

Choose a theme from the play Romeo and Juliet. Compare how that theme is developed in the play with how it is developed in the film adaptations: Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet and Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet. Write a literary analysis in which you explain how the directors’ choices in their adaptations enhance or detract from the development of that theme in the play.

Be sure to state your response and logically and sufficiently support your response with evidence from the texts and films. Support your claims with textual evidence, including direct quotations with parenthetical citations. Apply correct and effective words, phrases, syntax, usage, and mechanics to clearly communicate your analysis.

Be sure to complete the following tasks:

• Determine a theme from Romeo and Juliet and explain how that theme is developed in the play.

• Determine and explain how this same theme is developed in both film adaptations of the play.

• Compare and contrast the ways in which the theme is developed in the text and in the films.

• Explain how the adaptations enhance or detract from the development of the theme in the play.