William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is one of the most recognizable written works of English literature, with countless adaptations, parodies, and media inspired by the play permeating pop culture today. The reason behind Romeo and Juliet’s popularity in the world is obvious: people love to hope that a beautiful love story will succeed, and people love the catharsis of a tragedy. Romeo and Juliet perfectly marries these two desires and sparks the desire to create a new twist on the tale, whether that be giving the story a new ending or using the framework of the original story to explore a new issue or idea. Gnomeo and Juliet (2011) and West Side Story (2021) are each an example of these ways of reworking the Shakespeare play, with the new …show more content…
This uplifting take is indicative of, perhaps, what the filmmakers intended to do with this film. By using the framework and storyline of the original Shakespeare text, they were able to tell an entirely new story that brings hope and fun in a campy, dramatic, Elton John-infused fever dream of a movie. Conclusion brings the two morals together, how they expand our understanding of the original text and bring the story to new audiences In comparing these two opposing bodies of work, one that lightens the tale of Romeo and Juliet and one that brings even more tragedy to it, we as an audience can see both the hope and tragedy that lies within the original text. Romeo and Juliet is a play that is particularly tragic because in all the ways that things go wrong, they could have gone very wrong. Shakespeare made a tragedy that could have easily been a comedy with only a few changes. This becomes evident in adaptations such as Gnomeo and Juliet, where the happy ending comes readily, if not necessarily