William Shakespeare Versus Franco Zeffirelli: An Investigation of the Tragedy of Inaccurate Portrayal There is a widely accepted expression stating that “patience is a virtue.” This phrase provides that if one is patient, good things will come and bad things will be avoided. In a story of two star-crossed lovers constrained by a historic family feud, this idea is tested and found to be true, as impulsivity brings tragedy into the young lives of Romeo and Juliet. When Romeo’s impulsivity causes him to rush into a marriage, commit murder, and kill himself in the name of love, the families of both lovers are forced to question their ways and reconcile for the sake of their children’s honor. Despite Franco Zeffirelli’s mostly adequate portrayal …show more content…
In Shakespeare’s play, Romeo confronts the fact that he made a decision based solely on his emotions about Juliet’s death. By excluding the events before, during, and after Romeo kills Paris, Zeffirelli fails to make Romeo’s emotional decision-making clear. Accordingly, events that Zeffirelli excluded from the original play cause viewers to misinterpret the severity of Romeo’s tragic flaw and its consequences, and hence, one does not gain a clear understanding of Shakespeare’s warning about impulsive actions. In conclusion, the lesson that Shakespeare intended to be taken from Romeo in his original play The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is lost due to the exclusion of events elaborating upon Romeo’s impulsiveness, even considering the representation of his outward personality in Franco Zeffirelli’s film version of Romeo and Juliet. In Shakespeare’s play, anyone can see how Romeo’s actions led to severe consequences, and one can relate this extreme circumstance to their own impulsive actions, gaining a meaningful lesson about