Warm Bodies Comparative Essay

In the tumultuous journey of love, hope and hopelessness intertwine like a dance, but tragedy always waits in the wings, ready to steal the show. Romeo and Juliet is one of, if not, the most well-known plays Shakespeare has created, which was then interpreted into a movie directed by Franco Zeffirelli. Romeo and Juliet portrays two star-crossed lovers and their tragic deaths resulting from their love. The tragic events throughout the movie resulting in the deaths of both lovers exhibited hopelessness. Similarly, Warm Bodies is an interpretation of Romeo and Juliet, which features the undead retaliating against human society as a replacement for the clashing families prevalent in Romeo and Juliet. Instead of a relatively hopeful beginning, Warm

In Warm Bodies, R. was introduced into a dystopian society, with segregation between humans and zombies being prevalent. Similarly, Romeo and Juliet portrays a conflict between two families. Furthermore, both male leading roles’ love interests were from the opposing ‘group’, which highlights a feeling of hopelessness for both R. and Romeo. Prior to both male leading characters meeting their love, they were both represented to be hopeless. R. throughout the introduction was displayed to be very dull and hopeless, even him contemplating his current circumstance and describing himself as “dead”, meaning he had lost all hope for himself. Likewise, Romeo was introduced to be heartbroken and hopeless, as he had recently lost Rosaline, his previous love. While moping, he exclaims “Tut! I have lost; I am not here; This is not Romeo, he’s some other where”, signifying his hopelessness and dread from losing Rosaline. These similar circumstances for the characters signifies that both Romeo and Juliet and Warm Bodies portrayed hopelessness

Warm Bodies is a film that informs the viewer that with forbidden love, hope is intertwined with it. On the other hand, Romeo and Juliet interpret that sudden, forbidden love drives a tragic end for the lovers. In Warm Bodies, R. and Julie are found in a dreadful situation. They are in a dystopian setting where zombies and humans are in constant conflict, which emphasises that communication between the two groups is forbidden. However, R. decides to risk his "life" and, along with Julie, persuades the "leader of the human race" to cooperate with the zombies. Due to R.’s haste love, they are both satisfied, and the movie ends on a good note with all the zombies returning to a human state. Despite the fact that R. had only recently met Julie, his hasty love benefitted him. Similarly, Romeo and Juliet are from opposing families, which underlines that communication between them is also forbidden. Friar Laurence, after being informed of Romeo’s sudden love for Juliet, mentions to Romeo to "Love moderately; long love doth so; too swift arrives as tardy too slow,” implying to not love too quickly. However, Romeo hastily loved Juliet, ignoring Friar Lawrence’s audience, which manipulated him to commit such violent acts for the sake of their love. This resulted in Romeo ending his own life, shortly