In our youth, we believe love can overcome any obstacle. However, as we grow, we recognise the complexity of our world and its limitations. The young lovers trope centres around hopefulness fueled by inexperience, instilling them with the belief that their love can overcome challenges set for them by their world. But in tragedies, young love fails. 400 years apart, we still have the same cautionary tale: the defiance of rules ends in tragedy.
Through William Shakespeare's tragic Romeo and Juliet, we can recognise the painful end of hopeful defiance. Justin Baldoni's moving Five Feet Apart inspires audiences through the eventual surrender to the rules. Composers corrupt young love to allow us to visualise the limits of humanity—feuding and
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Shakespeare set Romeo and Juliet during the High Middle Ages in Italy, a period where the nation had several warring city states. Romeo and Juliet’s love attempted to defy the limitations of traditional conflict in Verona. Shakespeare builds the image of hopeful young lovers through Friar Lawrence’s agreement to marry Romeo and Juliet where he states: "For this alliance may so happy prove / To turn your households’ rancor to pure love". The juxtaposition between the images of rancour and love dramatises the potential outcome of Romeo and Juliet’s marriage, revealing the hopeful tone in the Friar and offering insight into how Shakespeare portrays Romeo and Juliet’s young love as a symbol of hope against overpowering conflict in Verona. However, their innocent love faces challenges that eventually cause its …show more content…
Here, he implements non-diegetic inspirational music alongside the diegetic sound of their fellow patient Poe's victory cry to create an optimistic tone and evoke a sense of hope in the audience, introducing the hopeful young lovers trope to inspire audiences. Moreover, in the following scenes of their first date Baldoni utilises bright colouring but soft lighting, which constructs a dreamy and joyful atmosphere that contrasts the grey-tinted colouring of the previous scenes where the couple had accepted their romantic limitations, accentuating the feeling of hope both in the lovers and the audience.
However, Baldoni corrupts their love as their relationship moves forwards. Throughout the film, snow exists as a recurring motif of innocence and young love, depicted primarily through the creation of snow angels. Stella’s falling through snow into the lake where she almost drowns symbolises the corruption of the young lovers trope, illuminating how what was meant to be beautiful and hopeful is now