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     Romeo and Juliet also gives us preparation for things later in life.  The complex language and structure used in the play makes it difficult to read.  This type of language prepares for the more complicated papers that we will read in our adult years such as legal documents.  Deciphering Shakespearean makes almost any legal document seem really easy to read.  For some jobs or colleges you have to write an essay to get into the college or to get the job.  Reading Romeo and Juliet can help you understand the language more through ally than before and this can help you to write the better essay than someone else. Understanding the language's most complicated structures and wording can also help you to sound more intelligent and hat you actually know what you are doing.  You can sound smarter when you are sending emails to the boss or your friends or just someone in general.  If you come across more intelligent then you always have the better chance of getting that special project or getting someone to agree with you.

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  Still applicable to life today, the play Romeo and Juliet has many lessons that we can learn.  Just like in the play, we still have racism, prejudice and bias in almost everything today.  In Romeo and Juliet, it was animosity between the Capulets and the Montagues that cause prejudice and bias in Verona. An example of this animosity can be seen in the prologue:

Two households, both alike in dignity

(In fair Verona, where we lay our scene),

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

  While reading Romeo and Juliet, students can learn about bias and prejudice because it runs rampant through the play.  Many of the characters  fall victim to fatal mistakes that always had an impact on the outcome of the play.  Humans make mistakes and there's no avoiding it no matter how hard you try.  The harder you try to be perfect, then the bigger the mistake you'll make.  Conveyed phenomenally throughout Romeo and Juliet, we can learn to apply it to our daily lives.  What was there to check the ardour of hope, of faith, of constancy, just rising in her breast, but disappointment which she had not yet felt!  One of the main controversies of Romeo and Juliet is that they got married too fast.  Getting married too fast basically messed everything up.  They acted on impulse and not on counsel and discussion.  We can learn not to act rashly or on impulses.  Another thing that we can also learn that strong feelings such as love or grief can rule our lives and make the decisions for us that lead to the destruction of our lives as we know them.

Introduction

     There is a lot of debate about whether or not Romeo and Juliet should be studied in high school.   Some say it's not relative to society anymore, others are like why should I study something that was written 500 years ago?  To be honest, any type of classical writing is still relevant to today's society and can still be learned from no matter how long ago they were written.  Romeo and Juliet still teaches us lessons today and it also prepares us for things later in life and about compromise and how to deal with our enemies.  Mostly everything in the play, can be applied to life today especially the conflicts between the characters and the plot of the whole thing.

Thesis Statement

Romeo and Juliet still teaches us lessons and it also prepares us for things later in life and about compromise and how to deal with our enemies.

Romeo & Juliet Movie Review

William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet

The stars of the movie were Romeo and Juliet played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.  Set in picturesque Verona Beach, California the movie takes place in the 1990s. A romantic drama.  The film is based on the play, a tragedy by William Shakespeare written in the late 1500s.  The most prominent pieces of the play were Acts I, III and V.  The play takes place in Verona, Italy instead of Verona Beach California.      

The movie opens up with a brawl at a gas station that introduces some of the main characters as well as the family feud between the Capulets and the Montagues.  Next, there is a wild costume party at the Capulet mansion and literally all of Verona Beach is there.  Romeo and Juliet meet at the party and make plans to get married the following day.  The next day, Romeo and Juliet are wed by Father Lawerence and just hours after their marriage, Romeo is involved in a brawl that kills Tylbalt and Mercutio and is banished from Verona Beach.  To make it easy for Romeo to come rescue Juliet from a marriage to Paris, Juliet gets a potion that will make it appear as if she is dead.  Father Lawerence sends word to Romeo about the ruse.  

The costume party was very similar to the ball in the play.  Neither Romeo nor Juliet knew who the other was because of their costumes.  In the play they had masks, but in the movie Juliet was dressed as and angel and Romeo as a knight.  Romeo just saw Juliet as a bright, shining angel while Juliet saw Romeo as a handsome knight.  It wasn't until after the fact that they both figured out who the other was.

There were many differences between the film and the play.  The first, most obvious one is that the story took place in modern times, not in the 1500s.  The second most obvious one is that it took place in Verona Beach, California instead of Verona, Italy.  There are many specific times during the film where there are differences.  Towards the end of the film, Paris doesn't come and visit Juliet's grave and there is no pool on the Capulets' terrace where Romeo and Juliet make their plans in Act I. 

I thought that the film wasn't the greatest film ever, but it wasn't awful.  I prefer the film over the story though.  It's really nice to have visuals to go along with the Shakespearean because it makes it so much easier to understand.  Especially during the soliloquies because they were really heard to understand in the original text.