Twentieth-century Americans share a patriarchal, capitalist history with 17th century Elizabethans, one that informs the society reflected in the Verona of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. This thesis shows how Baz Luhrmann's film adaptation demonstrates the play's relevance particularly well. Characters display an awareness of the cultural constraints of class and gender as they contend with battling drives to pursue personal desire and to remain safely within their community by performing their given roles. This thesis shows how René Girard's theory of the sacrificial crisis is at work, which provides a view of the impact of violence in relation to rituals designed to preserve social order. The feud is a source of dangerous contagious violence, and while the characters work to come to terms with their conflicting individual loyalties and desires, they fall victim to the consequences of this violence because of their reluctance to examine their implicit participation in the systems and institutions that support it. Only through the sacrifice of a scapegoat, Juliet, do they begin to achieve peace and purge the community of the violence. The play functions as a cautionary tale, in that it demonstrates the consequences of pursuing personal passion instead of fulfilling the roles dictated by society and family. Subversion of the system is punishable by violence, so the play seems to warn against it. However, the play's themes of haste and literacy suggest a more compelling cautionary tale warning against the system itself; the entire community suffers tremendous loss as a result of its rigid support of the system. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2004. / March 18, 2004. / Sacrifice, Festivity, Marriage, Gende / Includes bibliographical references. / Daniel Vitkus, Professor Directing Thesis; Barry Faulk, Committee Member; Karen Laughlin, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_182205 |
| Contributors | Hoffman, Tonia Jean (authoraut), Vitkus, Daniel (professor directing thesis), Faulk, Barry (committee member), Laughlin, Karen (committee member), Department of English (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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