Talk of Peace with Swords Drawn

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.