The idea of love is always evolving. In our relationships with our families, friends, and significant others, love is always changing. What we do not think about is the impact external factors have on how we view love. Images we see of how love is conveyed can sometimes change our conceptions of what it is to show emotion. Take Hollywood for example: older movies showed love and affection in a much different way than movies do today. This shift in imagery may be having an impact on the way we show love.
Romeo and Juliet, though made into a film in 1968, is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s famous play. Directed by Franco Zeffirelli, and starring Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, the film and its actors even won a few Oscars. Complete with musical numbers, the film stays relatively true to the original play, showcasing young Romeo and Juliet falling in love despite their quarreling families. In order to show their love, they vow to be together no matter what. Their families will not hear of this, which involves them sneaking around to see each other and making plans to run away. The play ends, famously, in a double suicide. Thinking Juliet to be dead, Romeo kills himself. Juliet wakes up and, seeing that Romeo actually is dead, she knows she cannot live without her love and drinks poison to die with him. Shakespeare, and Hollywood in the 1960’s, showed us that basically one was to stop at nothing to show that they loved somebody. These two defied their parent’s wishes, and even died in order to show how in love they were, which is very extreme.
Though Romeo and Juliet is slightly more extreme, it is at least understandable for the time. Today, love in Hollywood is completely warped. Take Twilight, for example. It is a Trilogy, also based on books, which were released over the span of four years. They tell the story of a girl who falls in love with a vampire. The vampire wants to drink all of her blood, more than any other human he’s ever wanted, but resists. This is portrayed as “romantic” in the film. He also sneaks into her room several times to watch her sleep which is also shown as another sign that he loves her. When he feels like he has to leave her to avoid from eating her, he keeps watch over her. She tries to get his attention by attempting suicide multiple times, in order to show that she “loves” him. Another way she shows love is by asking him to turn her into a vampire so that they may feast on the flesh of animals forever.
While I admit that Romeo and Juliet took the portrayal of love too far with their double suicide, it can be argued that they were overwhelmed with more than just love at that particular time. Most of the characters in the play had been killed, their families were at war, and they were young while also under a lot of stress. It could be that it finally got to them and they saw no other way out. However, sneaking around behind their parent’s back and making plans to run away is more understandable, in terms of teens showing that they love each other. The characters of Twilight make showing love seem creepy. A man who sneaks into your room to watch you sleep is called a stalker. Also a man who watches you attempt suicide without trying to help you probably does not love you at all.
As you can see, the differences in how Hollywood has shown the ways in which to show love are very striking. Despite their end, the teens in Romeo and Juliet were innocent enough. Sneaking around is typical of people that age. The actions of the characters in Twilight make love seem more like an obsession or a medical condition, than a form of affection. It is unsettling that many people liked the movies so much and it is only my hope that not too many people follow the examples Hollywood is now setting.
References
Smith, Joan. "Twilight Movies (Analysis)." In The World Today. April-May 2013.
"Young and Foolish; A New Romeo and Juliet from Lithuania, and the 1968 Zeffirelli at the Festival of Arts, and Ideas." Hartford Advocate, (CT). 1 June 2004.
