Romeo and Juliet Film Analysis - Term Paper Example

Analysis of the film, “Romeo and Juliet." Introduction Effective communication is a crucial component for the wellbeing of a society. To get support from the society, the manner with which an individual communicates with others is a great influencer to the achievement of his/her desires. Communication is thus the activity of conveying meaning through a shared system of semiotic rules and signs. Communication occurs through auditory, visual or biochemical means, with the human communication being unique for the use of language. In certain circumstances, what a person try to communicate gets lost in the translation; thus, a speaker may mean one thing and the recipient hears something else, resulting in misunderstanding, frustration, and conflict (Grindstaff, 2011). Communication is more than just exchanging information; it involves the understanding of the emotion and intention behind the information. For communication to be effective, it must function as a two-way traffic where it involves not only conveying information, but also listening to make the other person feel heard. Other than the words used, effective communication combines a set of skills, which include; nonverbal communication, managing stress in the environment, engaged listening, assertive communication as well as the ability to understand personal emotions and the emotions of the recipient. Failure to understand the intention of communication can result in a conflict. This is because a skewed understanding of what is spoken or the intention of the communication can lead to action in a manner other than the directives of the information. Thus, to intrinsically understand communication and its aspects, this paper will analyze the subject through a focus on a film, “Romeo and Juliet, 1968” with categorical inference to the manner with which the characters in the film communicate, understand information and interpreted information from other characters. The paper will equally analyze conflict portrayed in the film owing to the nature of communication employed with a focus on interpersonal conflict, social conflict, conflict management and the psychological aspect of a conflict. Additionally, analysis of the film will help in understanding of nonverbal communication as aspects of communication. Romeo and Juliet (1968) Romeo and Juliet is a British-Italian romance film produced in 1968 based on the tragic play by William Shakespeare of the same title between 1591 and 1595. The academic award winning production for the best cinematography was directed and co-written by Franco Zeffirelli and Leonard Whiting. The play begins in Verona, Italy, where the longstanding feud between the Capulet and the Montague clans break out in a street fight. On the same night of the fight, two teenagers of the two families, Romeo (Montague) and Juliet (Capulet) meet at a feast in the Capulets and become attracted to each other. Romeo later stumbles into the secluded garden under Juliet’s bedroom balcony and the two changes pledges. Romeo’s figure father soon secretly marries them with the assistance of Juliet’s nursemaid (Rakoff et al., 2007). Another street fight breaks out between the first cousin of Juliet (Tybalt) and Romeo’s best friend Mercutio when the former insults Romeo. Romeo sees Tybalt as a family due to his marriage to Juliet and refuses to fight him, Mercutio proceeds to fight Tybalt, leading to Mercutio’s death. Romeo then retaliates by fighting Tybalt, kills him, and is punished by the prince of the city with banishment instead of a death penalty. Romeo sees the banishment worse than death, as Verona is the only home he knows and the banishment would pull him away from Juliet. Unaware of her marriage, Juliet’s father arranges for her marriage with a wealthy Count Paris, and in order to escape the marriage, Juliet consumes a medicine prepared by Friar Laurence that intends to sedate her for forty-two hours. Friar Laurent plans to tell Romeo of the hoax, but Balthazar (Romeo’s servant) tells Romeo of “Juliet’s death”. Romeo then goes to Juliet’s tomb and kills himself by drinking poison. Awakening from the sedation, Juliet discovers a dead Romeo and proceeds to stab herself with a dagger. Capulet and Montague agree to hold a joint funeral and to end the feud (Shakespeare, 2010). Relationship between communication terms and the film A conflict is a disagreement where the parties involved perceive a threat to their interest, need or concern. Conflict is a normal aspect of societal life, but if it manifests to a level where it threatens life and the well-being of society, it becomes disadvantageous for the society. Barriers to communication and inability to understand each other and their needs is one major cause of a conflict in the society, thus a poorly managed communication process is a major source of a conflict. In relation to the film Romeo and Juliet, the two families presented in the film, (Capulets and the Montagues) can be seen to be in a continuous state of conflict cutting across from the lowest members of the families to the most senior members (Rakoff et al., 2007). The film “Romeo and Juliet” begins in a state of conflict where the servants of the families are engaged in a street duel. Gregory of the House Capulet says, “The quarrel is between our masters and us their men.” This is an indication of a conflict that is cross-generational that is fueled by a perceived threat towards the interest of the families. The state of conflict in these families leads to the loss of the members like Tybalt and Mercutio, indicating the adverse consequences that can result from a conflict. Additionally, conflict can exist between close members of the family, like the conflict between Juliet and her father when told to marry Count Paris. Despite not showing the father her disappointment in the arranged marriage, she resorts to consumption of a strong sedative as a means of averting the marriage to resolve the conflict, leading to the ultimate tragedy of the film (Wagner-Pacifici & Hall, 2012). Social conflict as an aspect of a conflict is the struggle for power or agency in society. Social conflict can also be referred to as group conflict, and it manifests when actors oppose each other with an intention of attaining a scarce resource and preventing the opponent from the attainment of the same resource. According to the conflict theory, a state of a social conflict ensues due to an emphasis on interest rather than the norms and values of the society. Competition for the resources is often the major instigator of a social conflict and usually results when both parties have equal or almost equal capabilities of acquisition of the resource. Conflict theory maintains that a society is composed of different groups who compete for the same resources. In as much as the society may portray an aspect of cooperation, constant power struggle exists between social groups as they continually peruse for their individual interests. Social groupings in the society will use resources to their own advantage for the achievement of their goals, thus a challenge this process would result in a conflict. In relation to the film, social conflict is portrayed in the manner with which the members of the two families interact with each other (Oberschall, 2008). The plays open by indicating that the Capulets and the Montagues are alike in dignity and affluent. In as much as the film does not give the audience the initial cause of conflict between the two families, it could be understood that their equal social levels could be the reason for conflicting. According to sociology, it is the nature of human beings to compete to outweigh peers of the same level, thus the fact that the two houses wore of equal status and dignity could be the genesis of competition and conflict. A class is a significant initiator of a conflict; people who occupy a different class status in relation to economic value are engaged in continuous conflict, as one becomes the oppressor while the other becomes the oppressed. This balance is usually maintained in an ideal society in an event that the society is composed of people of equal classes, competition will ensure to maintain a higher class so as to become the oppressor and not the oppresses. Through analysis of the words of the servants of the Capulet family (Sampson and Gregory), it is evident that the two houses have been struggling over resources that led to the beginning of the conflict among their masters, a conflict that has since transcended to the servants. However, this conflict is fueled by the nature of communication these two houses use on each other, a communication that is marred with insults and belittling that led to the first street duel in the play (Wagner-Pacifici & Hall, 2012). According to psychology, a conflict must manifest in a society in either one way or the other. Thus, it is important to devise mechanisms through which conflict can be managed. Management of a conflict is the process of increasing the positive aspects of a conflicting situation while limiting the negative aspects. Conflict resolution is a form of conflict management that targets reduction, termination or elimination of all forms of conflict. According to sociologists, Thomas and Kilmann, there are five mechanisms through which conflict can be managed. These are through; competing, collaboration, compromising, accommodating and avoidance. By competition, a party can use the possessed powers or the formal authority to satisfy his/her concerns and fails to regard the concerns of the party he/she is in conflict with. Competition would by natural means ensure that the least competitive party would cede ground, as the conflict will result in more losses for the weaker party resulting to an end of a conflict. This method of conflict resolution is inapplicable in the film “Romeo and Juliet” as all parties in the conflict have the same economic worth and social status; thus, competition would not disadvantage any of the family. By accommodation, one party involved in the conflict can allow the other party to satisfy concerns by neglecting their own concerns. This method of conflict resolution is majorly applicable when the accommodating party is more economically advantaged than the accommodated party is (Vreeland, 2008). According to avoidance, as a means of conflict management, one party may choose not to pay attention and not to take action in its resolution. In relation to the film, Romeo portrayed avoidance as a means of conflict resolution when Tybalt confronted him in the second street feud. Seeing Tybalt as a family member owing to his marriage to Jessica, Romeo chooses not to fight. Avoidance as a method of conflict management can only work if the communication process is clear enough for the other party being avoided to understand that one party is avoiding the conflict. However, like in the case of Romeo and Tybalt, Romeo’s communication of avoidance was not clear enough, which lead to the killing of Mercutio. Compromising as a method of conflict management involves identification of a solution that is partially satisfactory to both the conflicting parties. It could be in a form of one party relinquishing the claim over a particular resource in a gain of another which the other party relinquishes. Through collaboration, a conflict can be resolved by the parties cooperating with each other in understanding their concerns in an effort to seek a mutually satisfactory solution where all parties will emerge as winners. Following the death of Romeo and Juliet, the Capulets, and the Montagues finds that it is to the interest of the families to settle their differences for the avoidance of future tragedy (Vreeland, 2008). Aspects of communication in the film In the film “Romeo and Juliet”, aspects of communication other than the spoken mode have been employed to help the audience and the characters to understand the intentions and the emotions of other characters. None verbal communication and the use of body language is one aspect of communication that has been extensively exploited in the development of the plot of the film. With the intention of insulting the Montague family, Sampson and Gregory of the House Capulet decide to use nonverbal communication when they met Abraham and Balthazar of the house Montagues. In the film, Gregory says, “I will frown as I pass by, and let them take it as they list.” With Sampson answering, “Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them; which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it.” (Rakoff et al., 2007) This is an indication of the significance of nonverbal communication as a means of the portrayal of the intentions of a person. Effective use of nonverbal communication is a significant reinforce of a verbal communication. Aspects of nonverbal communication like body language and posture help in relaying the information concerning one’s intention. Additionally, in the process of communication with another party, one should be keen to understand the aspects of nonverbal communication as misinterpretation of this aspect of communication may lead to wrong information and a wrong cause of action. This can be drawn from the film through the art of Juliet’s presence to be dead in a bid to avoided marriage to Count Paris. Death in this incidence was meant to be a nonverbal communication used by Juliet to inform the father to terminate the wedding. However, the intention of the message was wrongly preserved by Balthazar, who informs Romeo of “Juliet’s death” resulting to Romeo killing himself (Ken, 2013). Conclusion The film “Romeo and Juliet” provides a good point of inference in understanding the aspect of communication and their significance in the society. From the film, it is evident that a poorly managed communication can result in conflicts in the society. Understanding of the film helps the audience to appreciate the different methods of conflict management and the situations under which the methods are applicable. Romeo and Juliet in their passionate love attempted to resolve the existent conflict among their family members through a secret marriage, however, it appeared that the reasons for the conflict were more advanced and needed advanced methods for their resolution. The death of both Romeo and Juliet for love acted as a unifying factor through offering a nonverbal communication approach for the reason of resolving the conflict between the Capulets and the Montagues. In certain circumstances, verbal communication can fail to resolve a conflict, like the attempt by the Prince of Verona to reconcile the families as well as the attempt by Juliet to inform her family of disapproval of her marriage to Count Paris. Thus in these circumstances, a well-designed nonverbal communication can be employed and becomes a tool for resolving a conflict. Development of a competent communication is thus a significant aspect of resolving conflicts and avoidance of conflicts. Communication involves both speaking and listening; thus a person who is able to listen, understand and interpret the environment, and utilizes the analysis of the environment to respond is a competent communicator. This individual will understand circumstances that can result to a conflict thus employ methods like avoidance in the resolution of the conflict. Competency in communication is equally important as it enables one to influence change in a society (Grindstaff, 2011). A competent speaker is able to analyze the society through interaction with its members and in an effective way suggest solutions for the solution of societal problems in a manner that is understandable and acceptable to the members of the society. References Grindstaff, L. (2011). Communication Power. Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews. Ken, H. (2013). Effective communication. Teacher Librarian, 30, 1–6. Oberschall, A. (2008). Theories of Social Conflict. Annual Review of Sociology. Rakoff, A., Ryecart, P., Saire, R., Hordern, M., Sir, Gielgud, J., … Publishing, A. V. (2007). Romeo & Juliet. Shakespeare Plays. Shakespeare, W. (2010). Romeo and Juliet. Science (Vol. 235, p. 21). Vreeland, J. R. (2008). Journal of Conflict Resolution. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 52, 401–425. Wagner-Pacifici, R., & Hall, M. (2012). Resolution of Social Conflict. Annual Review of Sociology. Read More