Renting La Boheme - Essay Example

Renting La Boheme The similarities between La Boheme and Rent are quite stark since they both connect with the idea of living a bohemian life where the concerns of everyday people do not matter and the world is truly a person’s oyster. Of course, this means that the realities of life for everyday people are somewhat shocking to those who wish to live the bohemian way. Things such as rent, bills, and even the necessities of life such as food and drink may not be the primary concern of bohemians and those who consider themselves as artists.

At the same time, other things such as death and disease become overriding facts that seem to affect both bohemians and everyday people. This is the primary similarity between La Boheme and Rent since they both tell the tale of struggling artists who are trying to get by in a world that does not seem to care much for their art at all. However, this does not mean that they are not happy because the process by which they create art and the manner in which they are rewarded by the creation of their art seems to be enough for them.

At the same time, they do wish that their genius was recognized by the world around them but that appears to be only a secondary concern. For the individuals in the plays, love is also an important concern since it governs many aspects of their life and even the works they produce. However, the similarity which stands out between the two plays is death caused by a disease that has no cure. For La Boheme, it is tuberculosis while for Rent, it becomes HIV. This similarity also shows that despite the characters living a bohemian life, the reality of death and disease affects them as much as it would affect anyone else in the world.

Even their carefree lifestyle cannot protect them from the ravages of disease and eventual death. In Rent, however, it is perhaps due to their carefree and careless lifestyle that the individuals are affected by their disease. This is only the first of the differences between the plays since the setting of the plays is also different due to the time and place that separates them. From a Romantic Paris to a post-modern New York, the plays present very different realities even if there are similarities between the characters and the situations they have been placed in.

This change in setting means that the dialog, the manner in which the characters interact as well as their social constructs change to reflect the settings. However, in the final analysis, the theme as well as the message of the plays makes it easy to conclude that the plays are more similar than different.