Romeo and Juliet

         My class recently watched the well known Shakespeare classic "Romeo and Juliet", but this was the modernized version with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. This was a very interesting movie, they kept the characters very well. They still spoke in verse like the original Shakespeare production but they were in a more modern time period where there were cellphones and gas stations.
         Juliet's cousin Tybalt did not want Juliet to be with Romeo, but that did not stop the "Star cross'd lovers" from staying away from each other. They had a secret marriage that only Friar Lawrence, Romeo and Juliet knew about. Tybalt had always been on the sidelines causing problems with Romeo and when he finally confronted him he ended up killing one of Romeo's best friends Mercutio. When this happened Romeo went after Tybalt and shot him to death. Romeo's cousin Benvolio told on Romeo and Romeo was banished from Verona.
      One of the major problems with Romeo's being banished- other than the obvious he won't be with Juliet- was that Juliet was definitely going to have to marry the man that her parents want her to marry- Paris. To keep this from happening the day before the wedding Juliet drank a potion that Friar Lawrence gave her that would make her pulse go down and would make her sleep for twenty hours. When this happened the Friar would tell everybody that she had died, thusly escaping the dreaded marriage. Twenty hours later she would awaken and go to Romeo. The fatal flaw in this plan was that Romeo was no told about this, and when she was found dead Paris went to Romeo and informed him of the news. Romeo lost it and went back to Verona and bought a poison so that he could lay dead next to his love and they could be together.
         There is an ongoing war going on with the Montagues and the Capulets, so you can imagine the damage of Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet getting married was going to be considered absurd and they would not be able to have a normal open relationship together.
         Mercutio even in death contributed to Romeo and Juliet's deaths. When he saw that Tybalt was beating Romeo, he went after him and got himself stabbed in the stomach. Romeo had no other chance then to avenge his friends death by killing Tybalt in return, and the price he had to pay was on unfaithful cousin and one banishment from Verona.
         The last people to contribute to Romeo and Juliet's death was... Romeo and Juliet themselves. Their passionate love for each other was so intense that it clouded their thoughts and common sense. When Romeo heard of Juliet's "death" instead of thinking maybe she's not dead, or responding in any other way. All he wanted to do was lay with his wife once again even in death and go "up above" and rest with her there in peace. So he returns straight back to Verona which causes a wild goose chase and goes straight to the Apothecary and buys his most fatal poison. He goes to the church where Juliet "rests" and talks to her corpse stroking her hair. Then he drinks the poison and dies. Juliet's contribution was when she did not tell Romeo her plan and then when she woke up when Romeo was at her death bed and stared at him for too long when she realized that he was drinking poison it was too late. She kissed his lips hoping that there would be some drops of poison left, but there was not. So she took the gun that Romeo had with him and shot herself in the head.
         In conclusion just about all of the characters in this movie all did something openly or subliminally that all lead up to Romeo and Juliet dying (for real) in each other's hands.