Tristan and Iseult

Tristan and Iseult as depicted by Herbert Draper (1863–1920).

The legend of Tristan and Iseult is an influential romance and tragedy, retold in numerous sources with as many variations. The tragic story of the adulterous love between the Cornish knight Tristan (Tristram) and the Irish princess Iseult (Isolde, Yseut, etc.), the narrative predates and most likely influenced the Arthurian romance of Lancelot and Guinevere, and has had a substantial impact on Western art and literature since it first appeared in the 12th century. While the details of the story differ from one author to another, the overall plot structure remains much the same.

Contents [hide] 1 Legend 2 Origins of the legend 2.1 Early references to Tristan and Mark in Welsh 2.2 Irish analogues 2.3 Persian analogues 2.4 Classical antecedents 2.5 Association with King Arthur 3 Early medieval Tristan literature 3.1 The courtly branch 3.2 The common branch 3.3 A common source 4 Later medieval versions 4.1 French 4.2 English 4.3 Scandinavia 4.4 Dutch 4.5 Welsh 4.6 Spanish 4.7 Czech 4.8 Italian 4.9 Belarusian 5 Modern literature 6 Films 7 Popular culture 8 References 9 External links

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Legend

There are two main traditions of the Tristan legend. The early tradition comprised the romances of two French poets from the second half of the twelfth century, Thomas of Britain and Béroul. Their sources could be traced back to the original, archetypal Celtic romance. Later traditions come from the Prose Tristan (c. 1240), which was markedly different from the earlier tales written by Thomas and Béroul. The Prose Tristan became the official medieval tale of Tristan and Iseult that would provide the background for the writings of Sir Thomas Malory, the English author, who wrote Le Morte d’Arthur (c. 1469).

The story and character of Tristan vary from poet to poet. Even the spelling of his name varies a great deal, though “Tristan” is the most popular spelling. In Béroul’s Tristan and Iseult, the knight is as brave and fit as any other warrior, but he relies on trickery and does not live according to contemporary ideals of chivalry.

In Béroul’s tale, Tristan goes to Ireland to bring back the fair Iseult for his uncle King Mark to marry. Along the way, they accidentally ingest a love potion that causes the pair to be madly in love for three years. Although Iseult marries Mark, she and Tristan are forced by the potion to seek one another out for adultery. Although the typical noble Arthurian character would be shamed from such an act, the love potion that controls them frees Tristan and Iseult from responsibility. Thus Béroul presents them as victims. The king’s advisors repeatedly try to have the pair tried for adultery, but again and again the couple use trickery to preserve their façade of innocence. Eventually the love potion wears off, and the two lovers are free to make their own choice as to whether they cease their adulterous lifestyle or continue. Béroul’s ending is morally ambiguous, which differs greatly from his contemporaries such as Chrétien de Troyes and adds a bit of mystique to the legend of Tristan.

Tristan migrates to Ireland from Cornwall to ask the hand of the princess Iseult of Ireland, daughter of King Anguish of Ireland, for his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall. After slaying a dragon that is devastating the country, he succeeds in betrothing the couple and is chosen to escort the princess to Cornwall. On the homeward journey, Tristan and Iseult drink a love potion that was prepared by the queen for her daughter and King Mark. Tristan and Iseult then go on to carry on a liaison which lasts for many years.

As with the Arthur-Lancelot-Guinevere love triangle, Tristan, King Mark, and Iseult all hold love for each other. Tristan honors, respects, and loves King Mark as his mentor and adopted father; Iseult is grateful that Mark is kind to her, which he is certainly not obliged to be; and Mark loves Tristan as his son, and Iseult as a wife. But after they went to sleep every night, they would have horrible dreams about the future.

Tristan’s uncle eventually learns of the affair and seeks to entrap his nephew and his bride. Also present is the endangerment of a fragile kingdom, the cessation of war between Ireland and Cornwall. Mark gets what seems proof of their guilt and resolves to punish them: Tristan by hanging and Iseult by trial by ordeal and then putting her up in a lazar house (a leper colony). Tristan escapes on his way to the stake by a miraculous leap from a chapel and rescues Iseult. The lovers escape into the forest of Morrois and take shelter there until they are discovered by Mark one day. However, they make peace with Mark after Tristan’s agreement to return Iseult to Mark and leave the country. Tristan then travels on to Brittany, where he marries (for her name and her beauty) Iseult of the White Hands, daughter of Hoel of Brittany and sister of Sir Kahedin.

In works like the Prose Tristan, the Post-Vulgate Cycle, and Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, Tristan is wounded by a poisoned weapon, after battling with Iseult of Ireland’s uncle Morholt (sometimes named Estult li Orgillusi). He mortally wounds Morholt, leaving a piece of his sword in the Irishman’s skull, but Morholt stabs him with a poisoned spear and escapes. Tristan sends for Iseult of Ireland, who alone can heal him. Iseult of Brittany watches the window for white sails signaling that Iseult of Ireland is arriving to save Tristan’s life with her herblore. She sees the white sails, but out of jealousy, tells Tristan that the sails are black, which was to be the signal that Iseult of Ireland would not come. Tristan dies, and Iseult of Ireland, arriving too late to save him, yields up her own life. In some sources it states that two trees (hazel and honeysuckle) grow out of their graves and intertwine their branches so that they can not be parted by any means. It was said that King Mark tried to have the branches cut 3 separate times, and each time, the branches grew back and intertwined, so therefore he gave up and let them grow. In other versions of the story, Iseult of Ireland sets his body to sea in a boat and disappears, never to be heard from again.

A few later stories record that the lovers had a number of children. In some stories they produced a son and a daughter they named after themselves; these children survived their parents and had adventures of their own. In the romance Ysaie the Sad, the eponymous hero is the son of Tristan and Iseult; he becomes involved with the fay-king Oberon and marries a girl named Martha, who bears him a son named Mark.

Origins of the legend

Early references to Tristan and Mark in Welsh

There are many theories present about the origins of Tristanian legend, but historians disagree about the most accurate one. There is the famous Tristan stone, with its inscription about Drust, but not all historians agree that the Drust referred to is the archetype of Tristan. There are references to March ap Meichion and Trystan in the Welsh Triads, some of the gnomic poetry, Mabinogion stories and in the late 11th century Life of St. Illtud.

Drystan’s name appears as one of Arthur’s advisers at the end of the Dream of Rhonabwy, an early 13th century tale in the Welsh prose collection known as the Mabinogion, and Iseult is listed along with other great men and women of Arthur’s court in another, much earlier Mabinogion tale, Culhwch and Olwen. ^[1]

Irish analogues

Possible Irish antecedents to the Tristan legend have received much scholarly attention. Most notable is a text called Toraigheacht Dhiarmat agus Ghrainne or The Pursuit of Diarmat and Grainne. In the story, the aging Fionn mac Cumhail takes the young princess, Grainne, to be his wife. At the betrothal ceremony, however, she falls in love with Diarmat, one of Finn’s most trusted warriors. Grainne gives a sleeping potion to all present but him, eventually convincing him to elope with her. The fugitive lovers are then pursued all over Ireland by the Fianna.

Another Irish analogue is Scela Cano mac Gartnain, preserved in the 14th century Yellow Book of Lecan. In this tale, Cano is an exiled Scottish king who accepts the hospitality of King Marcan of Ui Maile. His young wife, Credd, drugs all present, and then convinces Cano to be her lover. They try to keep a tryst while at Marcan’s court, but are frustrated by courtiers. Eventually Credd kills herself and Cano dies of grief.

In the Ulster Cycle there is the text Clann Uisnigh or Deirdre of the Sorrows in which Naoise MacUnisnigh falls for Deirdre, who was imprisoned by King Conor MacNeasa due to a phrophecy that Ulster would plunge into civil war due to men fighting for her beauty. MacNeasa had pledged to marry Deirde himself in time to avert Civil War and took his revenge on Clann Uisnigh. This triantán an grá or love triangle leads into the Táin Bó Cuailgne legend as some Ulster warriors had defected to the forces of Connacht in opposition to Conor’s rule and the deaths of Clann Uisnigh.

Persian analogues

Some scholars have suggested that the 11th century Persian story Vis u Ramin may have influenced the Tristan legend.^[2]

Classical antecedents

Some scholars believe that Ovid’s Pyramus and Thisbe, as well as the story of Ariande at Naxos might have also contributed to the development of the Tristan legend.^[2] The sequence in which Tristan and Iseult die and become interwoven trees also parallels Ovid’s love story of Baucis and Philemon in which two lovers are transformed in death into two different trees sprouting from the same trunk.

Association with King Arthur

In its early stages, the tale was probably unrelated to contemporary Arthurian literature, but the earliest surviving versions already incorporate references to Arthur and his court. The connection between Tristan and Iseult and the Arthurian legend was expanded over time, and sometime shortly after the completion of the Vulgate Cycle (or Lancelot-Grail Cycle) in the first quarter of the 13th century, two authors created the vast Prose Tristan, which fully establishes Tristan as a Knight of the Round Table who even participates in the Quest for the Holy Grail.

Early medieval Tristan literature

The courtly branch

The earliest representation of what scholars name the “courtly” version of the Tristan legend is in the work of Thomas of Britain. Only eight substantial fragments of his Tristan poem were located, scattered across a diffuse number of European libraries.^[2] In his text, Thomas names another trouvere who also sang of Tristan, though no manuscripts of this earlier version have been discovered. There is also a fascinating passage telling how Iseult wrote a short lai out of grief that sheds light on the development of an unrelated legend concerning the death of a prominent troubadour, as well as the composition of lais by noblewomen of the twelfth century.

The next essential text for our knowledge of the courtly branch of the Tristan legend is that written by Brother Robert at the request of King Haakon Haakonson of Norway in 1227. King Haakon had wanted to promote Angevin-Norman culture at his court, and so commissioned the translation of several French Arthurian works. The Nordic version presents a complete, direct narrative of the events in Thomas’ Tristan, with the telling omission of his numerous interpretive diversions. It is the only complete representative of the courtly branch in its formative period. ^[3] Preceding the work of Brother Robert chronologically is the Tristan and Isolt of Gottfried von Strassburg, written circa 1211-1215. The poem was Gottfried’s only known work, and was left incomplete due to his death with the retelling reaching half-way through the main plot. The poem was later completed by authors such as Heinrich von Freiberg and Ulrich von Türheim, but with the “common” branch of the legend as the ideal source. ^[4]

The common branch

The earliest representation of the “common branch” is Béroul’s Le Roman de Tristan. The branch is so named due to its representation of an earlier non-chivalric, non-courtly, tradition of story-telling, making more mention of the Dark Ages than of the refined High Middle Ages. In this respect, they are similar to Layamon’s Brut and the Perlesvaus. As with Thomas’ works, our knowledge of Béroul’s is limited. There were a few substantial fragments of his works discovered in the nineteenth century, and the rest was reconstructed from later versions. ^[5] The more substantial illustration of the common branch is the German version by Eilhart von Oberge. Eilhart’s version was popular, but pales in comparison with the later Gottfried.^[4]

A common source

The French medievalist Joseph Bédier thought all the Tristan legends could be traced to a single original poem, adapted by Thomas of Brittany into French from an original Cornish or Breton source. He dubbed this hypothetical original the “Ur-Tristan”, and wrote his still popular Romance of Tristan and Iseult as an attempt to reconstruct what this might have been like. In all likelihood, Common Branch versions reflect an earlier form of the story; accordingly, Bédier relied heavily on Einhart and Béroul, and incorporated material from other versions to make a cohesive whole. Scholars still consider Bédier’s argument convincing.

Later medieval versions

French

Contemporary with Béroul and Thomas, the famous Marie de France presents a Tristan episode in one of her lais: the Lai de Chevrefueil. It concerns another of Tristan’s clandestine returns to Cornwall in which the banished hero signals his presence to Iseult by means of an inscription on a branch of a hazelnut tree placed on the road she will travel. The title refers to the symbiosis of the honeysuckle and hazelnut tree which die when separated, as do Tristan and Iseult: “Ni moi sans vous, ni vous sans moi.” This episode is reminscient of one in the courtly branch when Tristan uses wood shavings put in a stream as signals to meet in the garden of Mark’s palace.

There are also two 12th century Folie Tristan, Anglo-Norman poems identified as the Oxford and the Bern versions, which relate Tristan’s return to Marc’s court under the guise of a madman. Besides their own importance as episodic additions to the Tristan story and masterpieces of narrative structure, these relatively short poems significantly contributed to restoring the missing parts of Béroul’s and Thomas’ incomplete texts.^[6]

The great trouvère Chrétien de Troyes claims to have written a Tristan story, though no part of it has ever been found. He mentions this in the introduction to Cligès, a romance that many see as a kind of anti-Tristan with a happy ending. Some scholars speculate his Tristan was ill-received, prompting Chretien to write Cligès – a story with no Celtic antecedent – to make amends.^[7]

After Béroul and Thomas, the most important development in French Tristaniana is a complex grouping of texts known broadly as the Prose Tristan. Extremely popular in the 13th and 14th Century, the narratives of these lengthy versions vary in detail from manuscript to manuscript. Modern editions run twelve volumes for the long version, which includes Tristan’s participation in the Quest for the Holy Grail, or five volumes for a shorter version without the Grail Quest.^[8] The Roman de Tristan en prose is a great work of art with fits of lyrical beauty. It also had a great influence on later medieval literature, and inspired parts of the Post-Vulgate Cycle, the Roman de Palamedes, and Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur.

English

The earliest, complete source of the Tristan material in English was Sir Tristram, a romance of some 3344 lines written circa 1300. It is preserved in the famous Auchinleck manuscript at the National Library of Scotland. The narrative largely follows the courtly tradition. As is true with many medieval English adaptations of French Arthuriana, the poems artistic achievement can only be described as average, though some critics have tried to rehabilitate it, claiming it is a parody. Its first editor, Sir Walter Scott, provided a sixty line ending to the story, which has been printed with the romance in every subsequent edition.^[9]

The only other medieval handling of the Tristan legend in English is Sir Thomas Malory’s The Book of Sir Tristram de Lyones, a shortened “translation” of the French Prose Tristan in Le Morte d’Arthur. Since the Winchester manuscript surfaced in 1934, there has been much scholarly debate whether the Tristan narrative, like all the episodes in Le Morte d’Arthur, were originally intended to be an independent piece or part of a larger work.

Scandinavia

The popularity of Brother Robert’s version spawned a unique parody, Saga Af Tristram ok Ísodd as well as poem Tristrams kvæði. In the collection of Old Norse prose-translations of Marie de France’s lais – called Strengleikar (Stringed Instruments) — two lais with Arthurian content have been preserved, one of the them being the “Chevrefueil”, translated as “Geitarlauf.”

By the nineteenth century, scholars had found Tristan legends spread across the Nordic world, from Denmark to the Faroe Islands. These stories, however, diverged greatly from their medieval precursors. In one Danish ballad, for instance, Tristan and Iseult are made brother and sister. Other unlikely innovations occur in two popular Danish chapbooks of the late eighteenth century Tristans saga ok Inionu and En tragoedisk Historie om den ædle og tappre Tistrand, in which Iseult is made the princess of India. The popularity of these chapbooks inspired Icelandic novelists Gunnar Leifsson and Niels Johnson to write novels inspired by the Tristan legend.^[10]

Dutch

A 130 line fragment of a Dutch version of Thomas of Britain’s Tristan exists. It is in a manuscript in Vienna at the National Library.

Welsh

A short Tristan narrative, perhaps related to the Béroul text, exists in six Welsh manuscripts dating from the late sixteenth to the mid seventeenth century.^[11]

Spanish

In the first third of the 14th century the famous Arcipreste de Hita wrote a version of the Tristan story. Carta enviada por Hiseo la Brunda a Tristán; Respuesta de Tristán was a unique 15th century romance written in the form of imaginary letters between the two lovers. Then there was a famous Spanish reworking of the French Prose Tristan, Libro del muy esforzado caballero Don Tristán de Leonís y de sus grandes hechos en armas first published in Valladolid in 1501, then republised in Seville in 1511, 1520, 1525, 1528, 1533 and 1534; additionally a second part, Tristan el Joven, was created which dealt with Tristan’s son, Tristan of Leonis.^[12]

Czech

A 13th century verse romance exists in Czech, theorised to be influenced by the popularity of German Tristaniana at the time. It is the only known verse representative of the Tristan story in a Slavic language.^[13]

Italian

The Tristan legend proved very popular in Italy; there were many cantari, or oral poems performed in the public square, either about him, or frequently referencing him:

• Cantari di Tristano
• Due Tristani
• Quando Tristano e Lancielotto combattiero al petrone di Merlino
• Ultime impresse e morte Tristano
• Vendetta che fe messer Lanzelloto de la Morte di Mister Tristano

There were also four major manuscripts of the Prose Tristan in medieval Italy, most named after their current city or place of composition:^[14]

• Tavola Ritonda
• Tristano Panciaticchiano
• Tristano Riccardiano
• Tristano Veneto

Belarusian

The Belarusian (or ancient Litvan) prose Povest Trychane represents the furthest eastern advance of the legend, and, composed in the 1560s, is considered by some critics to be the last “medieval” Tristan or Arthurian text period.

Its lineage goes back to the Tristano Veneto. Venice, at that time, controlled large parts of the Serbo-Croatian language area, engendering a more active literary and cultural life there than in most of the Balkans during this period. The manuscript of the Povest states that it was translated from a (lost) Serbian intermediary. Scholars assume that the legend must have journeyed from Venice, through its Balkan colonies, finally reaching a last outpost in this Slavic dialect. ^[15]

Modern literature

In the 19th century, Richard Wagner composed the opera Tristan und Isolde, now considered one of the most influential pieces of music from the century. In his work, Tristan is portrayed as a doomed romantic figure. In English, the Tristan story suffered the same fate as the Matter of Britain generally. After being mostly ignored for about three centuries, there was a renaissance of original Arthurian literature, mostly narrative verse, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Tristan material in this revival included Alfred Tennyson’s The Last Tournament and Algernon Charles Swinburne’s epic poem Tristram of Lyonesse. After World War II most Tristan texts were in the form of prose novels or short stories. Novelist Thomas Berger retold the story of Tristan and Isolde in his interpretation of Arthurian legend, Arthur Rex.

Films

The story has also been adapted into film many times. ^[16] The earliest is probably the 1909 French film Tristan et Yseult, an early, silent version of the story. ^[17] This was followed by another French film of the same name two years later, which offered a unique addition to the story. Here, it is Tristan’s jealous slave Rosen who tricks the lovers into drinking the love potion, then denouces them to Mark. Mark has pity on the two lovers, but they commit double suicide anyway. ^[17] A third silent French version appeared in 1920, and follows the legend fairly closely. ^[17]

One of the most celebrated and controversial Tristan films was 1943’s L’Éternel Retour (The Eternal Return), directed by Jean Delannoy (screenplay by Jean Cocteau). It is a contemporary retelling of the story with a man named Patrice in the Tristan role fetching a wife for his friend Marke. However, an evil dwarf tricks them into drinking a love potion, and the familiar plot ensues. ^[17] The film was made in France during the Vichy regime, and elements in the movie reflect Nazi ideology, with the beautiful, blonde hero and heroine and the ugly, Semitic dwarf. Not only are the dwarfs visually different, they are given a larger role than in most interpretations of the legend; their conniving rains havoc on the lovers, much like the Jews of Nazi stereotypes.

The 1970 Spanish film Tristana is only tangentially related to the Tristan story. The Tristan role is assumed by the female character Tristana, who is forced to care for her aging uncle, Don Lope, though she wishes to marry Horacio. ^[17] This was followed by the avant-garde French film Tristan et Iseult in 1972 and the Irish Lovespell, featuring Nicholas Clay as Tristan and Kate Mulgrew as Iseult; coincidentally, Clay went on to play Lancelot in John Boorman’s epic Excalibur. ^[17] The popular German film Fire and Sword premiered in 1981; it was very accurate to the story, though it cut the Iseult of Brittany subplot. ^[17]

Legendary French director François Truffaut adapted the subject to modern times for his 1981 film La Femme d’à côté (The Woman Next Door), while 1988’s In the Shadow of the Raven transported the characters to medieval Iceland. Here, Trausti and Isolde are warriors from rival tribes who come into conflict when Trausti kills the leader of Isolde’s tribe, but a local bishop makes peace and arranges their marriage. ^[17] Bollywood legend Subhash Ghai transfers the story to modern India and the United States in his 1997 musical Pardes. The Indian American Pardes (Amrish Puri) raises his orphaned nephew Arjun Shahrukh Khan. Eventually, Pardes sends Arjun back to India to lure the beautiful Ganga (Mahima Chaudhary) as a bride for his selfish, shallow son Rajiv (Apoorva Agnihotri). Arjun falls for Ganga, and struggles to remain loyal to his cousin and beloved uncle. The film features the Bollywood hit “I Love My India.” The 2002 French animated film Tristan et Iseut is a bowdlerized version of the traditional tale aimed at a family audience.

The most recent Tristan film is 2006’s Tristan & Isolde, produced by Tony Scott and Ridley Scott, written by Dean Georgaris, directed by Kevin Reynolds, and starring James Franco and Sophia Myles.

See also: List of films based on Arthurian legend

Popular culture

The power metal band Blind Guardian wrote a song based on the story of Tristan and Isolde called The Maiden and the Minstrel Knight.

On the album The Sunlandic Twins, by the indie band, Of Montreal, the song “Wraith Pinned to the Mist (And Other Games)” references Tristan and Isolde, and mentions signaling by the color of sails.

Colin Meloy, lyricist and vocalist for The Decemberists, wrote the song ‘Tristan and Iseult’ for the album Omnibus (under the band Tarkio), re-released in 2006.

References

1. ^ Jeffrey Gantz (translator), Culhwch and Olwen, from The Mabinogion, Penguin, November 18, 1976. ISBN 0-14-044322-3
2. ^ ^{a b c} Stewart Gregory (translator), Thomas of Britain, Roman de Tristan, New York: Garland Publishers, 1991. ISBN 0-8240-4034-1
3. ^ P. Schach, The Saga of Tristram and Isond, University of Nebraska Press, 1973
4. ^ ^{a b} Norris J. Lacy et al. Gottfried von Strassburg from The New Arthurian Encyclopedia, New York: Garland, 1991.
5. ^ “Early French Tristan Poems”, from Norris J. Lacy (editor), Arthurian Archives, Cambridge, England; Rochester, NY: D.S. Brewer, 1998. ISBN 0-8240-4034-1
6. ^ Norris J. Lacy (editor) Arthurian Archives: Early French Tristan Poems. Cambridge (England); Rochester, NY : D.S. Brewer, 1998. ISBN 0-8240-4034-1
7. ^ N. J. Lacy (et al.). Cliges from The New Arthurian Encyclopedia. New York : Garland Publishing, 1991.
8. ^ Before any editions of the Prose Tristan were attempted, scholars were dependent on an extended summary and analysis of all the manuscripts by Eilert Löseth in 1890 (republished in 1974). Of the modern editions, the long version is made up of two editions: Renée L. Curtis, ed. Le Roman de Tristan en prose, vols. 1-3 (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1963-1985) and Philippe Ménard, exec. ed. Le Roman de Tristan en Prose, vols. 1-9 (Geneva: Droz, 1987-1997). Curtis’ edition of a simple manuscript (Carpentras 404) covers Tristan’s ancestry and the traditional legend up to Tristan’s madness. However, the massive amount of manuscripts in existence dissuaded other scholars from attempting what Curtis had done until Ménard hit upon the idea of using multiple teams of scholars to tackle the infamous Vienna 2542 manuscript. His edition follows from Curtis’ and ends with Tristan’s death and the first signs of Arthur’s fall. Richard Trachsler is currently preparing an edition of the “continuation” of the Prose Tristan. The shorter version, which contains no Grail Quest, is published by Joël Blanchard in five volumes.
9. ^ Alan Lupak Kalamazoo (editor). Lancelot of the Laik and Sir Tristrem. Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications. 1994.
10. ^ N. J. Lacy (et al.). Tristan from The New Arthurian Encyclopedia. New York : Garland Publishing, 1991.
11. ^ The Tristan Legend Hill. Leeds England: Leeds Medieval Studies. 1973
12. ^ N. J. Lacy (et al.). Carta enviada por Hiseo la Brunda Tristan; Repuesta de Tristan from The New Arthurian Encyclopedia. New York : Garland Publishing, 1991.
13. ^ N. J. Lacy (et al.). Czech Arthurian Literature from The New Arthurian Encyclopedia. New York : Garland Publishing, 1991.
14. ^ The New Arthurian Encyclopedia. N. J. Lacy (et al.). New York : Garland Publishing. 1991.
15. ^ The Byelorussian Tristan. Z.Kipel. New York : Garland Publishing, c1988. ISBN 0-8240-7598-6
16. ^ Films named Tristan and Isolde from the Internet Movie Database [1]
17. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Kevin J. Harty, “Arthurian Film”, from the Camelot Project at the University of Rochester [2]

from wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Romeo and Juliet
Written by	William Shakespeare
Characters	Prince Escalus Count Paris Mercutio Lord Capulet Lady Capulet Juliet Tybalt Nurse Peter Sampson Gregory Lord Montague Lady Montague Romeo Benvolio Abraham Balthasar Friar Lawrence Friar John Apothecary
Country of Origin	England
Original Language	English
Genre	Tragedy, romance
Setting	Verona, Italy

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy by William Shakespeare concerning the fate of two young “star-cross’d lovers“. It is perhaps the most famous of his plays, one of his earliest theatrical triumphs, and is thought to be the most archetypal love story of the Renaissance.

Contents [hide] 1 Plot 1.1 Act I 1.2 Act II 1.3 Act III 1.4 Act IV 1.5 Act V 2 Cast of characters 2.1 Ruling house of Verona 2.2 Capulets 2.2.1 Servants 2.3 Montagues 2.3.1 Servants 2.4 Others 3 Text of the play 4 Commentary 5 Style and themes 6 Adaptations 6.1 Plays 6.2 Opera 6.3 Ballet 6.4 Musical 6.5 Film versions 6.6 Television 6.7 Documentaries 7 Trivia 8 Books 9 Origins and Sources 10 References 11 External links

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Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The play begins with a 14-line prologue in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet. The chorus explains to the audience that the story concerns two noble families of Verona, the Capulets and the Montagues, that have feuded for generations. The prologue also explains that the lovers’ tragic suicides “[bury] their parents’ strife.”

Act I

Romeo and Juliet statue in Central Park in New York City.

The action starts with a street-battle between the two families, started by their servants and put down by the Prince of Verona, Escalus. The Prince declares that the heads of the two families (known simply as “Montague” and “Capulet”) will be held personally accountable (with their lives) for any further breach of the peace, and disperses the crowd.

Count Paris, a young nobleman, talks to Capulet about marrying his thirteen-year-old daughter, Juliet. Capulet demurs, citing the girl’s tender age, and invites him to attract the attention of Juliet during a ball that the family is to hold that night. Meanwhile Juliet’s mother tries to persuade her young daughter to accept Paris’ wooing during their coming ball. Juliet is not inspired by the idea of marrying Paris — in fact, she admits to not really having considered marriage at all. But, being a dutiful daughter, she accedes to her mother’s wishes. This scene also introduces Juliet’s nurse, the comic relief of the play, who recounts a bawdy anecdote about Juliet at great length and with much repetition.

In the meantime, Montague and his wife fret to their nephew Benvolio about their son Romeo, who has long been moping for reasons unknown to them. Benvolio promises Montague that he will try to determine the cause. Benvolio queries Romeo and finds that his melancholy has its roots in his unrequited love for a girl named Rosaline (an unseen character). Romeo is infatuated but laments that she will not “ope her lap to saint-seducing gold.” Perhaps most frustrating to Romeo is the fact that Rosaline “will not be hit with Cupid’s arrow/ She hath Dian’s wit”. In other words, it’s not that she finds Romeo himself objectionable, but that she has foresworn to marry or reproduce at all, and in fact, become a nun. Despite the good-natured taunts of his fellows, including the witty nobleman Mercutio (who gives his well known Queen Mab speech), Romeo resolves to attend the masquerade at the Capulet house, relying on not being spotted in his costume, in the hopes of meeting up with Rosaline.

Romeo attends the ball as planned, but falls for Juliet as soon as he sees her and quickly forgets Rosaline. Juliet is instantly taken by Romeo, and the two youths proclaim their love for one another with their “love sonnet” in which Romeo compares himself to a pilgrim and Juliet to the saint which is the object of his pilgrimage.

Tybalt, Juliet’s hot-blooded cousin, recognizes Romeo under his disguise and calls for his sword. Capulet, however, speaks kindly of Romeo and, having resolved that his family will not be first to violate the Prince’s decree, sternly forbids Tybalt from confronting Romeo. Tybalt stalks off in a huff. Before the ball ends, the Nurse identifies Juliet for Romeo, and (separately) identifies Romeo for Juliet.

Act II

Emboldened, Romeo risks his life by remaining on the Capulet estate after the party breaks up, to catch another glimpse of Juliet at her room, and in the famous balcony scene, the two eloquently declare their love for each other. This scene contains arguably the most famous line of Romeo and Juliet, “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” spoken by Juliet to the darkness (“wherefore” means “why” — Juliet is lamenting that Romeo is a Montague, and thus her enemy). The young lovers decide to marry without informing their parents, because they would obviously disallow it due to the planned union between Paris and Juliet, and because they are from enemy families.

Romeo and Juliet by Ford Madox Brown

Juliet sends the nurse to find Romeo. Accompanied by one Peter, who carries her fan, the nurse exchanges some spicy insults with the bawdy Mercutio.

With the help of Juliet’s Nurse and the Franciscan Friar Lawrence, the two are married that day. The Friar performs the ceremony, hoping to bring the two families to peace with each other through their mutual union.

Act III

Events take a darker turn after that. Tybalt, still smarting from the incident at the Capulets’ ball, had previously sent a letter to the Montagues challenging Romeo to a duel. Meeting Romeo by happenstance, he attempts to provoke a fight. Romeo refuses to fight Tybalt because they are now kinsmen — although Tybalt doesn’t know it, as he doesn’t yet know that Romeo has married Juliet. Mercutio, who is also unaware of the marriage, is angered by Tybalt’s insolence – and Romeo’s seeming indifference – and takes up the challenges himself. Benvolio tries to make peace and reminds everyone of the Prince’s decree. In the ensuing swordplay, Romeo attempts to allay Mercutio’s anger, momentarily placing his arm around him. By doing so, however, Romeo inadvertently pulls Mercutio into Tybalt’s rapier, fatally wounding him. Mercutio dies, wishing “a plague a’both your houses,” before he passes. Romeo, in his anger, pursues and slays Tybalt. Although under the Prince of Verona’s proclamation Romeo (and Montague and Capulet, as well) would be subject to the death penalty, the Prince instead fines the head of each house, and reduces Romeo’s punishment to exile in recognition that Tybalt had killed Mercutio, who had not only been Romeo’s friend but a kinsman of the Prince. Romeo is then exiled to Mantua after attempting to see Juliet one last time.

Just after Romeo leaves Juliet’s bedroom unseen, Capulet enters to tell the news to his daughter that he has arranged for her to marry Paris in three days’ time, to console her perceived mourning for Tybalt, although it is in fact Romeo’s exile that she mourns. Juliet is unwilling to enter this arranged marriage, telling her parents that she will not marry, and when she does, “it shall be Romeo, whom I know you hate.” Capulet flies into a rage and threatens to disown her if she refuses the marriage. The Nurse tells Juliet that she should leave Romeo and just marry Paris, leaving only one person supporting her marriage to Romeo, Friar Lawrence.

Act IV

Juliet visits Lawrence and tells him to either find a solution to her problem or she will commit suicide. Friar Lawrence, being a dabbler in herbal medicines and potions, gives Juliet a potion and a plan: the potion will put her into a death-like coma for “two and forty hours” (Act IV. Scene I); she is to take it and when discovered apparently dead, she will be laid in the family crypt. Meanwhile, the Friar will send a messenger to inform Romeo, so that he can rejoin her when she awakes. The two can then leave for Mantua and live happily ever after. Juliet is at first suspicious of the potion, thinking the Friar may be trying to kill her, but eventually takes it and falls ‘asleep’.

Act V

Romeo at Juliet’s Deathbed, by Johann Heinrich Füssli

The messenger of Friar Lawrence does not reach Romeo, due to a quarantine. Instead, Romeo learns of Juliet’s supposed “death” from his manservant Balthasar. Grief-stricken, he buys strong poison from an Apothecary, returns to Verona in secret, and goes to the crypt, determined to join Juliet in death. There he encounters Paris, who has also come to mourn privately for his lost love. Paris assumes that Romeo has come to defile the Capulets’ crypt and challenges him to a duel. Romeo kills Paris, and then drinks the poison after seeing Juliet one last time, exclaiming: ” O true Apothecary! Thy drugs are quick! Thus with a kiss I die.”

At this point Juliet awakes and, seeing the dead, seeks answers. Friar Lawrence arrives, and tries to convince Juliet to come with him, but she refuses. He is frightened by a noise, and leaves Juliet alone in the crypt. The pain and shock of Romeo’s death is too much for Juliet, and she stabs herself with his dagger. The two lovers lie dead together.

The two feuding families (except Lady Montague, who had died of grief over her son’s banishment) and the Prince converge upon the tomb and are horrified to find Romeo, Juliet, and Paris all lying dead. Friar Lawrence reveals the love and secret marriage of Romeo and Juliet. The families are reconciled by their children’s deaths and agree to end their violent feud, as foretold by the prologue. The play ends with the Prince’s brief elegy or lamentation on the fate of the two lovers:

A glooming peace this morning with it brings;

The sun for sorrow will not show his head.

Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;

Some shall be pardon’d, and some punishèd;

For never was a story of more woe

Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

Spoilers end here.

Cast of characters

Ruling house of Verona

• Prince Escalus: Prince of Verona
• Count Paris: Kin of Prince Escalus; desires to marry Juliet. Is killed by Romeo at the end of the play.
• Mercutio: Kinsman of Prince Escalus and friend of Romeo; killed by Tybalt when Romeo interrupts their duel. His name derives from Mercury.

The Reconciliation of the Montagues and Capulets (1854) by Frederic Leighton

Capulets

• Lord Capulet: Head of the house of Capulet.
• Lady Capulet: Wife of Lord Capulet; wishes Juliet to marry Paris.
• Juliet: Thirteen-year-old daughter of the Capulets; loves and marries Romeo.
• Tybalt: Cousin of Juliet; angry and pugnacious; killed by Romeo, as vengeance for killing Mercutio. His nickname of “the Prince of Cats” may refer to the quarrelsome and vicious character of Tybalt the Cat in the fable cycle Reynard the Fox, which would have been well-known to Shakespeare’s audience. Name derived from tyrant.

Servants

• Nurse: Juliet’s personal attendant and confidante: assists Juliet in her secret betrothal to Romeo.
• Peter: Capulet servant, assistant of the nurse.
• Sampson: Capulet servant; eager to fight the Montagues.
• Gregory: Capulet servant.

Montagues

• Montague: Head of the house of Montague.
• Lady Montague: Wife of Lord Montague
• Romeo: Son of the Montagues; loves and marries Juliet. Name comes from the word romance.
• Benvolio: Cousin of Romeo. His name means “good will”.

Servants

• Abram: Montague servant.
• Balthasar: Romeo’s personal servant.

Others

• Friar Lawrence: Franciscan friar and Romeo’s confidant; he marries Romeo and Juliet. He gives Juliet the sleeping potion that prevents her marriage to Count Paris.
• Friar John: Another friar sent by Friar Lawrence to tell Romeo that Juliet awaits him; fails in this mission.
• Apothecary: Druggist who reluctantly sells Romeo the poison.

Text of the play

This article or section is missing citations and/or footnotes.This article or section may use words or ideas of other works in its text without citing sources. Using citations to support claims outside the realm of elementary knowledge helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. Please improve the article or discuss this issue on the talk page. Help on using footnotes is available. This article has been tagged since February 2007.

Romeo and Juliet was published in two distinct quarto editions prior to the publication of the First Folio of 1623. These are referred to as Q1 and Q2.

Q1 was published in 1597. Because its text contains numerous differences from the later editions, it is labelled a ‘Bad Quarto’ composited from actors’ memories of their lines, rather than on Shakespeare’s manuscript or theatre text. It may have been put together by the actors who had played the roles of Romeo and Paris, since their lines are reasonably complete and uncorrupted in comparison to the rest of the play. Modern people would consider this a “pirate” edition, but the practice was far from unusual at the time.

Q2, a much more complete and reliable text, was first published in 1599, and reprinted in 1609, 1623 and 1637. Its title page describes it as “Newly corrected, augmented and amended”. Scholars believe that this text was based on Shakespeare’s pre-performance draft, since there are textual oddities such as variable tags for characters and “false starts” for speeches that were presumably struck through by the author but erroneously preserved by the typesetter.

The First Folio text of 1623 seems to be based primarily on the 1609 reprint of Q2, with some clarifications and corrections possibly coming from a theatrical promptbook.

Commentary

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Like most of Shakespeare’s plays, the greater part of Romeo and Juliet is written in iambic pentameter. However, the play is also notable for its copious use of rhymed verse, notably in the sonnet contained in Romeo and Juliet’s dialogue in the scene where they first meet (Act I, Scene v, Lines 95-108). This sonnet figures Romeo as a blushing pilgrim (palmer) praying before an image of the Virgin Mary, as many people in early-sixteenth-century England did at shrines such as the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham.[1] Because of its use of rhyme, its extravagant expressions of love, its Italian theme, and its implausible plot, Romeo and Juliet is considered to belong to Shakespeare’s “lyrical period”, along with the similarly poetic plays A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Richard II. Although much of Shakespeare’s work is done in blank verse (non-rhyming iambic pentameter), many times he uses iambic couplets within these blank verses. These are called herioc couplets.

Romeo and Juliet is one of the earlier works in the Shakespearean canon, and while it is often classified as a tragedy, it does not bear the hallmarks of the ‘great tragedies’ like Hamlet and Macbeth. Some argue that Romeo and Juliet’s demise does not stem from their own individual flaws, but from the actions of others or from accidents. Unlike the great tragedies, Romeo and Juliet is more a tragedy of mistiming and ill fate. Other commentators, such as Isaac Asimov, consider rashness and youth to be the tragic flaws of Romeo and Juliet, compounded by the ineffectuality of Friar Lawrence.

In a major change from his source, Shakespeare put the sympathies with the young lovers. Matteo Bandello described the reasons for the play in his prologue:

And to this end, good Reader, is this tragical matter written, to describe unto thee a couple of unfortunate lovers, thralling themselves to unhonest desire; neglecting the authority and advice of parents and friends; conferring their principal counsels with drunken gossips and superstitious friars (the naturally fit instruments of unchastity); attempting all adventures of peril for th’ attaining of their wished lust; using auricular confession the key of whoredom and treason, for furtherance of their purpose; abusing the honourable name of lawful marriage to cloak the shame of stolen contracts; finally by all means of unhonest life hasting to most unhappy death.

The legitimacy of marrying without parental consent was in fact fiercely debated at the time. The Catholic Church had, at the Council of Trent, ended centuries of debate by not including parental consent among the requirements for a valid marriage, but Protestant churches did not accept such unions, and in civil law, only England and Spain permitted marriage without parental consent.

Style and themes

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It has been noted that the plot of Romeo and Juliet is more that of a farce or Comedy of Errors than a tragedy, except that it lacks the vital last-minute save and that the main characters die at the end instead of “living happily ever after.” In fact, it is crucial to an understanding of the play as a whole to compare it to traditional comedies of its day, such as Much Ado About Nothing, in that most of the characters, especially Romeo and Mercutio, would be recognized by the audience as comedic. Were it not for the prologue, which explicitly states that the play will end in death, Elizabethan audiences would have thought they were watching a comedy until Act III, Scene i^[1]. As a reader or audience member, one should note the differences before and after this critical scene (the intermission is often put at the end of III.i., which unfortunately robs the play of the excruciating contrast between Act III, Scene i and Act III, Scene ii). Shakespeare often experiments with dramatic convention in this way – Romeo and Juliet could be called a “tragic comedy”, just as many of the romances do not fit easily into conventional ideas about drama.

While a long-running feud is ended, this is at the price of not only the two lovers’ lives but those of an entire generation: Romeo, Mercutio, Tybalt, Juliet, Paris. The problem with this argument is that one must wonder how remorseful the families truly are. Throughout the play, Montague, Capulet, and the Prince speak of punishment in monetary terms (remember that the families were fined for Tybalt and Mercutio’s deaths). At the end, the competition to see who can build a richer statue of the other’s child seems petty, especially by comparison to Romeo and Juliet, who had found a love that does not rely on money.

While on a surface level the play is about love, the underlying theme of Romeo and Juliet is the fight for power, which results in the death of all the young members of Montagues (except for Benvolio), Capulets and the Prince’s House. The play shows a system which imposes its beliefs on the individual, preventing him or her from reaching happiness and leaving death as the only escape.

Adaptations

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There have been many adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, created for many media.

Plays

Other versions of the Romeo and Juliet play have been created, which had the “culture” of where the play was made as the “setting”. For instance, a version of the play which had Romeo as a Palestinian and Juliet as a Jew in Israel and the Palestinian territories were made, which criticizes the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.^{[citation needed]} Similarly, versions have also been devised dealing with apartheid in South Africa, in which Romeo is black and Juliet is white.^{[citation needed]}

A Native American version called “Kino and Teresa” was first produced in 2005 by Native Voices at the Autry in Los Angeles. Written by James Lujan, the historical play was set in 17th Century Santa Fe, seventeen years after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 and revolved around the conflict between the Pueblo Indians and Spanish colonists.^[2]

Romeo and Juliet has been adapted in many ways over the years quite subtly. It is the basis for many great musicals such as West Side Story and Moulin Rouge and also has a subtle, underlying theme in both Grease and the newly acclaimed High School Musical.^{[citation needed]} In all these and more, including non-musical Romantic Dramas, the hero and heroine for some reason break all the rules to be together ending in one or both of the characters’ deaths.

Romeo/Juliet Remixed (or R0M30/JUL137 R3M1X3D) is set to a rave dance floor background with a kick-boxing Juliet and an Ecstasy-taking Romeo. Before the play begins, this interactive show features a choice of glowsticks (pink if one chooses to be a Montague, yellow if one chooses to be a Capulet,) an escort to a mock dance club called “Club Verona” where “theater”-goers dance and mingle with the cast and other audience members, as well as the chance to cheer on a crew of breakdancing Montagues or Capulets, and a chance to be on the venue’s big screen. Romeo and Juliet communicate via cell phone and text messaging.

Opera

The story was converted into the opera Roméo et Juliette by Charles Gounod in 1867 with a libretto written by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré.

The Romeo and Juliet story was also the subject of Vincenzo Bellini’s opera I Capuleti e i Montecchi, although Bellini and his librettist, Felice Romani, worked from Italian sources, and these were only distantly related to Shakespeare’s work.

In 2004 American composer Lee Hoiby also adapted Romeo and Juliet to write an opera of the same name.

“Butterfly Lovers“, a Chinese Opera, is commonly known as the Chinese version of Romeo and Juliet.

Ballet

Several ballet adaptations of the story have been made, the first written in the 18th century. The best known feature music by Sergei Prokofiev, and a variety of choreographers have used this music. The first version featuring Prokofiev’s music was performed in 1938. See: Romeo and Juliet (Prokofiev)

Musical

The “Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture” (1869, revised 1870, 1880), by Peter Tchaikovsky, contains one of the world’s most famous melodies. The tremendously famous love theme in the middle of this long symphonic poem has been used countless times in commercials and movies.

In 1957, the musical West Side Story debuted on Broadway, with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. This version of “Romeo and Juliet” updated the setting to mid-20th century New York City and the warring families to ethnic gangs. West Side Story opened on the West End in London in 1958 and then was released as a film in 1961.

In 1999, Terrence Mann’s rock musical William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, co-written with Jerome Korman, premiered at the Ordway Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was not a critical success.

Roméo et Juliette, de la Haine à l’Amour, a musical by Gérard Presgurvic, premiered on January 19, 2001 in the Palais de Congrès in Paris, France. By 2005, it had already attracted some six million people.

The song “Exit Music (For a Film)” by Radiohead was made for the 1996 movie version (see below) of Romeo and Juliet and is sung from the point of view of someone waking up his lover and inviting them to join them in escaping from the oppression of their respective families through suicide.

“Romeo and Juliet” is also the name of a song by the British rock band Dire Straits.

The Reflections reached #6 on the pop charts in the summer of 1964 with the song “(Just Like) Romeo & Juliet”.

“Once on This Island” is another musical adaptation that takes on the Romeo and Juliet theme. These star crossed lovers, Ti Moune and Daniel, were fated to love one another even with the pressures of their class and ethnic backgrounds upon them. However, it was only through death that they could be together.

Film versions

See also Shakespeare on screen (Romeo and Juliet)

There have been over forty movie versions of the tale, with the first made in France in 1900. Some of the more notable adaptations include:

1908 – Romeo and Juliet, a silent film made by Vitagraph Studios.

The first American production, it was directed by J. Stuart Blackton, the film starred Paul Panzer as Romeo and Florence Lawrence as Juliet.

1936 – Romeo and Juliet, produced by Irving Thalberg and directed by George Cukor

The 1936 screen version was one of the more notable of Classical Hollywood. Thalberg spared no expense, and showcased his wife, Norma Shearer, in the lead role. Romeo was played by Leslie Howard, John Barrymore was Mercutio, and Andy Devine was Peter, the servant to Juliet’s nurse. However, the film was criticized because Howard and Shearer were both considerably older than the scripted roles.

Academy Awards nominations:

• Best Picture – Irving Thalberg, producer
• Best Actor in a Supporting Role – Basil Rathbone – as Tybalt
• Best Actress – Norma Shearer
• Best Art Direction – Cedric Gibbons, Fredric Hope and Edwin B. Willis

1954 – Romeo and Juliet directed by Renato Castellani.

A notable British/Italian production with a colourful setting. The cast includes Laurence Harvey as Romeo, Susan Shentall as Juliet, Flora Robson as the Nurse and Mervyn Johns as Friar Laurence.

1968 – Romeo and Juliet, directed by Franco Zeffirelli

Filmed in Italy, the performance of the young Olivia Hussey as Juliet is a defining feature. It won Oscars for best cinematography and best costume design, and was nominated for Best Director and Best Picture. It also starred Leonard Whiting as Romeo – he was seen as ‘the next big thing’ in film at the time, but his career did not match up to expectations.

1978 – Romeo and Juliet, directed by Alvin Rakoff

for the BBC Television Shakespeare series. This production is generally unregarded due to its inexperienced stars and low production values, although Alan Rickman’s Tybalt is notable.

1983 – Romeo and Juliet, directed by William Woodman

This film features an excellent set of costumes. The cast includes Alex Hyde-White, Blanche Baker, Esther Rolle, Dan Hamilton, and Frederic Hehne.

1996 – Romeo + Juliet, directed by Baz Luhrmann

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the title roles, Luhrmann gave the famous tale a modern setting. The production uses Luhrmann’s signature flamboyant color and stylization. Besides the modernization it is notable for significantly tweaking the ending, so that Romeo and Juliet get a final scene alive together.

At the Berlin International Film Festival 1997, it won:

• Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio)
• Alfred Bauer Prize

Academy Awards 1996 nominations:

• Best Art Direction and Set Decoration (Catherine Martin and Brigitte Broch)

1996 – Tromeo and Juliet, directed by Lloyd Kaufman

The Troma team put their own inimitable spin on the story, setting it in Manhattan in a punk milieu. Lemmy from Motörhead narrates.

2000 – Romeo Must Die, directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak

With Jet Li as Han Ling (the Romeo of the story) who is out to avenge his brother’s murder. He meets and eventually falls in love with Trish O’Day (the Juliet of the story, played by Aaliyah) who is the daughter of a rival American mob boss. Apart from the main characters being the son and daughter of bitter rivals, the plot has practically nothing to do with Romeo and Juliet the play.

2005 – Romeo & Juliet directed by Dave LaChapelle

Featuring Tamyra Gray as Juliet, Gus Carr as Romeo, and Mary J. Blige, this is a 10-minute promotional advertisement for the H&M clothing company. Released in September 2005, this commercial was shown online (H&M website) and during the trailers of certain theatrical films, and featured the new “&denim” selection. In this musical remake which features background music provided by Tamyra Gray and Mary J. Blige (both songs are from the musical Dreamgirls), Romeo is gunned down in a drive-by shooting and Juliet sings over his body while he bleeds to death on the street. Due to complaints that the commercial glamorized gang violence and was H&M’s attempt to use gun culture to sell their jeans to teenagers, H&M subsequently withdrew the ad from Canadian & U.S. markets and issued an apology.

2005 – O Casamento de Romeu e Julieta, directed by Bruno Barreto.

This is a Brazilian adaptation of the text that is actually a romantic comedy set amid a bitter soccer rivalry. It is about two rival soccer clubs, the Palmeiras and the Corinthians. It is set in Sao Paulo with various twists and divergences from the original Romeo and Juliet story. Directed by Bruno Barreto and staring Brazilian actress/model Luana Piovani and Marco Ricca.

2006 – Romeo and Juliet, directed by Yves Desgagnés.

This is a Canadian, québecois adaptation. The two principal roles are played by the newly discovered actors Thomas Lalonde and Charlotte Aubin, whose were both chosen during auditions. It was due for release on 15 December 2006.

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The following entries require a chronologist:

The film West Side Story was released in 1961 following the success of the musical on stage in New York and London. It was set in a 1960s New York City gang culture and was loosely based on the story of Romeo and Juliet, with the Montagues becoming the Jets and the Capulets becoming the Sharks.

The film West Bank Story set, unsurprisingly, in the contemporary West Bank is a musical comedy parody based on West Side Story. West Bank Story won the 2006 best Live Action Short at the Academy Awards (Oscars). *[2]]

The film Shakespeare in Love is a fictional account of how Shakespeare writes the play against the clock inspired by his love for a noble woman. The movie also describes the start of Twelfth Night, inspired by the same woman’s ultimate fate.

The animated feature Romeo and Juliet: Sealed With a Kiss is a story about two seals named Romeo and Juliet, whose plot is loosely taken from the original.

The Direcor of the popular Chinese martial arts film “The Bride with White Hair” mentions that the story line was inspired by Romeo and Juliet.

“Devdas” transposes Romeo and Juliet into an Indian culture.

“Love Is All There Is“, starring Angelina Jolie and Lannie Kazan, is a comedic take on the tragic story. It takes place in the Bronx, New York and involves two Italian immigrant families who own opposing restaraunts. The two families hate each other and have tried to run each other out of business for years. When their children secretly fall in love, the families are forced to deal with it. Instead of the tragic Shakespearean ending, the movie makes the story a bit more light-hearted.

The movie Underworld, starring Kate Beckinsale and Scott Speedman recounts the tale of two star-crossed lovers – Selene and Michael, one a vampire and the other a werewolf.

“Save the Last Dance” not only displays many of Romeo and Juliet’s themes, but it also depicts the difficulties of acculturation and interracial relationships.

Television

The Canadian-produced animated television special Romie-0 and Julie-8 (1979) is a science fiction adaptation of the play, recasting the lead characters as robots.

The 2005 television movie “Pizza My Heart” is also based on Romeo and Juliet. This story takes place in Verona, New Jersey and is centered around the lives of two feuding pizzeria owners, the Prestolanis and the Montebellos.

In 2007, Japanese animation studio Gonzo is to adapt Romeo and Juliet into an anime television series entitled Romeo x Juliet, the very first of its kind. Set in a futuristic, aerial city known as Neo Verona, the series is slated to premiere in Japan from April 2007.

Documentaries

“Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo” – Though the “story” does not bear much resemblance to that of the original Shakespearean play, the characters and outcome are quite similar. The characters in both the play and the film (Romeo and Juliet and Admira and Boško) simply want to live their lives and be allowed to love one another, yet are tragically prevented from doing so, instead succumbing to an untimely death.

Trivia

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• Romeo and Juliet on stage
  • The most famous production of the play is undoubtably the 1935 staging by John Gielgud in which Gielgud and Laurence Olivier alternated the role of Romeo and Mercutio and Peggy Ashcroft played Juliet. It was Olivier’s first major Shakespearean role on the professional stage.
  • Olivier produced and directed a Broadway production in 1940 with himself as Romeo and his fiancee Vivien Leigh as Juliet which was a critical disaster that cost the couple all their savings.
  • The longest running Broadway production of the play is the 1923 staging starring Jane Cowl as Juliet and Rollo Peters as Romeo. It ran for 157 performances, more than twice as long as any other Broadway production.
  • Maurice Evans made his Broadway debut as Romeo in 1934.
• Romeo and Juliet in music
  • The 1956 song Fever contains the lyrics “Romeo loved Juliet/Juliet, she felt the same/When he put his arms around her/He said, “Julie baby, you’re my flame.”
  • The documentary Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo detailed a starcrossed romance that met a tragic end during the Siege of Sarajevo in the former Yugoslavia.
  • Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo is also the name of a song from Eric Bogle’s 1997 album Small Miracles, presumably inspired by the above documentary.
  • The disco group Festival had a minor hit with a song called “Romeo and Juliet” which used as its lyrics the text of the prologue.
  • Arctic Monkeys‘ song ‘I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor contains the lyrics ‘Oh there ain’t no love no, Montagues or Capulets/Just banging tunes in DJ sets’
  • Madonna’s 1989 album Like A Prayer’s third single, Cherish, a song about appreciation towards a lover, has a line that says “Romeo and Juliet, they never felt this way, I bet.”
  • Dire Straits‘ 1980 album Making Movies had a popular song “Romeo and Juliet“, in which the singer looks back on a failed relationship. It was inspired by Mark Knopfler’s broken romance with Holly Vincent. The Indigo Girls covered this song on their album Rites of Passage.
  • The album Romeo Unchained by Tonio K includes a song called “Romeo Loves Jane“, describing a romance between well-known fictional characters (perhaps as a satire of celebrity relationships). Another song, “Impressed”, includes Romeo and Juliet in a long list of what the singer considers bad examples of how love should work.
  • The Lou Reed song, “Romeo had Juliette” was included on the 1989 album New York.
  • The 2003 musical remake of Reefer Madness featured a song “Romeo and Juliet” in which a pair of young lovers compare themselves to Romeo and Juliet, having only read the first half of the play, and mistakenly assume the ending to be happy.
  • The Radiohead song “Exit Music (For a Film)” was written for the closing credits of the Baz Luhrmann version. The lyrics describe a Romeo-like character entreating his sleeping lover to run away, inspired by Act III.
  • The Delta Goodrem song “I Don’t Care” contains the lyrics “they tried to keep Romeo and Juliet apart…”
  • The Blue Öyster Cult song “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” mentions Romeo and Juliet as being “Together in eternity”.
  • The song Ampersand by The Dresden Dolls, in which the singer rebuffs her former lover, features the lines “and I may be romantic, and I may risk my life for it/but I ain’t gonna die for you/you know I ain’t no Juliet.”
  • The band Genesis uses the names Romeo and Juliet for characters in the song ‘The Cinema Show’ from their album Selling England by the Pound
  • The Big Audio Dynamite 1985 album This is Big Audio Dynamite has in the song “The Bottom Line” a reference to Romeo (as well as a reference to the famous soliloquy in Hamlet).
  • The Ash song “Starcrossed” is a reference to Romeo and Juliet.
  • The Bob Dylan song “Desolation Row”, from the 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited, contains the lyric “And in comes Romeo, he’s moaning…”
  • The American band The Reflections reference the play in their song called “(Just Like) Romeo & Juliet” which has been covered by Sha Na Na and the Australian band Mental As Anything.
  • HIM frontman Ville Valo has stated their song “Join Me in Death” was inspired by Romeo and Juliet.
  • The Bon Jovi song “I’d Die For You” contains the lyrics “In a world that don’t know Romeo and Juliet”.
  • Danish musician Sebastian has a song on the album Dejavu, entitled Romeo. The first line goes (translated from Danish): “There’s something about this scene reminding me of Romeo and Juliet.”
  • The My Chemical Romance song Our Lady of Sorrows off their debut album I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, contains the line “…and die like star-crossed lovers when we fight…”. Their song The Sharpest Lives also mentions the two in the line “Juliet loves the beat and the lust it commands, drop the dagger and lather the blood on your hands, Romeo.”
  • The Semisonic song “Singing in my Sleep” alludes to the infamous balcony scene in the lines “I’ve been living in your cassette / It’s the modern equivalent / Singing up to a Capulet on a balcony in your mind.”
  • The A Change of Pace song “Prepare the Masses” from the album of the same name is about Romeo and Juliet. “Sing me to sleep tonight/sweet Juliet/two star-crossed lovers marry looking for regrets/by daybreak I’ll be gone and searching for your kiss/leave me a drop of poison waiting on your lips.”
  • Sarina Paris’s song “Romeo’s Dead” sums up the relationship as foolish.
• In Games
  • The game The Sims 2 includes a neighborhood, Veronaville (a parody of Verona) in which two characters named Romeo Monty and Juliette Capp fall in love. The neighborhood’s story is a parody of the play itself, including the feud between the Monty (Montague) and the Capp (Capulet) families.
  • In the card game Magic: The Gathering, a card called Dark Banishing displays a quote from Romeo and Juliet:

Ha, banishment? Be merciful, say ‘death,’

For exile hath more terror in his look,

Much more than death.

• • The Konami game Silent Hill 3 contains a puzzle with excerpts from five tragedies, including Romeo and Juliet. The player must identify which tragedy each quote is from and thereby arrange books in a particular order.
  • In the MMORPG World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, in a dungeon named Karazhan, one of the three possible play based boss encounters features two bosses with names slightly altered from Romeo & Juliet’s.
  • In the popular online game RuneScape, one of the non-member quests is based on the story of Romeo and Juliet.
• In Film & Television
  • Sea Prince and the Fire Child (1981), an anime movie by Sanrio (based on a story by Sanrio founder, Shintaro Tsuji), was inspired by Romeo & Juliet (the main scharacters are from different races, sea spirits and fire spirits).
  • Immediately following the end credits in certain episodes of Tiny Toon Adventures, Plucky Duck would say “Parting is such sweet sorrow!”
  • There was an episode of DuckTales entitled Bubbeo and Juliet.
  • Mario and Joliet, an episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!.
  • One of Ranma 1/2 episodes was about a school play “Romeo and Juliet”
  • In the “School Play” episode of Hey Arnold!, Arnold’s class puts on the play Romeo and Juliet, with Arnold as Romeo and Helga as Juliet.
  • A brief mention of the play is made in a Histeria! song about the works of Shakespeare, with Toast and Pepper Mills portraying the title characters.
• In Literature
  • A book details the inter-racial difficulties of a teen-age couple and their community controversies, entitled “Romiette and Julio”, by Sharon M. Draper.
• John “the Savage” quotes Romeo and Juliet to Helmholtz Watson in Aldous Huxley’s famous novel Brave New World.
• Products
  • Two cigar brands exist that bear the Spanish version of the play’s title, Romeo y Julieta.

An Escape the Fate song called “Not Good Enough for Truth in Cliche” where the chorus reads:

“…finger in the trigger to my dear Juliet.

Out from the window see her back drop silhouette,

This blood on my hands is something I cannot forget…”

Books

• • A book called Rani & Sukh is loosley based on Romeo & Juliet with the two warring families. They are Indian. They live in England

Origins and Sources

A bronze statue of Juliet below the famous balcony at Villa Capelletti in Verona, Italy (April 2002).

A common misconception is that the plot of Romeo and Juliet was invented by Shakespeare. In fact, his play is a dramatisation of Arthur Brooke’s narrative poem The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet (1562). Shakespeare followed Brooke’s poem closely^[3] but enriched its texture by adding extra detail to both major and minor characters, in particular the Nurse and Mercutio.

Brooke’s poem was not original either, being a translation and adaptation of Giuletta e Romeo, by Matteo Bandello, included in his Novelle of 1554. This was in turn an adaptation of Luigi da Porto’s Giulietta e Romeo, included in his Istoria novellamente ritrovata di due Nobili Amanti (c. 1530). This is the version that gave the story much of its modern form, including the names of the lovers, the rival families of Montecchi and Capuleti, and the location in Verona, in the Veneto.

However, the earliest-known version of the tale is the 1476 story of Mariotto and Gianozza of Siena by Masuccio Salernitano, in Il Novelino (Novella XXXIII).

Bandello’s story was the most famous and was translated into French (and into English by Brooke). It was also adapted by Italian theatrical troupes, some of whom performed in London at the time that Shakespeare was writing his plays. One such performance or script could have inspired Shakespeare’s version of Romeo and Juliet.

This story of ill-fated lovers had obvious parallels with similar tales told throughout history, including those of Hero and Leander, Pyramus and Thisbe, Floris and Blanchefleur, Troilus and Cressida, Antony and Cleopatra, Layla and Majnun, Tristan and Iseult, Shirin and Farhad and Hagbard and Signy. Shakespeare was familiar with these stories, some of which were included in his other plays. The tale of Pyramus and Thisbe appears in comic mode in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, while the Trojan War lovers, Troilus and Cressida, were given a history play of their own.

References

1. ^ Stephen A. Shapiro (Apr 1964). “Romeo and Juliet: Reversals, Contraries, Transformations, and Ambivalence”. College English 25 (7): 498-501. 
2. ^ Klugman, Deborah. Kino and Teresa review. LA Weekly. Retrieved on 2007-02-17.
3. ^ Arthur J. Roberts (Feb 1902). “The Sources of Romeo and Juliet”. Modern Language Notes 17 (2): 41-44. 

from wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Snow White in her coffin, Theodor Hosemann, 1867.

Snow White, (in German, Schneewittchen, Snowdrop in their first edition^[1]) is the title character in a fairy tale known from many places in Europe, the most known version being the one collected by the Brothers Grimm. The German version features elements such as the mirror and the seven dwarfs. In non-German versions the dwarfs are generally robbers, while the talking mirror is a dialog with the sun or moon. In a version from Albania, collected by Johann Georg von Hahn and published in Griechische und albanesische Märchen. Gesammelt, übersetzt und erläutert (1864), the main character lives with 40 dragons. The sleep is caused by a ring. The start of the story also has an interesting twist in that a teacher urges the heroine to kill her own mother so that the teacher can take her place. The origin of the tale is debated; it is likely no older than the Middle Ages. Many scholars think it originated somewhere in Asia.

In the Aarne-Thompson folklore classification, they are grouped together as type 709, Snow White. Others of this type include Bella Venezia, Myrsina, and Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree.^[2]

Contents [hide] 1 Story 2 Commentary 3 Other versions 3.1 Literature 3.2 Film and television 3.3 Music 4 Snow-White And Rose-Red 5 The Twelve Wild Ducks 6 Trivia 7 See also 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links

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Story

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Illustration to Schneewittchen, Franz Jüttner

Once upon a time, a queen was doing needle work while staring outside her window at the beautiful snow. It was because of her distracted state that she pricked her finger on her needle and a drop of blood fell on some snow that had fallen on her windowsill. As she looked at the blood on the snow she said to herself, “Oh, how I wish that I had a daughter that had skin white as snow, lips red as blood, and hair black as ebony.” Soon after that, the queen gave birth to a baby girl who had skin white as snow, lips red as blood, and hair black as ebony. They named her Princess Snow White, but sadly, the queen died after giving birth to Snow White. Soon after, the king took a new wife who was beautiful, but very proud and possessed evil powers. She also possessed a magic mirror, to whom she would often ask, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” and to which the mirror would always reply, “You are.” But after Snow White became seven (which is the official age that a girl becomes a maiden) when she asked her mirror, it responded, “Queen, you’re the fairest where you are, but Snow White is more beautiful by far.”

The Queen was jealous, and ordered a huntsman to take Snow White into the woods to be killed. She demanded that the huntsman return with Snow White’s lungs and liver as proof. The huntsman took Snow White into the forest, but found himself unable to kill the girl. Instead, he let her go, and brought the queen the lungs and liver of a wild boar. (In the Disney movie, the lungs and liver are replaced by a heart.)

Snow White discovered a tiny cottage in the forest, belonging to seven dwarfs, where she rested. Meanwhile, the Queen asked her mirror once again, “Who’s the fairest of them all?”, and was horrified when the mirror told her that Snow White, who was alive and well and living with the dwarfs, was still the fairest of them all.

Illustration to Schneewittchen, Franz Jüttner

Three times the Queen disguised herself and visited the dwarfs’ cottage trying to kill Snow White. First, disguised as a peddler, the Queen offered colorful stay-laces and laced Snow White up so tight that she fainted, and the Queen took her for dead. Snow White was revived by the dwarfs when they loosened the laces. Next, the Queen dressed as a different old woman and combed Snow White’s hair with a poisoned comb. Snow White again collapsed, and again the dwarfs saved her. Lastly the Queen made a poison apple, and in the disguise of a countrywoman offered it to Snow White. She was hesitant, so the Queen cut the apple in half, ate the white part — which had no poison — and gave the poisoned red part to Snow White. She ate the apple eagerly and immediately fell into a deep, magical sleep. When the dwarfs found her, they could not revive her, so they placed her in a glass coffin, thinking that she had died. (The Disney version only adopts the poison apple plot, and the queen meets her demise as she is chased by the dwarfs.)

Illustration to Schneewittchen, Franz Jüttner

Time passed, and a prince travelling through the land saw Snow White in her coffin. The prince was enchanted by her beauty and instantly fell in love with her. He begged the dwarfs to let him have the coffin. The prince and his men carried the coffin away, but as they went they stumbled. The coffin jerked and the piece of poison apple flew out of Snow White’s mouth, awakening her. The prince then declared his love and soon a wedding was planned. (In the Disney version, the cure for this deep sleep was love’s first kiss. The Prince takes a revived Snow White away, and the film ends.)

The vain Queen, still believing that Snow White was dead, again asked her mirror who was fairest in the land and yet again the mirror disappointed her by responding that, “You, my queen, are fair; it is true. But the young queen is a thousand times fairer than you.”

Not knowing that this new queen was indeed her stepdaughter, she arrived at the wedding, and her heart filled with the deepest of dread when she realized the truth.

As punishment for her wicked ways, a pair of heated iron shoes were brought forth with tongs and placed before the Queen. She was then forced to step into the red-hot shoes and dance until she fell down dead.

Commentary

In their first edition, the Brothers Grimm published the version they had first collected, in which the villain of the piece is Snow White’s jealous mother. It is believed that the change to a stepmother in later editions was to tone down the story for children.^[3]

Snow White, although marrying at the end of the tale, is seven when her stepmother tries to kill her. This may be explained by her growing up in the coffin, but more often, Snow White is depicted in illustrations as considerably older.^[4]

One interpretation of the tale is the polarization of women into the evil and active versus the innocent and domestic.^[5]

Other versions

Literature

The story in Russian writer Alexander Pushkin’s 1833 poem The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights is similar to that of Snow White, with knights replacing dwarfs.

One of the many retellings of the Snow White tale appears in A Book of Dwarfs, by Ruth Manning-Sanders.

Tanith Lee’s novel White as Snow is a dark, very adult retelling of the tale (woven into a reworking of the Demeter/Persephone myth), as is her short story “Red as Blood” (published in her story collection of the same title), and Neil Gaiman’s short story “Snow, Glass, Apples” (published in Smoke and Mirrors). Other writers who have made use of the theme include Donald Barthleme (in his novel Snow White), Gregory Maguire (in his novel Mirror Mirror), Jane Yolen (in her story “Snow in Summer,” published in Black Swan, White Raven), Anne Sexton (in her poem “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” published in Transformations), and A. S. Byatt (in her essay “Ice, Snow, Glass,” published in Mirror, Mirror on the Wall).

The story was very loosely adapted by Mercedes Lackey into her Elemental Masters novel The Serpent’s Shadow, turning the main character into the Eurasian Doctor Maya Witherspoon, who must suffer the multiple stigmas of being a medically-qualified half-caste female (in other words, most of her problems stem from being not white) in turn-of-the-century London; the seven dwarfs are transformed into animal avatars of various benign Hindu deities.

In 1982 Roald Dahl’s book Revolting Rhymes rewrote the story in a more modern way.

The Da Vinci Code describes Walt Disney as a member of the Priory of Sion. Disney wanted to spread the message of truth about Mary Magdalene and the Knights Templar. Snow White’s character is actually about women, that is, when she eats the poisoned apple, it refers to Eve. When she is asleep with the dwarfs surrounding her, it refers to the seven Knights Templar assigned to protect her grave.

The short story “The Snow Child” by Angela Carter is based on the story of Snow White.

Snow White is a major character in the Fables comic book series published by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics. As presented there, she is an amalgam of the two characters that share this name — she is very touchy about her adventures with the dwarfs, is the first ex-wife of Prince Charming, and has a sister named Rose Red from whom she was estranged for some time. She was assistant mayor of Fabletown for many years, succeeding to the post after Ichabod Crane was fired for sexually harassing her. Because of Prince Charming replacing Old King Cole as mayor, as well as her giving birth to her seven only half-human children of Bigby (the Big Bad Wolf), she moved from the New York City Fabletown to the “Farm” upstate, where non-human-appearing Fables must live. She later married Bigby and the entire family moved in together in an area just outside the main part of ‘The Farm’.

Film and television

A 1916 silent film with the title Snow White was made by Famous Players-Lasky Corporation and produced by Adolph Zukor and Daniel Frohman. Directed by J. Searle Dawley, it was adapted to the screen by Jessie Graham White from his play Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The film starred Marguerite Clark as Snow White, Creighton Hale as Prince Florimond and Dorothy Cumming as Queen Brangomar/Mary Jane.

Snow White, as depicted in Walt Disney’s 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

A 1933 Betty Boop cartoon, Snow White, was adapted from this story, as was the famous 1937 Disney animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In the Disney version, Snow White wakes from her enchanted sleep as soon as the Prince kisses her, similar to Sleeping Beauty. Furthermore, the prince and Snow White have met prior to her enchanted sleep, so that he has fallen in love with the awake rather than the sleeping princess, an unusual variation in the Snow White tales.^[6] This version is perhaps the most well known version of the story, and is a classic of the cinema. The Disney version is distinctly parodied in the 1943 Merrie Melodies short cartoon Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs.

In 1961, the story was parodied in the film Snow White and the Three Stooges, starring Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Joe “Curly-Joe” DeRita. This film is widely regarded by fans of the Three Stooges as their worst feature film. In the film, the dwarfs had gone on vacation and lent Moe, Larry and Curly Joe the use of their cottage. The three are traveling entertainers, along with a young man who was born a prince, but lost his memory in an assassination attempt that was thwarted by the Stooges. The prince suffers amnesia and the Stooges “adopt” him and raise him to manhood; but he is only shown as a boy in a flashback segment. The prince ends up marrying Snow White, played by real life Olympic figure skating champion, Carol Heiss. The film is also a musical and features many ice skating scenes. There are few other things that differ from the original story, such as Count Oga (villainous henchman of the Wicked Queen), a magic sword that transports the Stooges to various places and a carriage chase scene.

The comedy-horror-erotic adaptation of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Grimms Märchen von Lüsternen Pärchen (1969), presented Snow White among other characters of Grimm Tales. A pornographic version of Snow White was released in 1976 in the X-rated animated film Once Upon a Girl. 1979 pornochanchada adaptation Histórias Que Nossas Babás Não Contavam (Stories Our Nannies Don’t Tell) featured an Afro-Brazilian actress, Adele Fátima, as Snow White. However, Snow White was not named “White” (branca) but clara (a Brazilian racial term similar to fair skin). 1982 film Biancaneve & Co. is an adaptation of the fumetto Biancaneve by Leone Frollo. The film features the starlet Michela Miti as “Snow White”. Snow White story has also been made into a number of adult films. The most famous among these films is Biancaneve e i sette nani (1995) by Luca Damiano, starring Ludmilla Antonova.

The 1987 fantasy film Snow White (starring Diana Rigg as the Wicked Queen) was released direct to video using the Cannon Movie Tale logo. Other fantasy films were released in the series. It is currently avalible on Region 1 dvd from MGM.

The 1997 fantasy/horror film Snow White: A Tale Of Terror (starring Sigourney Weaver as the Stepmother and Monica Keena as Snow White) purports to be a more authentic adaptation of the original Grimm fairytale. It did not have seven dwarfs, but instead had seven miners. In 2001 another live action version was made for TV, called Snow White. This version changed the storyline to include several more magical elements such as demons.

Daddy’s Little Bit of Dresden China, a 1988 short film by British animator Karen Watson, uses the Snow White story as part of a story of child sexual abuse.

10th Kingdom, a short TV-series movie, was loosely based on Snow White, as well as many other fairy tales.

HBO’s Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child cast Snow White as White Snow, daughter of a native American chieftain.

There have also been a few anime adaptations of the story. Nippon Animation told the story of Snow White in three episodes of its 1987 TV series Grimm Meisaku Gekijo (released in English as Grimm’s Fairy Tale Classics). In 1994, the Tatsunoko animation studio adapted the story into a 52-episode TV series, Shirayuki-hime no Densetsu (“The Legend of Princess Snow White“), aired in Japan on NHK. Tatsunoko’s production incorporated several “prelude” episodes emphasizing the romance between Snow White and her prince before launching into the story proper.

Music

Snow White is referenced in the song “Waiting For Magic” from the Swedish pop group Ace of Base in their debut album, “Happy Nation”. The U.S. version of the album was titled “The Sign” and had a slightly different track listing. They referenced Snow White by singing, “Kiss me baby, I am Snow White sleeping in my coffin waiting for you.”

Snow White is referred to as a person or queen, with stalking and/or obsession overtones, in the song “Snow White Queen” on Evanescence’s album The Open Door. This is based on experience of Amy Lee, who once had to deal with a stalker. It is similar to how the prince in Disney’s version of Snow White fell in love with her at first sight when he heard her sing. After that he continued searching for her to no end, even though he never really knew her.

The character Snow White is also referenced in the metal band Xandria’s album Ravenheart, in the song “Snow-White”, which talkes about “snow white skin”, “lips as red as blood” and “ebony hair”.

In 2001, German rock band Rammstein’s music video Sonne borrowed elements from the Disney version of Snow White with the band members being portrayed as the Seven Dwarfs, while Snow White is portrayed as a gold addict.

Snow-White And Rose-Red

There is another Brothers Grimm tale called Snow-White and Rose-Red which also includes a character called Snow-White. However, this Snow-White is a completely separate character from the one found in this tale. The original German names are also different: Schneewittchen (the Princess) and Schneeweißchen (together with Rosenrot). There is actually no difference in the meaning (both mean “snow white”), but the first name is more influenced by the dialects of Low Saxon while the second one is the standard German version, demonstrating a class difference between the two Snow-Whites.^{[citation needed]}

The Twelve Wild Ducks

A Norwegian fairy tale The Twelve Wild Ducks has as its heroine the character “Snow-white and Rosy-red” who was born, like Snow-White, after her mother had wished for such a child.

However, the form of the wish was that she did not care what happened to her sons if she had such a daughter, and the tale is a variant of The Six Swans.

Trivia

The Simpsons character, Nelson Muntz is a Snow White fan. In the episode The Dad Who Knew Too Little, the bully is blackmailed by Private Detective Dexter Colt to steal a copy of Lisa Simpson’s book report on The Secret Garden. After the exchange, Nelson demands that Colt give back what belongs to Nelson. It turns out that it is a picture of him with Snow White.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Snow White

• Rose Red
• Operation Snow White
• Snow-White and Rose-Red
• Snow-White-Fire-Red is an Italian fairy tale.
• Snow-white (Fanuilos in Sindarin) is also an epithet of Elbereth in Tolkien’s legendarium
• Snow White Christmas
• Udea and her Seven Brothers
• The Hairy Man
• Water and Salt
• The Water of Life

References

1. ^ Terri Windling, “Snow, Glass, Apples: the story of Snow White“
2. ^ Heidi Anne Heiner, “Tales Similar to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs“
3. ^ Maria Tatar, The Hard Facts of the Grimms’ Fairy Tales, p36, ISBN 0-691-06722-8
4. ^ Maria Tatar, p 83, The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales, ISBN 0-393-05163-3
5. ^ Maria Tatar, The Annotated Brothers Grimm, p 242 W. W. Norton & company, London, New York, 2004 ISBN 0-393-05848-4
6. ^ Terri Windling, “Snow, Glass, Apples: the story of Snow White“

Further reading

• Grimm, Jacob and William, edited and translated by Stanley Appelbaum, Selected Folktales/Ausgewählte Märchen: A Dual-Language Book Dover Publications Inc. Mineola, New York. ISBN 0-486-42474-X

Theodor Ruf: Die Schöne aus dem Glassarg. Schneewittchens märchenhaftes und wirkliches Leben. Würzburg: Königshausen und Neumann, 1994 (absolutely reliable academic work)

from : wikipedia, the free encyclopedia