Now that you’ve read Romeo and Juliet, there is an interesting film that I would show you if we were meeting in person: it’s called Shakespeare in Love and is a fictional account of how Shakespeare came to write his most famous play (we don’t actually know anything about the real circumstances). It was released in 1998 and won 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and you should be able to access a copy quite easily if you want to do this extra credit project.
The screenplay was written by Tom Stoppard, probably the foremost living English playwright and, like Shakespeare himself, he made the film enjoyable for various levels of society by inserting references that only scholars would appreciate amidst the romance and action. For up to 15 points extra credit, watch the movie and then send me an email answering these questions:
1) our study notes have discussed the fact that during the Renaissance a merchant class had arisen that sometimes was wealthier than the established aristocrats… in fact, many aristocrats were struggling financially. How does Stoppard write these class tensions into the story?
2) in his early career, Shakespeare’s main rival was a playwright called Christopher (“Kit”) Marlowe; Marlowe’s success was cut short by his death in a bar fight, and that allowed Shakespeare to achieve greater prominence. How is this fact used to move the Shakespeare in Love story along?
3) in Romeo and Juliet, Romeo is fixated on a girl named Rosaline, until he meets Juliet… how might Shakespeare have come up with the name “Rosaline,” according to this movie?
4) after Shakespeare’s career ended, a playwright called John Webster achieved fame — his plays were rather sordid and vulgar and are not much admired today. What witty reference is made to “John Webster” by the Shakespeare in Love script?
5) Shakespeare’s early career was limited by the fact that he couldn’t afford to pay the fifty-pound fee that would have allowed him to become a full-fledged member of a troupe and devote all his time to writing. It is known that he suddenly became able to pay the fee, but no one knows how — what story element does Stoppard invent to explain how Shakespeare got the money?
