Baz luhrmann keeps the spirit of Shakespeare alive in various ways such : keeping the texts the same,men dressing as women,including dramatic irony,pathetic fallacy and including religious symbols all of the points will be elaborated on.

Shakespeare and Baz luhrmann both use religious symbols to convey Romeo and Juliet’s relationship with their religion several times in this story and in the movie Baz luhrmann includes cuts of pictures of religious figures and Friar Lawrence had a the crucifix tattoo on his chest, lots of references were made towards god controlling their fate and misfortune such as (Act 3 scene 1 ;Romeo) “I am fortune’s fool” and when Romeo finds out that Juliet is allegedly dead head kneels down in a crucifix position and says “I defy you stars”. Baz luhrmann  keeps the spirit alive by using Shakespearean language but also adds a twist by putting it into modern context such as using guns instead of swords and knives and instead of Romeo bumping into the servant in the street he finds out that Lord Capulet is having a party which his original love interest Rosaline is going to be at.The movie also modernizes the play by changing the context of why the families are at war and who they are also it is a good adaptation because they are not just warring families they are now rival business owners that are both very wealthy (Prologue;Chorus) “two households both alike in dignity in fair Verona where we lay our scene”.

I fear too early,for my mind misgives some consequence yet hanging in the stars shall bitterly begin his fearful date with this night’s revels,and expire the term.Of a despised life clos’d in my breast,By some vile forfeit of untimely death.
But He hath the steerage of my course Direct my sail!,On lusty gentleman.

Fate is a very important in Romeo and Juliet In this extract Romeo talks about how he fears he may get to the party too early but he more importantly thinks that his fate had already been chosen by god “consequence yet hanging in the stars”.He feels that when this party is over it will lead to his”untimely death” this contributes to the idea of fate Romeo says that “he hath the steerage of my course direct my sail!” He is referring to god as a metaphorical sailor directing a boat and that boat is Romeo and this means that he wants god to choose his destiny and he will be satisfied with his fate.Fate and coincidence are two of the most important themes in Romeo and Juliet, and neither of them could be avoided.The Prologue states that they take their lives (Prologue;Chorus) “two star cross’d lovers take their lives”  The chorus also summarises the story with it ultimately leading to the death of Romeo and Juliet and although they tried to avoid each other fate brings them together, this is shown in many parts of the play the most important is Lord Capulet’s servant approaching Romeo Montague (their rival family) to help him read the party invites list which ends in the servant inviting Romeo to the party without knowing he was the enemy of his master.

Shakespeare’s version couldn’t portray some parts of the play like the film did such as some pathetic fallacy when the sky gets cloudy and dark when the Capulets and Montagues are about to fight the effects used made it easier to see and still kept the Shakespearean factors in this specific scene. Another aspect the movie dealt with very well was Dramatic irony when Juliet drinks the potion Friar Lawrence give her to appear dead to her family Juliet leaves the potion on the bed and Friar Lawrence sees it and picks it up. Another time where dramatic irony is used is when Friar Lawrence and Juliet comes up with a plan to make her seem dead and sends a courier to Mantua, where Romeo was banished to for killing Tybalt, the courier has a letter for Romeo telling what the plan was, the courier knocked on the door but Romeo didn’t hear because he was cutting wood behind his house so he left the letter on the door but it fell off and got covered by sand and dirt so Romeo didn’t know what the plan was so when his friend Balthazar came to visit him and told him Juliet was dead he thought she really was.