Representations of fate in cinema adaptations of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

The aim of the thesis is to provide an overview of the way faith is represented in three cinema adaptations of Romeo and Juliet. Fate is the key element both in the original play and the adaptations as well. Focus will be put on Ugo Falena‟s Romeo e Giulietta (1912), Franco Zeffirelli‟s Romeo and Juliet (1968) and Baz Luhrmann‟s Romeo+Juliet (1996). Foreshadowing of fate is represented in the scenes, the characters and even in the music differently, as the representation of fate is affected by the directors‟ attitude, the technique and the era, when the adaptations were made. I examine adaptation theories, film history and their relations to Shakespeare studies in the second chapter. With the help of these studies I describe how fate is represented in the adaptations. In the third chapter I focus on the characteristic features of the films and the historical background, the characters, the scenes, the music and the tools which influence the way in which the plot approaches the tragic ending. In the conclusion I describe that the adaptations reflect the representation of fate differently through their own lenses. The different way of representing fate derives from emphasising certain characters, scenes or a kind of technique in the three films.