A Garden of Forbidden Love

Savannah Tessier

Nic Helms

Project 2

Currents in Global Literature 

A Garden of Forbidden Love

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was first published in 1597, but is still one of the most well known plays today and is still being performed all over the globe. A newer adaptation of this play is the movie Gnomeo and Juliet which was released in 2011. Although this movie is based on the play, they still have many differences. In order to make the tragedy into a children’s movie they turned it into a musical, added many aspects of comedy, changed Romeo (Gnomeo) and Juliet’s family, in addition to many more alterations. Ultimately, the purpose of Gnomeo and Juliet is to simply entertain, whereas Romeo and Juliet paints themes that allow readers to think about deeper messages.

To begin, Romeo and Juliet is a Shakespearean play that describes the story of forbidden lovers from two feuding families, the Capulets and the Montagues, taking place in Verona, Italy. Romeo and Juliet meet at a masquerade ball and fall in love unaware they are from the families of their notorious enemies. They agree to marry and still fall in love quickly and deeply. The two are married in secret shortly after. Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt, invites Romeo to duel. Throughout the chaos Romeo’s friend, Mercutio, is killed. This then results in Tybalt being killed by Romeo and Romeo’s banishment from Verona. While this is occurring Juliet’s parents have arranged a marriage for her to a man named Paris, completely unaware of her marriage to Romeo. To avoid being put into an arranged marriage and go be with Romeo, Juliet receives a potion to make her seem dead for 42 hours. Unaware of Juliet’s plan Romeo believes Juliet is truly dead. In response he returns to Verona and consumes poison to commit suicide. When Juliet wakes from her coma-like state she finds Romeo dead and kills herself with a dagger. In light of the deaths of their children, the two families end their feud.

Although this tragedy has a bittersweet end, the deaths of Romeo and Juliet were necessary in showing the true psychology behind love. Helen Fish from Kinsey Institute,  Indiana University stated, “Love’s not like an addiction,” ‘It is an addiction. You think about your love and keep coming back for more.” (Taylor, 2021) Romeo and Juliet were so infatuated with each other, addicted to each other, they would rather die than experience a life without one another. Although on a daily basis people are not dying for the ones they love, the strong passion between Romeo and Juliet you can feel through the pages is relatable to anyone who has ever fallen in love, especially love during adolescence. Sadness is one of the strongest emotions and you must experience it in order to feel happy; that’s why having the obsession, love, sadness, and then resolution with the ending of the feud makes the original Romeo and Juliet more impactful.

Gnomeo and Juliet holds a similar plot to Romeo and Juliet, but all characters are in ceramic gnome form. Instead of the story taking place in Italy, it is set in the backyard of a duplex. One half of the backyard is a garden filled with gnomes with red hats, “the reds,” while the other side of the fence is all blue hatted gnomes. Gnomeo, a blue gnome, and Juliet, a red gnome, fall in love, despite their families’ feud. In the end what connects the two gnome families is when the parents believe both Gnomeo and Juliet have shattered, although they were protected by rubble (Funnily enough towards the end Gnomeo goes on a walk and finds a speaking statue of Shakespeare, who then tells him a story about two “doomed lovers”). Gnomeo’s best friend in this movie is named Benny instead of the original Mercutio. Another change added is Juliet only has a father and Gnomeo only has a mother. 

Although the movie Gnomeo and Juliet doesn’t involve any deaths, there are ways it tries to adjust to deaths to make it more family friendly while still sticking to the plot. Benny’s hat is broken by Tybalt which results in Tybalt shattering completely. This is equivalent to the fatal duel that occurs between Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt, and Romeo’s best friend, Mercutio, in Romeo and Juliet. There is a point in the movie where Gnomeo falls into the road and a teacup shatters behind him. Due to the teacup being blue everyone thinks Gnomeo is dead and leaves the scene. This is equivalent to Romeo’s death. 

Not having true death in the movie takes away from the possible range of emotions, although it was necessary to make the movie more kid friendly. By having non-traditional families it also made it more family friendly as well as it made the movie more about family, understanding each other’s differences, and friendship. Also adding music and humor is another example of how Gnomeo and Juliet is purely for entertainment purposes and not a true deep thought provoking piece, although you can still see the struggles of wanting to be who you are despite your family’s wishes, even though there isn’t any sadness to hammer the idea home. For children death isn’t necessary to feel that deep sadness.

A piece of literature very similar to Romeo and Juliet and Gnomeo and Juliet in different ways is Love Suicides at Amijima. In Love Suicides at Amijima, the main characters Jihei and Koharu fall madly in love. Love Suicides at Amijima paints a forbiden love just like in this movie and play, and having marital obligations but neglecting them to follow your heart and be with who you love. As Juliet was being put into an arranged marriage in the play and being put into a relationship in the movie (both with Paris), and Jihei was married to a man named Osan. Unlike Gnomeo and Juliet, Love Suicides at Amijima ends with tragedy as Jihei and Koharu kill themselves by drinking poison, similar to Juliet and Romeo. 

Both Juliet and Gnomeo, and Romeo and Juliet face family expectations and the need to uphold the perfect reputation for their families. They feel as though they can’t friendly communicate with someone their family is feuding with due to the social stigma their societies (whether it be cities or gardens) telling them anyone different is less than them. This theme is prevalent in Love Suicides at Amijima too with how Jihei was expected to preform her marital duties and not follow their heart. The stigma around Koharu’s profession is similar to the families’ feuds in Shakespeare’s play and the movie as there are stigmas around both families that almost keeps the lovers apart as well.

Choosing gnomes specifically instead of humans was a huge choice for this film. Of course when looking at it literally it is clear one is human and one is an inanimate object meant only for entertainment, however when analyzing more closely this choice holds a lot of meaning.  Both gnomes, Romeo, and Juliet held painted expressions in the way they could only be their true selves in private, in public they were expected to be perfect daughters and sons. Also similar to how the gnomes came alive when no human was watching… when allowed to be themselves with each other (alone) Juliet and Romeo came alive. Gnomes are also very fragile, like love. They’re easily broken just as easily as a heart is broken. If this film were to have been made with animated humans it would have just seemed like an uncreative, kid-friendly Romeo and Juliet which has been done. It would have made it difficult to put in aspects of music and comedy because things would have been taken more seriously. 

Although the movie Gnomeo and Juliet doesn’t have the emotional depth of the original Shakespeare play, it is still a funny, lighthearted movie that is worth watching. Not every piece is meant to have deep messages delivered depressingly and this movie is a great example of such. It didn’t stick to the plot one hundred percent, but due to the aspects of comedy, music, and animated adaptation, it wasn’t necessary. It took Shakespeare’s play and made it its own. No matter what city, family, or garden you’re from, love is love and both Romeo and Juliet and Gnomeo and Juliet paint that beautifully. 

Sources

Gnomeo & Juliet Facts for Kids. (2011, January 23). https://kids.kiddle.co/Gnomeo_%26_Juliet

Gnomeo and Juliet. Stream Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Nat Geo. (n.d.). https://www.disneyplus.com/video/6dbc3aab-14c9-446a-adac-fb77b270fe81

Romeo and Juliet – entire play. Folger Shakespeare Library. (n.d.). https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/romeo-and-juliet/read/

Stage history: Romeo and Juliet. Royal Shakespeare Company. (n.d.). https://www.rsc.org.uk/romeo-and-juliet/about-the-play/stage-history

Shinjū Ten-no Amijima. (n.d.). The love suicide at Amijima . https://www.yorku.ca/inpar/amijima_miyamori.pdfTaylor, S. (2021, March 22). Romeo, Juliet and the Science of Love | Psychology Today. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/you-me-psychology/202103/romeo-juliet-and-the-science-love