Whose “Womanish Tears” Are These?: Performativity in (William Shakespeare’s) Romeo and/+ Juliet

Abstract

This paper examines the ways in which Baz Luhrmann’s William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet explores the gender concerns addressed in the original play. Luhrmann’s film picks up on the theme of performativity—a term that this paper uses in the manner of Judith Butler—that runs throughout Romeo and Juliet and foregrounds the ways in which Romeo and Juliet perform a feminine and masculine gender, respectively. Their first meeting in the text acts as the impetus for
a permanent performance; they are agents of change in each other’s lives. Romeo chooses a feminine performance to inhabit more fully the identity of the Petrarchan lover that he prefers, while Juliet enacts masculinity to gain more agency over her own life. Luhrmann takes this preoccupation of
the text and amplifies it in his film. His changes and casting choices also help to highlight the issues of performativity; Leonardo DiCaprio’s more feminine appearance and Claire Danes’s peculiar mix of naiveté and intelligence telegraph the message Luhrmann hopes to send. In addition,
Luhrmann chooses to make the families part of rival gangs who divide the city based on race and socioeconomic class. Juliet’s family is Hispanic, which adds another layer to her defiance of patriarchal values. In the past, the film has been dismissed by many scholars as “just a teen film,”
but it is clear that Luhrmann’s careful attention to the thematic concerns of the text demand are consideration of the film’s place in adaptation studies.