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Shakespeare in Love rests on the assumption that Romeo and Juliet, one of the most famous plays written by William Shakespeare, is based upon a true love that a young Shakespeare must have experienced and tries to reconstruct this. The reconstruction process however, rather faithfully follows the plot and episodes of the original Romeo and Juliet. Therefore, it can be safely said that Shakespeare in Love is a curious mixture of fiction and reality in the overall fiction of the film. While the film describes Shakespeare's love as if it were a period piece, it also includes the paradoxical relationship between fiction and reality; it presents the very process of composition and the first production of Romeo and Juliet, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, deals with the question of whether real love can be presented on stage. The final conclusion is that fiction is no different from reality, and that fictional love can also be true love. The central figure throughout the film, presenting all of the important theme and both posing and answering questions, is, of course, William Shakespeare himself. It is to him that Shakespeare in Love is a rare and worthy credit. |
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