Most people think Shakespeare was a creative genius.
We’re not going to argue with them. No doubt about it: Shakespeare was truly creative and original, but . . .
He stole most of his plots!
Yes, really. Most of Shakespeare’s plays were adaptations of older stories. An adaptation is a new version of something, often in a different form or genre. For example, when Hollywood makes a movie version of your favorite book (Twilight? The Hunger Games?), that movie is an adaptation of the story.
The catch? An adaptation will often change many things about the original story—and though it might make you mad to see your favorite things from the book changed (or completely missing), writers usually have a good reason for all the changes they make.
- Maybe that scene with lots of dialogue is just plain boring on the movie screen.
- Maybe the writers want to emphasize some themes (or “big ideas”) from the story over others—so they add new scenes and characters, or delete ones that don’t really help them emphasize the theme they’re going for.
Objective
In this lesson, you will compare Romeo and Juliet to a modern interpretation of the play.
Assignment
At the end of this lesson, you will complete a quiz.
Notebook
Review the graphic organizer before moving on. You will use it to record your notes as you progress through the lesson. Don't have Acrobat Reader? Use the RTF version here