Star Wars is one of the most mainstream and popular science fiction film series ever and have made George Lucas extremely wealthy from this franchise. There are parts of the Star Wars plot which link in with one of the greatest literary geniuses in history, William Shakespeare. One of William Shakespeare's greatest works Romeo & Juliet has themes that are borrowed by Lucas in his Star Wars movies.
One example can be how passion can cloud your rationality. Romeo Montague ignores the advice, warnings and sensibilities that he has been given and instead follows his passions in love (for Juliet) and hatred (for Tybalt); thus putting him on a path to destruction and tragedy. This is clearly seen too in Anakin Skywalker’s tragic downfall in Star Wars Episodes 2 and 3. Anakin’s passion for his secret wife, Padme, causes him to ignore his rational thoughts, becoming impulsive and dangerous; qualities that are tragically manipulated by the evil Emperor Palpatine.
Similarly, Lucas borrows Shakespeare’s Prince Escalus character from Romeo and Juliet and turns him into Yoda. The extremely wise (and old) Jedi shows similarities to the prince of Verona by making many quotes showing his view on the plot unfolding and foreshadowing what is going to occur:
Yoda: Afraid to lose her are you?
Anakin: What has that got to do with anything?
Yoda: Everything. Fear is the path to the Darkside, Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering, I sense much fear in you.”
Prince Escalus in the play Romeo and Juliet makes such a line when talking to the leaders of the Montague and the Capulet families “Canker'd with peace, to part your canker'd hate: If ever you disturb our streets again, Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.” These two quotes show direct links to both Star Wars and Romeo & Juliet these works both explore the theme of passion and how it stops people thinking rationally.
Nathan Fanning
Year 9