영화 『사랑에 빠진 셰익스피어』의 사실과 허구

Abstract

In Shakespeare in Love, Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard succeeded in giving us an image of William Shakespeare. In this movie we see Shakespeare as a young man, walking briskly in the London theatre world. He has to finish the writing of several plays but he cannot write. One day, there is an audition for Romeo and Juliet. A young boy-actor recites some of his beautiful passages, pulling Shakespeare's attention. This disguised actor proves a beautiful girl who wishes to get a part in the play. They fall in love and Shakespeare regains the creative power to write. The mystery of love is the origin of imagination. In this screenplay, Norman and Stoppard have adopted both historical facts and pure fictions. Shakespeare's romances with Rosaline or Viola de Lesseps are no other but fictions which their composers have borrowed from Romeo and Juliet and The Twelfth Night. Nevertheless, in order to create their probability, Norman and Stoppard gather together a lot of contemporary people around the theatre, including Richard Burbage and Queen Elizabeth I. "London, Summer 1593" was absolutely remarkable setting for the movie as it was the year when Christopher Marlowe was killed in a tavern. The elaborate mixup of facts and fictions, Shakespeare in Love creates an illusion to the movie goers that William Shakespeare was not only a great poet but also a great lover. The poet, who drew a fat knight "falling in love" in The Merry Wives in Windsor, is himself falling in love in this screenplay.