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Romeo And Juliet And West Side Story Are Both Iconic, Enjoyable

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Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story are both iconic, enjoyable stories that most people have heard of. Romeo and Juliet was written much earlier than West Side Story was, however it was still based on older Italian stories. These stories can teach us a lot about our daily lives and how we live them. In order to do this though, we have to make other comparisons throughout the story first. So, let’s dive in and analyze the differences between the stories, their origins, and their authors. Romeo and Juliet was written by William Shakespeare, a famous actor and playwright. William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, near Stratford. Shakespeare is considered the most famous writer by some, however there are some things we don’t know a…show more content…
There were a myriad of deaths in this story due to the tension between the families. In the end, both teenagers die in a graveyard after hiding their marriage from both families. The royal families decide to put fights aside and work out the tension after the Prince talks to both groups. This story was a very pleasant read for me, which I was not surprised to find out since I loved Macbeth by Shakespeare as well. I would recommend this story to anyone, not just individuals interested in teenage romance. West Side Story was written by Arthur Laurents, who was born on July 14, 1917, in Brooklyn, New York. He was a stage director, screenwriter, and playwright. Originally, he was a script writer for radio shows, and then took up the task of writing training films for the U.S. Army during World War II. After doing this, Laurents began writing for Broadway. He produced many works, including West Side Story. Arthur Laurents was born into a middle-class family with Jewish parents, his dad being a lawyer and his mother being a teacher. However, his mother gave up her job as a teacher when she got married. His grandparents from his mother’s side were atheists, so we can already start to see the differences between the two authors’ families. Arthur Laurents was originally born as Arthur Levine, but decided to change his last name because he thought it sounded too Jewish. He was afraid he would not be able to get a job with his original last name. West
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