West Side Story Compared to Romeo and Juliet

The Tragic Story of the death of two teen star crossed lovers. Romeo and Juliet are two teens in love who are put death by nothing but their fate and their long lasting family feud. Even though Romeo and Juliet committed suicide, their untimely deaths are ultimately caused by Fate and the feud.

The play ‘Romeo and Juliet' is about two families who have been fighting for years. When Romeo falls in love with Juliet and Juliet falls in love with Romeo, there are many consequences, including the deaths of a member of each family – Mercutio and Tybalt.

     The plot sequences are also different in West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet. Prince Escalius is completely neutral about the Capulet and Montague brawls as well as all public disputes. He is the voice of reason in their turmoil, and serves as the peacemaker. Lieutenant Schrank, although he tries to stop the brawl, is more biased towards the Jets. His prejudice almost permits the brawl to go on, and the Jets certainly take the hint. Romeo and Juliet marry each other secretly, and that in itself binds them together. It was because that Juliet couldn’t marry Paris for fear of bigamy that she had to go to Friar Lawrence for help. This ultimately led to both protagonists' death. Tony and Maria never

A Comparison of Scenes From West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet Cinematography The scene before the meeting scene in West Side Story Maria spins around in her dress the camera then carries on spinning which creates a colourful blurred effect on the screen. The effect makes her look like she is almost spinning into the next scene. When Tony and Maria meet, all the other characters that were dancing, slow down and fade behind Tony and Maria. The room becomes dark and there is a spotlight on Maria and Tony.

The film and play Romeo and Juliet has a similar story line to West Side Story. However this story is based in Verona, Italy and the rivals are not gangs but families, the Capilates

The magnificently written Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare is a tragic tale about lust and love, and the lovers take their own lives. The tale takes place in a Italian city called Verona were two rival family are in a dispute against which house is superior, but out of this, two destined lovers found each other and fell in love. But in thinking too fast their plan gets crushed and turns into something far more depressing then it should have been.

Romeo and Juliet shared a secret, forbidden love, much like Tony and Maria’s. The Montagues and the Capulets- both sophisticated, wealthy families would have been driven mad to hear that their children had fallen in love, and had plans to marry secretly and run away together. The jets and sharks- two street gangs- would quite literally kill one another upon finding out about Tony and Maria’s short-lived romance. Neither of the groups wanted for the two to fall in love- whether it was because of a family hatred traced back for generations or because of a simple dispute over the street- their love way truly forbidden. When their love was discovered, there was a sense of betrayal, that by loving their enemies they were destroying their allies within their own groups. The gang members of West Side Story felt as if they had to get revenge for the death of their leader- and that led to more killing. Revenge became a common denominator in both

Love is a universal truth that is portrayed similarly in both Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story. Two members of warring groups fall in love. Love is something that we can all relate to in one way or another and it will never change over time. In Romeo and Juliet both Romeo and Juliet have such a strong love for each other that they both commit suicide when the other dies. In West Side Story, Tony and Maria talk of running away and they have such a strong love that they believe that they can end the hatred with their love.

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 by William Shakespeare is a tragic love story. The story concerns the love between two young people, Romeo and Juliet. This is set against a feud between their two families: the Montagues and the Capulets. This feud develops the themes of conflict, deception and dignity in the play. The play includes a lot of themes, love, family, hate, deception and revenge.

In the novel West Side Story, by Arthur Laurents, we see a forbidden love. This forbidden love consists of Tony (an ex jet) and Maria (the sister to the leader of the sharks). This love story is doomed from the beginning as Tony and Maria come for two completely ethnic backgrounds that can not stand each other. This story of romance would ultimately end as tragically as we would all suspect. Riff (Tony’s best friend) is killed by a stab wound to the chest, Bernardo (Maria’s brother) is killed by Tony and Tony ultimately meets his fate when a bullet strikes him in the back. There has been many modern stories similar to the one above but the movie Gnomeo and Juliet from 2013 is the best comparison to the novel. As in the West Side Story,

Romeo and Juliet is a timeless story about two ill-fated lovers. Originally written by, Shakespeare, this story has been adapted by different directors who all commonly try to add their own unique twist to it. Two of the most prevalent adaptations of Romeo and Juliet have been done by Franco Zeffirelli and Baz Luhrmann, who have taken this love story to the big screen. Franco Zeffirelli’s movie, which was produced in 1968, is extremely authentic and stays true to Shakespeare's vision, whereas, Baz Luhrmann’s version produced in 1996, is contemporary and appeals more to younger audiences. There are various differences and a couple of similarities between Zeffirelli’s and Luhrmann’s movie versions such as the costumes, their interpretations of

Romeo and Juliet is a timeless literary work written by William Shakespeare in 1596. Many people have heard of this famous play, but what many do not know is it was based on another literary work. Shakespeare used Arthur Brooke’s The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet, published just a few decades earlier, as his inspiration; and yes, that is really how the title is spelled (Gottlieb, 2001).

West Side Story maintains Romeo and Juliet’s intricate and exciting plot using appropriate adaptations to accommodate mid-twentieth-century pop culture. For instance, both artistic forms portray mutual disrespect between the parties. At the dawn of Romeo and Juliet, Capulet’s cohorts harass Montague’s. "I will bite my thumb at them; which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it," boasts Sampson (1.1.42-43). In the opening scene of West Side Story, several members of a Puerto Rican gang insult A-rab, a member of the opposing gang. It is here where Lieutenant Schrank becomes aware of the potential rumble.

Although the discrepancies between Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story are too frequent to categorize in such limited space, it is impossible for anyone familiar with both texts to not notice the obvious similarities between the two works ("Theme").  From the opening scenes in both, up through the rumble in West Side Story/death of Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, the plays mirror each other (Poelstra).  It isn't until the last part of West Side Story, where Tony (our modern-day Romeo) dies and Maria (Tony's Juliet) doesn't (unlike the two star-crossed lovers of Shakespeare's work, both of whom perish), that the major difference between the two works becomes apparent.