Romeo Juliet/West Side Story Essay, Research Paper

These stories are similar and different in many ways and they aren’t the only stories in the category of romance. Romeo and Juliet is a classic story of love, hate, and conflict. Same thing with West Side Story, the conflicts are a little different but the love part of the story is basically the same. If you were to watch West Side Story after you watch Romeo and Juliet you might even think it is some kind of a sequel or an updated version of the story.

In Romeo and Juliet, the love part of the story is obviously between Romeo and Juliet. Right off the bat, Romeo meets Juliet at a party and they are married right away. Although they are married they still have to keep quiet about the fact that they are married because of their feuding families. This love is stressed during the play by Juliet’s father arranging a marriage to Paris after she has already married Romeo secretly. This is extremely stressful on Romeo because he has been banished from Verona, where Juliet lives. So Romeo is left out in the cold while he has to leave it up to Juliet to get out of this arranged marriage. Later Romeo finds out that something has happened to Juliet but he is not sure exactly what. He finally finds out some information about Juliet, he and the rest of the world think that Juliet has died, but in reality she has just taken a powerful sleeping potion. So Romeo buys some poison so he can die and be with his Juliet. Right after Romeo drinks the poison Juliet wakes up. Romeo dies from the poison, then Juliet stabs herself with a dagger.

In the West Side Story, the love comes from the Jets leader, Tony. The Jets rival gang, the Sharks, has a leader named Bernardo. Bernardo’s sister, Maria, is the object of Tony’s affection. As you can see this is going to cause some problems. Since Tony and Maria are in different gangs and families, someone is going to have to give in to the other. While people from both gangs meet at the local drug store, Tony sneaks off to talk to Maria after the dance where they meet for the first time. After a few gang fights, Maria begs Tony to stop the fighting. Meanwhile both of the gangs set the date for an all out rumble. Right before the rumble starts, Tony comes rushing in to stop the fight for Maria. This enrages Bernardo, and he challenges Tony to a fight. In that fight Bernardo is stabbed and dies. Tony rushes back to Maria and she has already found out about her brothers’ death. A few days later some rumors are spread that Tony killed Maria. So one of the Sharks shoots Tony for killing Maria.

So in the West Side Story, the two people never get married. In Romeo and Juliet, they get married but they cannot tell anyone about their marriage. Also in Romeo and Juliet, there are no gangs but the two families that they come from are constantly fighting. In the West Side Story there is hardly any irony, if any at all. In Romeo and Juliet there is so much irony with the audience knowing so much more than the characters in the play. Like when Juliet has her marriage to Paris arranged nobody except Juliet and Romeo know that she is already married. Some of the similarities between these two stories are pretty obvious. In the West Side Story, the gang that each person is in represents the two families that Romeo and Juliet are part of. In both of the stories, the two people in love are willing to take the risk of being caught just to be together. One of the easiest similarities to spot is the whole story line. In both of the stories the two people who want to be together can’t and they just won’t have it any other way. Towards the end of both of the stories, it seems like everything that could go wrong does. In the West Side Story, Tony kills his girlfriend’s brother. Then a shark thinks that Tony killed another shark, so Tony is shot and killed. In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo thinks Juliet is dead so he drinks the poison to die with her, as soon as he does Juliet wakes up just in time to see him die. Then Juliet wants to be with him in heaven so she stabs herself with a dagger.

The extra characters in both of these stories plays an important part. In the West Side Story, the gangs add the main conflict and are a main part of the story. If the shark gang was not there, Tony would have never met Maria. In Romeo and Juliet the extra characters add conflict too. Like when Juliet’s father arranges her marriage to Paris, it adds another hassle for Juliet to work around. Also in Romeo and Juliet, the peasants from each family are constantly stirring up fights with each other, which is one of many problems Romeo has to deal with throughout the story.

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