This essay is comparing shakespears "Romeo and Juliet" with the movie, "West Side Story".

Essay by xolyssxoJunior High, 9th grade January 2006

download word file, 3 pages 0.0

Downloaded 11 times

"West Side Story" is a modernized musical based on Shakespeare's play, "The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet", which takes place in Elizabethan times. Both of these stories have many similarities, but there are a lot of major differences as well. Both of these stories are about forbidden love shared between two characters of opposite sides. The tragic endings of these stories cause the two opposing sides to finally get along.

"The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet" is about two lovers from feuding families, the Montagues and Capulets. At the beginning of the play Romeo Montague is upset so he goes with his cousin Benvolio to a party. This is where Romeo meets Juliet Capulet, and they fall in love and secretly get married. The party is hosted by the Capulets and Romeo isn't welcome there, which makes Juliet's Cousin Tybalt angry. During one scene Tybalt wants to fight Romeo but he knows that Tybalt is Juliet's cousin and doesn't really want to hurt him.

When Tybalt kills Romeo's friend Mercutio, Romeo kills him which leads to his banishment. Juliet is upset about this at first, but forgives him because she knows that if Romeo didn't kill Tybalt, Tybalt would've killed him. The nurse, who knows about Romeo, says that Juliet should just forget about him since he is banished. Juliet and the Friar come up with a plan where she makes everyone believe she is dead and Romeo comes and saves her. A messenger is sent to tell Romeo about the plan, but he never gets the message and believes Juliet is actually dead, so he visits her grave and kills himself. When Juliet wakes up and realizes Romeo is dead, she kills herself as well. Paris was also there and tried to kill Romeo before...