West Side story and romeo and juliet are different in many ways

Essay by sean faganJunior High, 9th grade April 1997

download word file, 2 pages 3.9

WEST SIDE STORY IS DIFFERENT FROM ROMEO AND JULIET IN MANY WAYS

Laurence's West Side story is an apparition of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet differ in many ways. Romeo and Juliet is set in Verona in about 1594. West Side Story takes in New York City in 1957. Tony is the modern character of Romeo and Maria is the modern character of Juliet. In the two tragedies the major conflict is two opposing families, or gangs, do not agree of the relationship of their child. This conflict was resolved in a very tragic manner, one of the two couples killed themselves the other couple just one got killed. When the death of the persons happened is brought the two foes together. West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet is indeed different in many ways.

Three incidents show Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story differs from one another.

The first thing shows the difference between Maria and Juliet, and Romeo and Tony. When Juliet finds that her lover Romeo is dead Juliet kills herself. Maria does not kill herself but instead she puts her sadness into treating the two gangs with a gun. When Romeo finds Juliet supposedly dead he drinks poison to kill himself too. Chino killed Tony because Chino was in love with Maria but so was Tony. This is just one way that Romeo and Juliet differ from West Side Story.

Another way the two stories differ is the wealth of the two families, or gangs. At the beginning of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare describes the Montague's and the Capulet's houses. The size of the two houses shows how wealthy the families are. In West Side Story the author only tells about the Sharks dwelling. The Sharks live in an...