Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
romeo historical criticism
romeo historical criticism
romeo historical criticism
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: romeo historical criticism
Compare and Contrast of the Love Stories
Setting: Romeo and Juliet was set around 1954 which was Shakespeare's time period and was set in the city of Verona, Italy. Wheras West Side Story is set in the 1950's New York City where gangs were abundant. Pyramus and Thisbe was set in Ancient Greece.
Plot: The plots are very much the same but are slightly altered to fit the time period that they were set in. One example of this is the names of Romeo and Juliet vs the other two plays. Juliet, Maria, and Thisbe one could see that the characters were from different periods. The Hispanic name Maria symbolizes the great influx of Puerto Rican immigrants into NYC. Romeo and Juliet and Pyramus and Thisbe are more closely related, because of the conflict between these two plays is between the two true families. Whereas in West Side Story the two main lovers Tony and Maria there only known families are their gang families.
Main Male Characters: Tony, Romeo and Pyramus all die in the end. Tony dies at the hands of Bernardo. Romeo dies at the hands of Tybalt. And Pyramus is banished because he accidentally killed his wife. So in the end all the main male characters are in a sense, gone.
Main Female Characters: Maria, Juliet and Thisbe. Although not all of them die they do play a role in the storyline of the play. They all are in a relationship ship with their respective male characters. Maria shows a role in that she is the love interest of Tony. When Tony dies she is not so stricken to the point to where she wants to kill herself, although it does not show it in the play the reader would be safe to assume that she goes on with her life. Juliet on the other hand is so stricken that she kills herself over he fallen lovers body. In Pyramus and Thisbe, Pyramus accidentally killed Thisbe. Thisbe heard from an unreliable source that Pyramus was cheating on her. She went to were Pyramus lay and rustled the bushes. Pyramus thinking it was a wild animal shot into the bush killing his wife. My theory on why Maria can get over Tony and Juliet cannot get over Romeo was the fact that Juliet and Romeo were kept apart by family ties: Juliet a Capulet and Romeo a Montegue. Blood ties are what families are all about and they tend to be very strong.
West Side Story is the story of two lovers from rival gangs who cannot be together. This musical was heavily inspired by William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The music was a combination of jazz, pop, and classical which was influenced by Aaron Copland, which was Leonard Bernstein's friend. This
In plays, as in real life, individuals’ actions can change the course of events in theirs, as well as, other individuals’ lives. In both Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story, the lovers were forced to take their own lives or be killed because of fate and the actions of others.
(CLOSING STATEMENTS) With his audacious nature, Romeo kills Tybalt in a challenge and later kills himself, which causes significant problems in the plot. Unfortunately, as a result of Romeo’s actions, Juliet stabs herself with his dagger because she no longer wants to live in a world without him. Along with Romeo, Mercutio is another character who makes poor decisions based on his overdramatic personality and tendency to disagree with Benvolio's way of thinking. These two choices cause characters around Mercutio to not take him seriously, and for this reason, he later dies in the play. Although Mercutio’s actions impact the storyline, Friar Laurence’s choices primarily cause the play to become such a tragedy. For instance, his poor decisions to marry Romeo and Juliet and flee Juliet’s tomb eventually cause the couple’s love for one another to become inseparable, and they take their lives at the end of the plot. (CLINCHER) As the readers delve deeper into Romeo and Juliet and unravel what went wrong, they will begin to realize that the decisions made by the characters created catastrophic
The musical West Side Story is based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. This musical was possible due to the efforts of four people, Leonard Bernstein, the composer, Jerome Robbins, the director and choreographer, Arthur Laurents, the playwright, and Stephen Sondheim, the lyricist. After Rodgers and Hammerstein II’s Oklahoma! , West Side Story is considered as the most significant musical.
The romantic tension between Romeo and Juliet and Tony and Maria in Shakespears original play and its modern day remake, Westside Story, is what makes them have such passionate and entrancing scenes. The main reason for romantic tension in these two plays is because the two couples can’t be together like they want to be. There are many different aspects that create different quality of romantic tension in these two scenes. Although the two plays have similar plots, the romantic tension between the two lovers is very different because of the setting, the language and the circumstances in which the lovers face.
West Side Story, a film directed by Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise, is a relatively modern adaptation of William Shakespeare 's Romeo and Juliet. As both, the film and text, explore the perceptions of deep-rooted feud between two parties, it also includes the influence and pressure it has on young love. Although numerous similarities are encountered throughout the play and movie, there are distinguished concepts obtaining great difference. However, the two mediums of this tragic love story have three prominent issues of story, themes and characters instilling both similar and dissimilar concepts.
Paramount aspect of the movie and the play, the theme, were the same, and the overall messages in both were the same. For example, one main message in the stories was that love conquers all. This was demonstrated in both the play and the film when Romeo and Juliet kept secretly meeting each other even though they knew it was against their families’ wishes. In one scene of both the movie and the play Romeo and Juliet even got married and died together so that even if they could not be together on earth they would be together in death. Another message you learn from watching the movie and the play was that fighting solves nothing. In the play, when the two feuding families, the Montague’s and the Caplets, find their children dead they resolve their differences and agree to build a gold statue of Romeo and Juliet made out of gold after they state that their fighting only brought suffering. In the movie, although the families didn’t make up, you can infer that it was if the families and not been fighting that Romeo and Juliet would not have killed themselves, because they would not have to meet in secret and have Friar Lawrence devise a complicated plan so they could be together without their parents knowledge .
The settings of Romeo and Juliet and The Fault in Our Stars are completely different. Romeo and Juliet’s setting takes place during the Renaissance or the fourteenth century; that is the reason behind the play’s unusual word choice. The setting is set in Verona and Mantua, or Northern Italy. The Fault in Our Stars was around 2012 or when the book was published. In the book, the setting is based mostly in Indianapolis, however the trip to
Romeo and Juliet, the tale abhorred by all high school students. The archaic language, the sappy love story – it’s no wonder that a chorus of groans occur whenever the name Shakespeare is uttered. The main characters in Romeo in Juliet are unsurprisingly Romeo and Juliet – the star-crossed lovers. Romeo and Juliet are lovers whose families are engaged in a feud for many tears. Despite this, their love flourishes. However, the pay still concludes in a tragedy, because of the character’s flaws. In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo’s desperation and impulsiveness, Juliet’s maturity and rebellion, and Tybalt’s cockiness and aggression.
...and Juliet, when they marry, must marry secretly because of the feud. However, Maria and Tony do not marry, although they do perform a mock wedding. Another example of a difference is that Anita purposely tells the Jets that Maria is dead because of her hatred for them. But when Balthasar tells Romeo that Juliet is dead, he does it without knowing that it isn’t true. The last major difference between the two works is the death of the heroine. Juliet kills herself because she knows that her Romeo is dead and she cannot live without him. However, Maria is left alive at the end of West Side Story. It is almost as though she does not die so that she can accuse society of its prejudicial attitude against the Puerto Ricans and reveal everyone’s role in her and Tony’s love story.
Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story share many similar themes. Romeo and Juliet both chronicle a story of overcoming prejudice and hatred, forbidden love, and defying stereotypes that nobody thought could be broken. The two stories are similar in a multitude of ways, even though their settings are centuries apart- Romeo and Juliet set in the 1500’s, and West Side Story set in the 1950’s. Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story both teach a lesson of how prejudice can teach you how to hate, and how one of your rivals may be the one who helps you remember how to love.
Instead of bloody fights, the movie puts in dance and singing scenes. The characters are also different because some of them are in relationships, while others even completely change their role. For example Bernardo is Maria’s brother in the story, while in the original play Tybalt plays her cousin. The nurse is also not in a relationship with anyone, while Anita is in a relationship with Bernardo and that fact drastically changes the storyline. Maria and Juliet are very different. While Maria is poor and has a job, Juliet is rich and is not employed. Towards the end of the original play Juliet kills herself after Romeo dies, but Maria doesn’t. Tony and Romeo also show quite a difference in character. Tony is a leader of a gang and poor, while Romeo is rich and married. In the end Romeo kills himself, while Tony is running away from Chino. Chino is similar to Paris in Romeo and Juliet, but a little different because Paris got killed by Romeo, while Chino slew Tony. Friar Laurence and the Doc are different in many ways.The Doc does not get very involved in their relationship, while Friar Laurence made some of the most important decisions in the story. West Side Story’s setting is set in the Upper West side of New York City in the late 1950s, while Romeo and Juliet is set mostly in Verona and Mantua, Italy. The musical is mostly set on the
Young love; a questionable topic since the early days of mankind. Even after centuries have passed, many still wonder whether it is considered true love or just plain lust. This mystery reincarnates itself through Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The question that arises in this tragic love story of young, supposedly star-crossed lovers is who is to be truly blamed for their deaths within the first two acts? With a story as complex as this one, the blame can fall on various characters. However, the most evident characters to take the fall are Benvolio, Romeo and Friar Lawrence.
Love is a beautiful thing, it always works out in the end. Everyone is always happy and no problems occur. West Side Story, a musical by Leonard Bornstein based on Shakespeare 's Romeo and Juliet parallels a love story of two star-crossed lovers. The play takes place in 1961 in New York City. This musical displays importance because it shows that nothing can overcome the power of love. This play is based on a love story between the main characters of Maria and Tony. Theses two are from different gangs that trouble to get along. They are from different gangs that do not get along at all. Roughly two hundred blocks make up Manhattan’s West Side, which stretches from Central Park West to the Hudson River. For the most part, the street youths
West Side Story came out in 1961 as a melodramatic musical that took place in New York. It takes the same theme as Shakespeare's, Romeo and Juliet, in that it is about two lovers whose relationship is not accepted by others because of conflicting backgrounds.