The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story

In Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet the audience learns that love is both a creative and destructive force, through the deaths of two young and in love teens and those around them. The play starts out in Verona with a feud between two families, the Capulets, and the Montagues. Romeo is a Montague, while Juliet is a Capulet. Their relationship was doomed from the beginning and there are many deaths all leading up to the deaths of themselves.Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins’ West Side Story teaches us that everyone has control of their own life and to make the most out of it. This musical revolves around two brawling gangs, the American Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks. Tony, a former Jet sees Maria, a shark, at a dance, and they immediately fall in love. Soon after they meet everything goes wrong, and it leads up to the tragic death of one of the lovers. The West Side Story, directed by Jerome Robbins, adaptation of The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, contains many differences from the original play, including Juliet’s strength being portrayed differently, the replacement of family hatred for the hatred of peers, and the easing of the seriousness of their relationship.

In both the play and the movie, the female lead is portrayed as unbelievably strong, but this is shown in completely different ways. In The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet’s character develops strength through her love for Romeo, while in West Side Story Maria, the equivalent of Juliet, is strong from the very beginning. When questioned about marriage, Juliet first says, “I’ll look to like, if looking liking move. But no more deep will I end art mine eye than your consent gives strength to make fly.” (Shakespeare Ⅰ,ⅳ,103-1...

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...Juliet do what they did.

West Side Story is a modernized The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, with differences which add to the original story. The play and the musical compliment each other well, with one showing how love is both a creative and destructive force, and the other on showing how people should live their lives how they want to live them. The West Side Story adaptation of The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet contains many differences from the original play, including Juliet’s strength being portrayed differently, the replacement of family hatred for the hatred of peers, and the easing of the seriousness of their relationship.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Folger Digital Texts. Ed. Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine. Simon & Schuster, 2004. Web.

West Side Story. Dir. Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise. United Artists, 1961. Film.