Differences Between Laurence

’s West Side Story And Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet Essay, Research Paper

Differences Between Laurence’s West Side Story and Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

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 apartment which shows that the Sharks

are not wealthy. The Sharks and the Jets are very poor compared to the

Capulets” and the Montagues’.

Swords were used in Romeo and Juliet and guns were used in West Side

Story. The reason guns were used in West Side Story was to make the story more

modern. Swords were really used in the time of Romeo and Juliet. These are just

a few ways that Romeo and Juliet differ from West Side Story.

In conclusion Romeo and Juliet are different from West Side Story in

many ways. They are different from the characters to the time the two stories

took place. Because West Side Story is more modern than Romeo and Juliet, it

must be a little different for the story sound good.