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Comparing Romeo And Juliet And West Side Stories

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Comparing Romeo And Juliet And West Side Stories
The two stories, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, and West Side Story by Arthur
Lourents, are two passionate love stories who focus on the themes, love and conflict. The two texts are about lovers who are not allowed to be together but do so on the down low, and the forbidden relationships spark deaths of people close to their hearts.
Throughout the story Romeo and Juliet find themselves consumed by love, and the forbidden love caused violent events to occur. Romeo falls in love with Juliet quickly, he says, “ He speaks.
O speak again, bright angel, for thou art as glorious to this night, being o’ver my head, as is a winged messenger of heaven unto the white-unturned wond’ring eyes of mortals that fall back to gaze on him when he bestrides
…show more content…
The prologue states, ‘Two households, both alike in dignity (In fair
Verona, where we lay our scene), from ancient grudge to break new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.’ This Means that two equally respected families have been feuding for many years in the city of Verona, as a result of the two families arguing, innocent people are being harmed. This shows that Romeo and Juliet is a story about love and conflict.
West side story is a urban story a lot like Romeo and Juliet, with two lovers who are apart of rival gangs. Tony, the Romeo of the story, loses himself in a girl named Maria. In the text both of the lovers quote, “Today, the world was just an address A place for me to live in, no better than all right. But here you are And what was just a world is a star!”, this shows that Tony and Maria are two star stuck lovers. Maria states a the end of the film, “All of you! You all killed him! And my brother, and Riff. Not with bullets, or guns, with hate. Well now I can kill, too, because now I have hate!” Maria says this when Tony is killed, this quote is a lot like the one that Romeo said to Tybalt before Romeo took Tybalt’s life. The tale of the West Side Story is a take of the original

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