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In this essay I have been researching and will be discussing the different contexts of west side story. This will help me to critically comment on the portrayal of Romeo and Juliet through the use of dance. West Side Story is a modern-day version of Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet, west side story however is set in the Upper West Side of New York City in the late 1950s with conflict between two teenage rival street gangs of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds rather than Romeo and Juliet where there are two feuding families. The two stories parallel each other in many ways, for example, Romeo and Juliet starts out with a street fight between the Montagues and Capulets, so does west side story with the Jets and the Sharks, but instead of it being a fight, the choreographer changed it into a dance/choreographed fight, so you could see which gang was which. Another similar thing is when some Montague men go to the Capulet party, this is where Romeo meets Juliet. In West Side Story, Maria and Tony see each other from opposite sides of the dance and are immediately attracted to each other. Having Maria and tony meet at a dance was a theme related to the time in the 1950’s in America, it was a popular thing to have dance’s at schools.…
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"Romeo and Juliet" is a play written by William Shakespeare about love, friendship, and tragedy. The story is set in Verona, Italy where two people fall in love. However, the two lovers, Romeo and Juliet, are from families who despise each other. Romeo is dead-set on marrying Juliet, to the point where he'd do anything for her. This becomes a dangerous factor because he is also extremely impatient. Romeo's friend, Mercutio, has more of a level head which amplifies Romeo's flaws. Mercutio's realistic mindset highlights Romeo's dreamy, romantic thinking. Mercutio's common sense magnifies Romeo's impatience that ends up killing him in the end. The comparison of the two characters brings out the imperfections of our tragic hero, Romeo.…
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West Side Story is a very popular musical that follows the plot of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Instead of a feud between two families in fair Verona, in this story, it’s a feud between two gangs (the white American Jets and Puerto Rican Sharks) in New York City in the 50’s. Romeo is represented by Tony, an ex-Jet, and Juliet by Maria, a Puerto Rican girl promised to a member of the Sharks, Chino. For the most part, both versions match up on their telling of the story. However, whereas both Romeo and Juliet kill themselves over one another at the end of story, Tony is killed by Chino and Maria remains alive. What this iteration will attempt to understand is: why did the creators of West Side Story decide to veer from Shakespeare’s ending…
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The side characters in the story give life to Romeo and Juliet, and that the side characters determine the fate for Romeo and Juliet. “I pray thee, good Mercutio, let’s retire, the day is hot, the…
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Juliet finds Romeo supposedly dead, so she kills herself, and when Romeo finds Juliet dead he decides to also kill himself. In West Side Story on the other hand Maria goes about her life grieving and always being in pain after finding out that Tony was killed by Chino. This is a big difference in the plot, and is a key part in the way West Side Story is told compared to how Romeo and Juliet is presented.…
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When two people are meant to be together, no time is too long” (Anonymous). Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare and West Side Story by Arthur Laurents show the pure evils of acting extremely hastily and how it can change the outlook on the future. Romeo and Juliet are two young lovers who were taught to hate one another and who suffer deeply because of the consequences of fate. Romeo and Juliet’s deaths were sure to be tragic as was hinted at early on throughout the play. Both families suffer with the loss of their children as well as other family members. Maria and Tony are split from one another because of extreme violence, hatred, and the differences between their New York City gangs. Each of them uses their knowledge of the power of love in hopes of them being together forever. Choices both Maria and Tony made resulted in severe heartbreak, the death of three teenage peers in the gangs. Romeo and Juliet is controlled by fate, while West Side Story is driven by free will.…
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What would Romeo and Juliet be like if Juliet hadn't died? What if Paris killed Romeo, instead of vice versa? What if instead of occurring several centuries ago, it took place on the streets of New York City during the 1950s, with a bunch of fresh-faced youths posing as street toughs and dancing and singing their hearts out? Well, just take a look at West Side Story, and you will have your answers. It is impossible for anyone familiar with both texts to not note the obvious major similarities between the two plays. From the opening scenes in both, up through the rumble in West Side Story/death of Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, the plays mirror each other (Poelstra). It isn't until the last part of West Side Story, where Tony, our modern-day Romeo, dies and Maria, Tony's Juliet, doesn't (unlike the two star-crossed lovers of Shakespeare's work), that the major difference between the two works becomes apparent.…
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Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is considered to be one of the greatest love stories of all time. It is the tragic tale of two star crossed lovers; Romeo of the house of Montague and Juliet of the house of Capulet. Both houses have an ongoing feud with the other that had yet to be broken, until Romeo and Juliet fell desperately in love and were secretly married. Their relationship was doomed when Juliet’s cousin Tybalt and Romeo and his friend Mercutio ended up in a duel where Tybalt slayed Mercutio and Romeo Slayed Tybalt. In order to be together Juliet fakes her death and awaits Romeo to find her. Miscommunication occurs and in the end both lovers end up taking their own lives for love. Many adaptations of Shakespeare’s original story have been created but the most popular of that is West Side Story (music by Stephen Sondheim, Leonard Berstein and book by Arthur Laurents). In West Side Story we are introduced to two rival gangs; “the jets”( who are Caucasian) and ‘the Sharks” (who are immigrant Peurto Ricans). Both gangs are competing for power and control of the streets. Tony who is a retired Jet falls for Maria who is tied to “the Sharks”. Their love is instantaneous and would be rejected by all of society if anyone found out, so they keep it hidden. The two gangs decide to have on final rumble to determine the superior gang, however in the fight the two leaders end dying. Tony killed “the Sharks” leader and is forced to flee town, hopefully with Maria at his side. Before everything can work out Tony hears that Maria has been killed (which is not true) so he sets out to be killed himself. The play ends with Tony getting shot and dying in Maria’s arms. Both Romeo and Juilet and West Side Story have a lot in common as well as many differences. Although Maria and Juliet reflect each other in age and situation, there are many differences that give them unique distinction. West Side Story differs from Romeo and Juliet in personal…
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with his friends; two very different attitudes. The actions of these two are also very good examples of comparing and contrasting the similarities and differences between Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story. “What shall this speech be spoken for our excuse? Or shall we go on without apology?” (Lit Book) Romeo is very reluctant to go to the party, he is nervous and scared. On the contrary, Tony is happy and excited to go the party, he welcomes the challenge to meet new women. Last but not least both Rome and Tony are hopeless Romantics, and there is no cure for…
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“Westside Story” and “Romeo and Juliet” are both inspiring stories about two star-crossed lovers whose love is forbidden because of hatred between their groups, which leads to inevitable death. These two stories have an unquestionably wide range of similarities and differences as far as scenes and the characters that make the scenes differ or resemble to each other. The first and last scenes of “Romeo and Juliet” and “Westside Story” both resemble much similarities and differences to each other.…
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Tony, one of the main male characters, in West Side Story is similar to Romeo, the main male character in Romeo and Juliet. Maria in West Side Story is similar to Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. Juliet’s nurse is harassed when she tries to relay a message to Juliet just as Maria’s friend, Anita, is harassed when she tries to communicate with Tony. Even though Romeo and Juliet and Tony and Maria are partly responsible for their deaths, most of the blame can be put on other characters in both stories, as well as fate.…
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As for the mood, there a few differences between the two versions of the tragedy. In the dialogue of marriage in the play, Romeo and Juliet are serious and sedate. In Zeffirelli’s version of the play, the marriage scene makes Romeo and Juliet to look almost like fools of young love because they are constantly kissing and giggling. In a marriage, the bride and groom are to be calm and patient because it is an important step in their lives, and the play shows this kind of character. The movie does not portray this realistic kind of character. During the “funeral” ceremony for Juliet, the Friar Lawrence made a giggle because he already knew about the secret plan. This part destroyed the sad and mischievous mood of the scene. Nevertheless, I believe the play and Zeffirelli’s movie did a great job in explaining the tragedy, but the movie could have been a lot more enticing if it weren’t for those minor slip-ups. The play also could have used some help because it felt like the characters lacked some expression unlike the movie, but I cannot criticize which one was better because the play is the way it is to be. One thing that the movie and the play collaborated together, were the props and scenes.…
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"Romeo and Juliet" and "West Side Story" have similar, if not exactly the same theme. Both stories display the power of love and the destruction caused by hatred. In "Romeo and Juliet" two people from rival families fall in love. The families' hatred destroys the two lovers, and the love of the two lovers brings the two families together. But the two families learn their lesson a little bit too late. Their hatred already claimed the life of two innocent people. In "West Side Story" something similar happens. There are also two lovers in this story. The lovers were separated because of gang related violence. In this story, the violence between two gangs also caused death.…
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|The play begins with a fight between the rival | The play begins with a fight between rival gangs|…
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Baz Lurhman's modern film interpretation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet has been a very successful transformation of the classic, original play to a modern context of Los. Angelos gang warfare. Lurhman's film manages to relate the 16th century play to a modern audience while at the same time maintaining textual integrity of the play. He has retained the plot, and language of the original text at the same time as conveying Shakespeare's original thematic concerns of the purity of young love, and the dangers of family feud. He achieves all this through the clever use of a variety of film techniques in three key scenes; the Capulet ball, the balcony scene and the fight involving Mercutio, Tybalt and Romeo.…
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