Romeo And Juliet Vs West Side Story

Over the years, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has become the basis for many modern romances. West Side Story is such an example, branching off of the original story of Romeo and Juliet to create an original storyline with many major differences. A recurring theme in each of these works is the blindness that love can create. Through secret and public meetings to murdering relatives and ongoing familial feuds, the main couple’s love outlasted it all, even though it was sightless. Paths taken in these two stories were clouded by love and major divergences still brought their stories to a close, each ending with a death, no matter the route taken. The first instance of difference leading to a similar outcome was the moment that started off each

Romeo did just that, showing up at the Capulet’s masquerade, even if he was a Montague. Tybalt directly sought out an audience with Mercutio, a friend of Romeo’s. He purposely instigated a fight while the Montague most definitely did not want to, and it resulted with the deaths of both Tybalt and Mercutio. Juliet forgave him just about instantly, forgetting her cousin’s murder for her husband’s survival, proving how blind love can make someone. “Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?/But wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my husband?/That villian cousin would have killed my husband.” (3.2.97.100-101) In the gang fight, Bernardo and Riff were ultimately killed. Bernardo, Maria’s brother, was killed by her lover. Afterwards, she was much more bitter towards her partner, as she was close to her brother and unsure whether to forgive Tony or to leave him. She forgave him in the end, leading to one last punishment, seemingly from fate, as one last death would destroy both of the females in these storylines. Without realizing, their love had stopped the most simple of thoughts from occuring, “Why”? This direct blindness coupled by their forgiveness unknowingly brought doom upon their lives, and the male coming back to them would cause irreversible effects. One last event secured their end, as the families and gangs gathered up for to avenge or to