Romeo And Juliet Comparative Essay

In the novel West Side Story by Irving Shulman and the novel Romeo and Juliet by William Skakespear, both have a developing theme of forbidden love between the main characters Tony and Maria and Romeo and Juliet. Here in both of the tragedies, the main characters fall in love with each other's rival gang. As well as the desire to be with one another leads to consequences faced by the division of gangs.In both of these stories, we get to see a forbidden love that leads to tragedy, division between rival gangs, and finally the reconciliation of both sides after the death (deaths) of the main characters, which brings peace. parallel structure of the characters' journey. In West Side Story, Maria and Tony fall in love, meeting in a dance party,

In other words, the Jets and the Sharks have been long-standing rivals and are in constant battle with each other. This is important because Tony and Maria are from rival gangs which will come in between their relationship. As one can see, their love will not be accepted because of the differences between gangs. Similarly, in Romeo and Juliet there has been a long-standing feud between Romeo's gang, the Montagues, and Juliet's family, the Capulets. For example, in the prologue it states, Romeo is a Montague, and Juliet a Capulet, their families have been enmeshed in a feud (Synopis). In other words, Romeo and Juliet belong to different rival gangs. This is important because the rivalry between the two gangs will have a big effect on their relationship as they are always at constant bickering with each other. As one can see, both families will not approve of their relationship because they are long-standing rivals. To continue towards the end of West side story, Tony meets his fate of being shot by Chino, Maria's arranged husband in order to bring Maria’s brother to

For instance, in scene 6 The two jets and sharks lift up Tony's body and start to carry him out,(pg120).That is to say after witnessing the killing of Bernardo, Riff, and Tony the sharks and the Jets carried Tony's body as a sign to stop the violence. This is important because after seeing so many lives go to waste, both gangs attempted to get along and make peace by carrying Tony's body. As one can see, both the sharks and the jets realized how much their difference caused a lot of violence to both sides and carrying Tony's body was an act of peace. In the end Tony and Maria's love ended in tragedy but what came after was peace on both sides, their relationship was needed in order to solve their differences on both sides. Their forbidden love ended in tragedy, but resolved their issues. Similarly, in Romeo and Juliet, their love ended in tragedy after they both committed suicide, their families come to a reconciliation after the friar blamed their parents for their children's deaths. For example, on.. it states, A gloomy peace this morning brings, (last page). After hearing the news of Romeo and Juliet, both the Capulets and Montages decide to reconcile with each