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Similarities And Differences Between Romeo And Juliet And West Side Story

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West Side Story by Arthur Laurent is the modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet. West Side Story is a movie musical in which the narrative is actually presented through the song. William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a play where the characters speak and act out their mind utilizing the poetic verbatim of Shakespeare. Both these literary pieces have several distinct differences and some fascinating similarities. Being a modern adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story attempts to recreate the same characters in a new light. Romeo and Tony are presented as the strong young men who remain confident and courageous so as to follow the prohibited "love" presented by Juliet and Maria. The present paper attempts to analyze the common similarities and differences in the novel and the play. It is indeed …show more content…

The plot needs to be analyzed initially to point out the likenesses and dissimilarities. The fight scene amid the opposing parties is in both the works. While the West Side Story depicts the fight of the Sharks and the Jets, Romeo and Juliet portray the fight of the two rival families, Capulet and Montague. Another significant similarity is the protagonists’ falling in love. Romeo and Juliet fall in love as they meet for the first time at a ball of Capulet and Tony and Maria of West Side Story fall in love during a dance party. Both the male lovers of the works go to their women’s apartments to see them. Romeo goes to the forbidden Capulet house to meet Juliet and Tony goes to the apartment of Maria to see her. The next similar scene is the murder scene where Romeo kills Juliet’s cousin Tybalt as Tybalt murders Romeo’s best friend, Mercutio. Similarly, Tony murders Maria’s brother, Bernardo as Bernardo kills Tony’s best friend, Riff. Another similarity is the death of the male protagonists Romeo and Tony. Romeo kills himself by drinking poison whereas Tony gets killed by

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These factors contribute to how they acknowledge the circumstances given. Romeo may go about reacting to the situations that are presented in an impulsive, irrational manner. Tony reacts in a more practical and mature demeanor. However, it is evident that both characters will do anything for their lovers, Juliet and Maria due to their passion and

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Romeo and Juliet is a play written by William Shakespeare about two teenage lovers from two families that hold a deep hatred for eachother. With the help of a local friar, the two are sent through a complex plan to get married and run off together. While the original plan seems to be simple, as it unwinds, it shows it’s many flaws. The two end up both committing suicide because of the miscommunication from everyone involved. All of the characters in the play have a number of motivations and reasons they act as they do.

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Arguably William Shakespeare’s most famous play, Romeo and Juliet follows two star-crossed lovers who struggle to hide their love from their feuding families. Much like how Shakespeare explores both the differences and the relationship between the Capulets and the Montagues, the play highlights the correspondence of opposing themes through three characters named Mercutio, Benvolio, and Tybalt, Romeo’s two friends and sworn enemy. Shakespeare includes Romeo’s counterparts to distinguish his unique personality and to emphasize relationships between major contrasting subjects in the play: comedy and tragedy, peace and conflict, and love and anger. Mercutio acts as both Romeo’s foil and the donor of much light-hearted humor within the play, which contrasts the tragic events that inevitably occur.

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Aside from that, the setting of each film will be provided, as well as the characters, its synopsis, and the ending or outcome of the same. The West Side Story Chapman believes that this film is a classic tale of Shakespeare 's Romeo and Juliet in the 1950s. Setting The location of the story 's action is set on the west side of New York City (Huggo). Characters

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In the tragedy Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare there are two young lovers. They are Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet. The Montagues and Capulets are two feuding families in Verona who have hated each other for centuries. However, Romeo and Juliet love each other which will produce problems. The two lovers die in the end because of Romeo's loss of self-control.

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The story of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare revolves around Romeo and his troubling love life. Romeo overcomes many obstacles and broken hearts on his journey to find the love of his life with his best friend Mercutio by his side. A young Juliet walks into Romeo’s life leaving him speechless and amazed, but their parent’s rivalry will end up being the reason why Romeo and Juliet kill themselves, so they won't have to live a life without each other. Although Romeo and Mercutio are best friends, they are both very different in the way they live their life. Although they both are very friendly and caring people, Mercutio and Romeo differ in their feelings about love and how serious they take life.

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“For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”, is a line that was very important to the history of literature. It tells of the inevitable fate of two star-crossed lovers that were bound to death because of each other. There have been many movies and plays preformed with this story line, but two in particular are the Baz Luhrmann film and the original play’s text. Both the Baz Luhrmann film and William Shakespeare’s play of Romeo and Juliet may be compared by focusing on the following scenes: the party scene, balcony scene, fight and death scene of Tybalt and Mercutio, and the suicide scene.

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Tony became more level-headed than Romeo and usually thought his decisions through better. This shift in character portrayal changed the way the theme of fate vs. free will showed and affected each character. Romeo could be one minute happy and in love, the next he could be miserable with life. His ever-changing emotions clouded his actions and he made a lot of bad choices at his own free will that led to consequences. An example of this from the play is when Romeo found out he was banished and he acted ungrateful, despite the fact he could have avoided the fight had it not been for his hate induced revenge, “There is no world without Verona walls, But purgatory, torture, hell itself.

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Romeo and Juliet is a classic play by William Shakespeare, In 1968 it was adapted in a full movie, and later on in 1996 was again adapted into the big screen, both movies have so many similarities and so many differences, in the 1968 movie it is a more realistic, more true to the script, but the 1996 movie takes place in verona beach in the US, in modern times, the sword fights are actually guns, both use shakespearean english, but the most important part of any Romeo and Juliet performance, is to show their love was never meant to be, both movies do an excellent job in portraying this concept, in this essay I will explore that Romeo and Juliet’s relationship is starcrossed is portrayed by the 1968 and 1996 version through the first time they meet in the party, the balcony scene, and the scene where they are in bed. The first time Romeo and Juliet meet is at the Capulet party, this is portrayed in both movies differently, in the 1996 version Romeo is walking by an aquarium, looking at the fish, when he sees juliet, their eyes meet and follow each other, but just as they were going to come face to face, Juliet’s nurse grabs her, and takes her away to dance with Paris her future husband. In the 1968 version Romeo is far away from Juliet, and he hides behind a column, she is dancing with some people, but she is too far away, and has lots of people between Romeo and Juliet.

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And the feud between the two families creates chaos in the community. The whole movies have kept the track of originality in its important characters, scenes and the flow of the play. The story starts with a fight with scene between the Montague boys and the Capulet’s and ends with the death of the lovers, Romeo and Juliet. However, there are

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