Preview

Romeo and JUliet

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
411 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Romeo and JUliet
Comparative Essay
Love in Romeo and Juliet and Westside Story Love is a common theme in both Romeo and Juliet and Westside Story. In both instances love is the basis of each narrative. Love is also what eventually leads the characters toward there unfortunate endings. There are a number of similarities and differences between love in Romeo and Juliet and Westside Story. These include: The instant attraction felt by Romeo and Juliet and Tony and Maria toward each other or “love at first sight”, the desperation for the lovers to be together despite their forbidden love and the tragic ending to each couples story. I will compare these points in each narrative and examine how they are different and similar. The first thing I will be comparing is the mutual feeling of love at first sight in both narratives. In Romeo and Juliet Romeo attends a party at the Capulet house where he sees Juliet for the first time. Before attending the party Romeo had been feeling depressed because a girl named Rosaline did not return his feeling of love. As a result of this he had been distant from his friends. Upon seeing Juliet Romeo fell in love instantly as did Juliet. Romeo then sought out to see Juliet after the party and declare his love for her. In Westside Story this scene is paralleled but there are a few differences. Like Romeo and Juliet Tony and Maria meet at an event. Differences are that the party at the Capulets instead takes place at a gym not a house and it is a dance. Another difference is that Romeo had been feeling sad because a girl had rejected him. Tony too had been feeling sad and like Romeo had been distant from his friends but Tony was not quite sure why he was sad he only knew that something was missing from his life. Tony and Maria like Romeo and Juliet fell in love the second they saw each other. Bernardo like Tybalt saw them talking and attempted to separate them. Unlike in Romeo and Juliet though Bernardo successfully breaks them apart and ends the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    The love Tony felt for Maria and Romeo for Juliet made them defy their families, their friends and their social world. Their love is strong and forceful, so much so that it made them revolt against the very world they revolved in and, sometimes, even against themselves.…

    • 3084 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Romeo and Juliet

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Even though Romeo and Juliet met each other, Romeo and Juliet were destined to die. Romeo and Juliet’s youth and inexperience were a cause of this tragic death. The adult interference was another reason why Romeo and Juliet had died. Romeo and Juliet being star crossed lovers was their fate that led to their death. Romeo’s and Juliet’s deaths were caused by their youth and inexperience, adult interference, and fate.…

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    romeo and juliet

    • 1660 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Good morning/afternoon Mrs Douglass and class. Today I will be comparing two versions of William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. One of the films was produced in the year 1996; this was directed by Baz Luhrmann. The two main roles of Romeo and Juliet were played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. The other film being analysed was directed by Franco Zefirelli, it was released in 1968. Leonard Whiting had the role of Romeo and Juliet was played by Olivia Hussey. The scene being analysed in this assignment is Act 5, scene 3, this scene is the death of the lovers. To analyse these two different versions of the chosen scene, this assignment will discuss the editing, sound, mise en scene, shot size and camera angles used to determine which version executes the theme of tragedy more effectively.…

    • 1660 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Romeo and Juliet

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Many people have terrible faiths, but out of all of them one was the most innocent. In “Romeo and Juliet”, Benvolio is free from guilt and a harmless man. He likes to keep peace. Furthermore, Benvolio had to suffer in many parts of the play. Finally, he is very helpful and does nothing wrong. Benvolio is free from guilt; he does nothing wrong and had nothing to do with lying or killing. Benvolio is the most innocent character in the play.…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    However, in spite of the many differences, there are similarities between the two stories. Romeo and Juliet and “Teen Couple Executed by their Parents…for daring to fall in love,” both involve the deaths of the couples all happening at a young age, all of them dying before the age of 19 before any of their parents died. Throughout both stories a common factor is that the couples were forced to make adult decisions about their lives and love lives; while, the adults around them were making many poor decisions. Unlike many love stories where the strong, handsome male saves the damsel in distress, the female protagonists in both of these stories appeared to be stronger than their male counterparts. Maybe that is why when the time came, both mothers…

    • 337 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 905 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Juliet vs Maria

    • 1429 Words
    • 6 Pages

    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…

    • 1429 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “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.…

    • 569 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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…

    • 502 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Romeo and Juliet

    • 2983 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Power and Control is the main theme in Shakespeare’s play, Romeo & Juliet. Power is presented by fate, love and parental control.…

    • 2983 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    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.…

    • 461 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    William Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet” is a popular known love story between two opposites. If you look deeply into the story you will realize that it is not a story of love, but a story about rebellious children. Romeo comes from a poor family with very little, whereas Juliet comes from a rich family with a very popular name. With the two families so very different, the children are told not to have any interaction with the other family. With both Romeo and Juliet being rebellious teens, they have attractions towards each other. They believe it is love, but it is truly just an infatuation for each other.…

    • 931 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    "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.…

    • 502 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Romeo and Juliet

    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Fate, most people don’t even believe in it; in fact some don’t even know what it is. There are many definitions of Fate, but most seem to revolve around something like a force—in which no one can control—in life. But one of the few people—in that small percentage—that do believe in fate, so happens to include William Shakespeare himself, and he tries to proof Fate to be true through figurative language and incidents, in his book Romeo and Juliet. This story is about two families, very similar to one another, but yet different, for sadly, a family feud keeps them apart. The son and daughter of each family fall in love and due to all the pressures they feel from their family and others, they die, side by side in their unfortunate love.…

    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Romeo and Juliet

    • 440 Words
    • 2 Pages

    My theme for Romeo and Juliet is that children can disobey their parents if they have a justifiable reason. I chose this theme because Romeo and Juliet obviously really loved each other. Why not let them be happy. Love if a justifiable reason to go behind their parents backs.…

    • 440 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics