Comparison: Romeo and Juliet vs. West Side Story

“Romeo and Juliet” Compared and Contrasted to “Westside Story”

“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. The beginning scenes to “Romeo and Juliet” and “Westside Story” are very similar to each other. The beginning scenes were very similar to each other because of all the hatred in the air directed from one group to the other. This hatred led to both groups ruthlessly fighting and beating each other up. In both stories when this chaos broke out between the groups, the patrolling authority had to order them to stop. Apart from being similar the beginning scenes were also exceedingly different from each other. In “Romeo and Juliet” the sides talked about how much they hatted each other and with a hairline trigger, both sides snapped after one insult/remark. In “Westside Story” both sides were giving each other dirty looks and making each other feel uncomfortable enough for each side to gradually start fighting as opposed to right away. Like the first scenes, in the last scenes of “Romeo and Juliet” and “Westside Story” both differ and resemble each other. They are similar because both sides were starting to show less hate because the death of more and more peers triggered emotional feedback to both groups, as it would to anyone. Another deeply similarity in the last scenes of both movies is when the patrolling authority (police man/prince) brought shame upon the two groups and notified them that their hate for each other was responsible for the deaths which occurred. The ending scenes of “Romeo and Juliet” and “Westside Story” are also deeply different. Romeo and Juliet both died at the hands of themselves making it their own fault for their death, but in Westside Story only Tony dies and at the hands of Chino, therefore it was not Tony’s fault for his death. Another factor which differentiates “Westside Story” from “Romeo and Juliet” is after Tony died, although Tony is dead Maria does not possess the certainty to kill herself, unlike Juliet who deliberately wants Romeo even if it means killing herself. “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 many similarities and differences to each other. The beginning scenes were different, “Romeo and Juliet” both sides had a hairline trigger and in “Westside Story” the sides gradually started fighting. The two stories were similar because the patrolling authority broke up the fight. The ending scenes were different because only Tony died and in “Romeo and Juliet” both Romeo and Juliet died. The ending scenes were similar because the patrolling authority brought shame upon the two groups.