Реферат: West Side Story With Romeo And Juliet

Essay, Research Paper

What would Romeo and Juliet be like if Juliet hadn’t died? What if Paris killed

Romeo, instead of vice versa? What if instead of occurring several centuries

ago, it took place on the streets of New York City during the 1950s, with a

bunch of fresh-faced youths posing as street toughs and dancing and singing

their hearts out? Well, just take a look at West Side Story, and you will have

your answers. It is impossible for anyone familiar with both texts to not note

the obvious major similarities between the two plays. From the opening scenes in

both, up through the rumble in West Side Story/death of Mercutio in Romeo and

Juliet, the plays mirror each other (Poelstra). It isn’t until the last part of

West Side Story, where Tony, our modern-day Romeo, dies and Maria, Tony’s

Juliet, doesn’t (unlike the two star-crossed lovers of Shakespeare’s work), that

the major difference between the two works becomes apparent. Granted, instead of

tension between feuding families, West Side Story offers prejudice between

races, as illustrated between street gangs, the Jets and Sharks. Some of the

characters in West Side Story are carbon copies of those in Romeo and Juliet:

Maria (Juliet), Tony (Romeo), Bernardo (Tybalt), Lt. Schrank (Prince), and Anita

(Nurse). Others appear to be a composite of characters, namely Riff, a

combination of Benvolio and Mercutio, and Doc, who appears to fulfill the role

of Friar Laurence (possessed somewhat of a peacekeeping nature: "You

couldn’t play basketball?", he asks, when informed of their upcoming

"war council" [Laurents 57]) yet, at the same time, it is implied in

the film version, not the play that he is a pharmacist, and there was, after

all, an apothecary in Romeo and Juliet . The tomboyish Anybodys, a Jet wannabe,

would best fit into the role of Balthasar (although Doc’s character fits into

this role marginally as well), since it was she who aided Tony in escaping after

the rumble, which resulted in the deaths of Riff and Bernardo, as well as later

informing the other Jets that Chino, the Paris of the Sharks, had a gun and was

hunting down Tony. In the opening act of Romeo and Juliet, Sampson and Gregory,