Nick King Writing Thru Film Mr.

Kocian 03-15-2013 Although the identity of Shakespeare is a topic of debate, literary scholars and theater critics have consistently held such works as A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, and King Lear in high regard. Perhaps one of Shakespeare's most well-known plays is the tragedy Romeo and Juliet. It has served as source material and inspiration for many modern day works. The topic of this essay specifically is the connections, differences, and similarities between West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet. Parallels can be drawn between characters, events, and even the underlying morals of the two works. The events themselves may be cited for their similarities between the two works. West Side Story's opening scene involves members of the Jets, a Caucasian street gang in Manhattan, New York, harass members of a rival gang composed of Puerto Rican immigrants known as the Sharks, and vice versa until it culminates in an all-out fist fight, which parallels Act 1 Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet in which several members of the rival Capulet and Montague families fight. This unrest is finally calmed by Prince Escalus who threatens death to any who disturbs the peace again (1.1.98), similar to Lieutenant Schrank who, after breaking up the fight between the two gangs, threatens to arrest members of either gang who start fighting again. Just a few scenes later, Riff, the leader of the Jets, requests his best friend and former Jet Tony to join Riff and the rest of the Jets at the block dance regularly attended by the Sharks that night with the intent of arranging a war council with Bernardo, leader of the Sharks. After telling Riff that he had a dream of something important happening soon, Tony agrees to go to the dance though he has no interest in the rivalry between the gangs. In the play, Benvolio convinces Romeo to attend the

Capulet family's traditional banquet secretly so that Romeo may compare Rosaline, a woman with whom he is smitten but has sworn a life chastity, to other woman so as to forget Rosaline and his sadness (1.2.91). Other similarities include Tony's meeting at the dance with Maria, Bernardo's sister, mirroring Romeo's meeting with Juliet at her father's banquet as both couples felt a sort of love at first sight, signified by Tony and Maria's dance and near-kiss in the midst of the rival gangs' tensions and Romeo and Juliet's kiss and religious parallelism (1.5.104-122). In both cases, the stories' respective Romeos left the parties and found their Juliets. Tony, walking in a daze and singing of Maria, finds Maria's home and calls out to her to profess so that he may profess his love to her. This is very similar to the famous Act 2 Scene 2 of Romeo and Juliet, popularly dubbed the balcony scene. Even more similarities can be drawn from later scenes, such as Tony and Maria's role-played marriage at Madam Lucia's bridal shop the day after they meet is again similar to Romeo and Juliet who are actually married in secret by Friar Lawrence in the next scene (2.3.96). The rumble agreed to at the war council between the Jets and the Sharks closely resembles the altercation and fight between Tybalt and Mercutio in which Romeo remains calm in the face of Tybalt's insults, claiming that the reason [he has] to love [Tybalt] doth excuse the appertaining rage to such a greeting (3.1.65) in reference to his marriage to Juliet and the fact that they are now cousins. Mercutio and Tybalt instead fight and Mercutio is stabbed by Tybalt in spite of Romeo actively attempting to keep them from fighting, similarly to Riff being stabbed by Bernardo despite Tony's attempts to hold Riff back. In a fit of blind vengeance and impassioned impulse, Romeo stabs and kills Tybalt just as Tony kills Bernardo. The people are outraged at yet another disturbance of the peace and call for Prince Escalus to punish the participants, just as Lieutenant Schrank and the police arrive at the site of the rumble to similarly make good of the established penalty. There are many more similarities but to

examine them all in full would drive this essay to an unnecessary length. To provide further connection without redundancy an examination of the characters in both works is in order. It is clear already that Tony and Maria are Romeo and Juliet, respectively, but other characters may not be so easily placed. The Jets may be distinguished as the Montagues in correlation with Tony as a parallel to Romeo and, by extension, the Sharks are the Capulets in relation to Maria as Juliet. The pharmacist and owner of the candy and drug store, Doc, is also seen by both gangs a neutral character as his shop is considered neutral territory and is chosen as the location for the war council. Doc also employs Tony at the store throughout the film and even hides him in the store's basement after the rumble. He also shows concern for both Tony and Maria. When Anita, Bernardo's girlfriend and Maria's roommate, arrives at the store perhaps begrudgingly on Maria's behalf to inform Tony that Maria would have to meet with him later, the Jets harass her until Doc, horrified, stops it. Anita delivers a false message about Maria being shot by Chino, Bernardo's friend and the man Maria was promised to, in anger about her relationship with Tony. Doc is very similar in role and significance to Friar Lawrence due to this. Of course there are differences between the stories as well. Because West Side Story was only based on Romeo and Juliet rather than an accurate retelling of the tale, one cannot ignore the differences expected and demonstrated in the works. One of the primary differences noticed is the most significant. When Tony heard Anita's false message, he ran out into the streets searching for Chino so that he may be killed as well. He sees Maria, however, and runs up to her, ecstatic that she was not actually killed. Chino, bearing a gun, walks out of the shadows and shoots Tony, who proceeds to die in a tearful Maria's arms as she sings to him softly. In a fit of loss and rage, Maria takes Chino's gun and threatens the Jets and Sharks who surround the scene, claiming that they all killed Riff, Bernardo, and Tony with

their hate and rivalry. She demands Chino to tell her how many bullets are left so that she may kill others, too, and save a bullet for herself. But she drops the gun, still crying, unable to do harm to others. Romeo had consumed a vial of poison because he thought Juliet was dead and would rather die next to her final resting place then live without her. Similarly, when Juliet woke from her death-like sleep and found Romeo's body, she commits suicide as she, too, cannot bear to live a life without her love (5.3.174). This is perhaps the largest discrepancy between the works. All in all, the influence of the Shakespearean tragic romance of Romeo and Juileit is quite clear in West Side Story. With all works deriving inspiration from previous works of another medium, differences and similarities both are evident. The original story was conveyed with relative effectiveness.