Comparing Arthur Laurents West Side Story and Shakespeares Romeo and

In spite of the fact that the errors among Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story are too regular to even think about categorizing in such constrained space, it is inconceivable for anybody acquainted with the two writings to not see the conspicuous similitudes between the two works (Theme).â From the initial scenes in both, up through the thunder in West Side Story/demise of Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, the plays reflect one another (Poelstra).â It isn't until the last piece of West Side Story, where Tony (our current Romeo) kicks the bucket and Maria (Tony's Juliet) doesn't (dissimilar to the two star-crossed admirers of Shakespeare's work, both of whom die), that the significant contrast between the two works gets clear.  â â â â â â â â â â â â â Granted, rather than pressure between fighting families (Montaguesand Capulets), West Side Story offers bias between races, as outlined between road packs (Jets and Sharks).â Some of the characters in West Side Story are duplicates of those in Romeo and Juliet: Maria (Juliet), Tony (Romeo), Bernardo (Tybalt), Lt. Schrank (Prince),â and Anita (Nurse).â Others seem, by all accounts, to be a composite of characters, specifically Riff, a mix of Benvolio and Mercutio, and Doc, who seems to satisfy the job of Friar Laurence (had to some degree a peacekeeping nature: You were unable to play b-ball?, he solicits, when educated regarding their up and coming war chamber [Laurents 57]) yet, simultaneously, it is inferred (in the film variant, not the play) that he is a drug specialist, and there was, all things considered, a pharmacist in Romeo and Juliet . The tomboyish Anybodys, a Jet wannabe, would best fit into the job of Balthasar (in spite of the fact that Doc's character fits into this job barely, also), since it was she who supported Tony in getting away after the thunder (which brought about the d... ... a story four centuries old to be retold in a genuinely advanced setting (all things considered, road groups are progressively unmistakable now that ever previously), a retelling that has collected its own wide crowd bid over the past fourâ decades (Theme), indicating that specific stories can stand the trial of time more than once, gave the substance/setting viably mirrors the world inside which it occurs.â Works Citedâ Laurents, Arthur. West Side Story. (A melodic, in light of a conceptionâ of Jerome Robbins; music by Leonard Bernstein; verses by Stephen Sondheim.) NY: Random House, 1966. Poelstra, James. Romeo and Juliet versus West Side Story. (17 July 97). Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Volume I. Ed. W. G. Clark and W. Aldis Wright. NY:  Nelson Doubleday, Inc., 247-277.â â Modernizing Age-Old Theme. (17 July 97).