Similarities Between Romeo And Juliet And West Side Story

There are copious amounts of differences between West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet. However, you could still tell that it was obviously based off of Romeo and Juliet. I personally believe they had salient differences/extreme differences although they are both based off forbidden love and tragedy and it had the same type of format. For example, West Side Story is set in New York and Romeo and Juliet is set in Verona. Another one is the language that is being used, like comparing thou to you and other old English to modern English. Next, the stories also revolved around different groups like rich families which was Romeo and Juliet and gangs, like the Jets and Sharks which was West Side Story. Finally, the last difference and an extremely …show more content…
Just at the beginning of West Side Story, you can see a zoomed out picture of bustling New York. The setting was different because one was set in New York which was West Side Story and one was set in Verona, Italy which was Romeo and Juliet. In West Side Story it was filled with the park with the basketball hoops in an inclosed space and small apartment buildings. In Romeo and Juliet the city was filled with grand, extravagant palaces. In West Side Story there were small apartment buildings that were not “extravagant” whatsoever.
Another difference that I recognized was the english that was being used in the movies. In Romeo and Juliet they used old English (1590’s english). In West Side Story they used modern english (1960’s english). This created a totally different atmosphere. It made the movies extremely different and they grew apart. It created a comparison, like modern to old. This difference made me not enjoy Romeo and Juliet as much as West Side Story.
One other difference is that in Romeo and Juliet, the story revolved around rich families. In West Side Story, it revolved around gangs that were mostly from poor families. Their class easily reflected on the style of these two films. This made these films very different from each other. The way the people acted and there clothing made this apparent. Also it showed how little the parents were invested in them in both

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Similarities Between Romeo And Juliet And West Side Story