Romeo And Juliet And West Side Story Comparison Essay

Countless similarities are displayed between plays and their modern-day adaptations ranging from major influences such as setting to finer details like character traits. Being that they are adaptations, stark differences from the original can be discovered, too. The star-crossed lovers of The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, a drama by William Shakespeare, and West Side Story are equally affected by their friends but are influenced in dissimilar ways. Despite playing the same role, the Nurse and Anita provide very distinct influences to Juliet and Maria through the course of the stories. Having lost her own child at a young age, Nurse sees Juliet Capulet as her own daughter. Respectively, Nurse is more of a mother to Juliet than her own Lady Capulet. With her best interest in mind, the Nurse advises her that it would be a better

His impulsivity proves to be his Achilles Heel, but the way Balthazar and Anybodys go about attempting to prevent his death differ. Balthazar is Romeo’s right-hand man and accompanies him to his death place. Hearing the news of Juliet’s supposed death, Romeo becomes increasingly reckless. Picking up on Romeo’s distress, Balthazar follows him to the Capulet Monument silently, “For all this same, I’ll hide me hereabout./ His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt”(V. iii. 43-44). Balthazar is fearful of what Romeo may do, but in the end, he succumbs to his death as Balthazar hides in the shadows. His watchful eye wasn’t enough to stop the Montague from killing himself. Anybodys is also a witness to Tony’s death, but not without trying to prevent it. She calls to Tony, tries to get to him before Chino, but eventually Tony got what he wanted: for Chino to kill him. Compared to Balthazar, Anybodys was much more invested in saving Tony. She ran around the town in search of Tony while Balthazar slept soundly as Romeo died. Friar Lawrence and the Doc also aid in the end result of these