November, Tuesday 8th, we studied the differences and the similitaries between these two famous love stories, the old one Romeo and Juliet, and the more recent one West Side Story (WSS).

In fact, we rappidly found that WSS has quite the same "story" as Romeo and Juliet.

Let's discover the characters.

Romeo, who is a Montaigue, could be Tony, the american guy from the Jets who loves Maria, a spanish young girl belonging to the Sharks and who could be Juliet. We can also compare Mercutio, Romeo's best friend, to Riff who is logicly Tony's best friend. Moreover, Maria has a brother called Bernardo and Juliet a cousin named Tybalt; they both supposed to be married with anoter man : Chino for Maria, Paris for Juliet.

The priest who married Shakespear's lovers and send a message to Romeo is a little bit like Anita who brings a message to Tony. In plus, she is Maria's best friend and try to bring peace, like Juliet's nurse who helps the two lovers.

To finish, the man who expelled Romeo is the prince, that's why he could be the New York police in WSS.

However it's not really finish ! We could have a more global look on these two stories.

First, the setting and the plot.

For Romeo and Juliet, it takes place in Verona in the Middle Ages and there are two groups : the Montaigue versus the Capulet. These two families are ennemies, it exists a rivality between them.

For WSS, the movie takes place in a poor district of New York, in the 1950's where there are two gangs : the Jets against the Sharks. The reasons for their hatred are their origins and lands, which makes the viewer thinks about the racism question.

Second, the lovers.

In Romeo and Juliet, they both are Italian, whereas in WSS one is American and the other one is Puerto Rican.

Morever, Tony and Maria are older than their ancestors. In fact, Romeo is 15 years old, Juliet almost 13, while Tony is already 20 years old and Maria 17.

The two Shakespear's lovers met at a party at the Capulet's house, which quiet similar with the New Yorkers who met at a ball.

Finally, the action.

In the Romeo and Juliet story, Mercutio is first killed by Tybalt, then it's Tybalt who is killed by Romeo in an act of revenge. After these two death of secondary characters, Romea die by taking poison after seeing Juliet's body, that's why Juliet killed herself too with a knife, while seeing the Romeo's lying body.

In WSS, there are only three death, which is different from the "original" love stroy. Indeed, Riff is killed by Bernardo, which is quite the same problem as in Shakespear. In consequence, Bernardo is killed by Tony and after that, Tony is killed by Chino.

On the whole, these two stories have almost the same structure and many similitaries between the characters.

It's an evidence of the Shakespear's power ! This author inspires other authors or fiction directors.

Here, a website talking about WSS :

http://www.filmsite.org/wests.html