Tony and Maria: The New Romeo and Juliet

Many of us know of Shakespeare’s famous love struck Romeo and Juliet. We know about their love at first sight, and their tragic ending, but do we truly understand the meaning behind this famous love story?

Romeo and Juliet was written as a play in the 1500’s and has been retold many times after. Many movies, songs, plays and books are based on this tragedy, trying to recreate the true love of Romeo and Juliet. In the 1950’s West Side Story was made. It was a popular musical based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It was known as the modern day tragic love story written by Arthur Laurents. This musical was about the forbidden romance between a Puerto Rican girl named Maria and an American boy named Tony. Although the love between these two beings were real, it was impossible because of the gang rivalry between the Jets (Americans) and the Sharks (Puerto Ricans). West Side Story is a contemporary Romeo and Juliet allowing our generation to understand the difficulty that these characters went through. Many of us are unaware of the true hardships of what Montague and Capulet went through but when it is retold with the Jets versus Sharks it is understood. When reading, or even hearing, the original Romeo and Juliet, our age group becomes confused and caught up in trying to understand the primary language of the text instead of actually concentrating on the emotions and thoughts that are given by the characters. When the “new version” of this story is watched, the audience becomes happy when Maria realizes she is loved and is empathetic to her when her true love is dead.

West Side Story has always been one of my favorite movies. In my opinion it is an incredible story of the joys and tragedies of Maria. Although remakes are known to be worse than the original, that is not always true. Remakes can give a clearer image to newer generations and help the audience relive the same experiences of past spectators. I believe that remakes are good because they can be easier to understand and allow us to see the story in new perspective.

To learn more about West Side Story: http://www.filmsite.org/wests.html