There's a variety of conflicts I could choose from the play, but Juliet's internal conflict and the choice she has to make between her family and her "true love" Romeo are most intriguing and relate able. "My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain, and Tybalt's dead, that would have slain my husband." (3.2.115) Juliet is leaning more towards Romeo, for she know Tybalt would have killed him, and her love for him is clouding her judgement. Romeo is a murderer now, and Juliet's intense love for him put's her in harms way. Even though Romeo killed Tybalt, Juliet still chooses him over her family because she is in love.
This example of conflict in Romeo and Juliet is very similar to many teenagers' lives, but not so specific. At this age many kids are choosing to spend more time with friends and less with family. Now, we know that we could just stay home and help out our parents instead of going out every night with our friends. But we are gaining more freedom, and able to choose what we do more often, and who we do it with. Just as Juliet is choosing Romeo over her family.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Romeo and Juliet: It's in West Side Story
West Side Story was created by Aurthur Laurents in the '50's. The comparison is almost exact to Romeo and Juliet, except Maria lives on.
West Side Story is a musical about Maria and Tony's love. The two fall in love almost instantly, just as R&J. There is even a scene where Tony goes to Maria's fire escape to talk to her after he first met her (shown below). Maria and Tony are from two different families in rival gangs, the jets and the sharks. Tony is the only one who dies, and he is killed by someone in a fight, but he wasn't fighting very hard since he thought Maria was dead, and wanted to die because he couldn't live without her. At the end, although Maria's body was still alive, something inside her died when Tony died in his arms. His death did, though, bring the Jets and Sharks together just like Romeo and Juliet want their families to do. In the 50's when this musical was made, I don't know if Laurents' purpose was to create a modern day R&J, but he did just that very successfully in the tear jerking West Side Story as anyone could see with the plot almost perfectly fitting that of the play by Shakespeare.
West Side Story is a musical about Maria and Tony's love. The two fall in love almost instantly, just as R&J. There is even a scene where Tony goes to Maria's fire escape to talk to her after he first met her (shown below). Maria and Tony are from two different families in rival gangs, the jets and the sharks. Tony is the only one who dies, and he is killed by someone in a fight, but he wasn't fighting very hard since he thought Maria was dead, and wanted to die because he couldn't live without her. At the end, although Maria's body was still alive, something inside her died when Tony died in his arms. His death did, though, bring the Jets and Sharks together just like Romeo and Juliet want their families to do. In the 50's when this musical was made, I don't know if Laurents' purpose was to create a modern day R&J, but he did just that very successfully in the tear jerking West Side Story as anyone could see with the plot almost perfectly fitting that of the play by Shakespeare.
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