"Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo," is one of the many magnificent lines from William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet is one of the most duplicated plays in history. West Side Story, a movie, is one of the most famous duplications of this play. Although the two versions differ, many of the characters have similarities. West Side Story's Tony, Maria, and Anita portray modern day characters of Romeo, Juliet, and the Nurse. .
"Here's much to do with hate, but more with love. Why then oh brawling love, oh, loving hate." Tony and Romeo are both alike in many ways, yet many things do differ between them. The largest similarity between these two characters is both are in a gang per say. Romeo is a Montague who hates the Capulets, and Tony is a Jet who hates the Sharks. At the beginning of both play and movie Romeo and Tony are both sad, but for different reasons. Romeo is in love with Rosaline, but she does not love him back. Tony, however, does not have a love interest at this point in the movie and is merely sad. When Romeo decides to go to the Capulet ball, he is going to see Rosaline, not to help set up a fight like Tony is doing when he goes to the dance to help Riff out. Both Romeo and Tony try to stop the fight between their respective sides, but both end up killing someone instead. When Tony kills Bernardo he is not banished as Romeo is when he kills Tybalt. Finally the largest difference between Romeo and Tony is how the both die. Romeo kills himself out of love for Juliet. On the other hand Tony is killed by Chino. Even though these two characters are very different their basic outlines are the same.
"But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east and Juliet is the sun." Now to Juliet and Maria, there are more differences between these two characters than similarities. The largest similarity between the two characters is that both are scheduled to be married.