Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story :: Education by Design Store

Customer Reviews

Dancin and Singin in the streets

2004-04-22
I liked the movie. I admit, yes this teen, has a soundtrack of west side story. I found the movie very funny when the guys where singing and dancing but admittedly I cried at the end. This story was very good.

A logical pairing of 2 great theatrical works

2002-12-05
This is two books in one: the text of William Shakespeare's tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" and the text of "West Side Story," the 20th century musical with a book by Arthur Laurents and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The book also includes an introduction by Norris Houghton, who notes, among other things, that WSS is based on R&J. Each text tells the story of a love affair between a young woman and a young man who are caught between warring factions.

I find it stimulating and useful to have these two pieces, linked in theme but separated by centuries, together in one volume. Each is a great text on its own, but having them together may help the reader to see each piece in a different light. One of the things I find most striking as one moves from R&J to WSS is how the latter text adds the element of ethnic tension to the fundamental story of "star-crossed lovers."

R&J is more than just a classic piece of literature; it's also a touchstone of pop culture (hey, it's even been incorporated into a "Brady Bunch" episode!). Despite the passage of centuries, I find Shakespeare's portrayal of the joy and pain of forbidden love to remain relevant and compelling. And R&J holds up as a reader's text, even with the availability of filmed versions. I think that WSS, being a musical play, naturally loses some impact as a text strictly on the page, but nevertheless I found it a rewarding reader's text also. One might try listening to a CD of WSS's songs as an accompaniment to reading the text.

To supplement WSS's portrayal of urban Puerto Ricans, I recommend that interested readers seek out some writings by "Nuyorican" authors; to start with, try Roberto Santiago's illuminating anthology "Boricuas: Influential Puerto Rican Writings."

Jeany's review 2002-08-10
Romeo & Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is written by William Shakespeare, it contains lots of old English(reason why I find it difficult to read it). It is a very tragic story that took place in Old Verona, Italy. As all tragic stories, it has a tragic heroe (person who suffers a big problem as a result of his deffects), in this case there are two tragic heroes, Romeo and Juliet. They died because they didn't know how to control their inapproppriated love, by inapproppriated I mean that their love couldn't be permited because their familes hated each other more than death . The story has been adapted into many stories, plays, Etc. The best character is the Nurse. The only one who expresses her feellings without hidding them.

romeo and juliet 2002-08-03
This book was written by William Shakespeare and it has the old language. Romeo and Juliet is a tragic story, interesting, full of problems and the story is attractive. The story is about 2 families that are in a feud. The families are Capulet and Montague. Romeo Montague is a boy who is very romantic. He falls in love with Juliet Capulet. Romeo tries to be with Juliet and Juliet too but because of the feud they can't be together. The pair have friends who help them. Many deaths are involved in the story. After the problems they plan to be together. In the end the pair dies because of love.

romeo and juliet 2002-08-03
This book was written by William Shakespeare and it has the old language. Romeo and Juliet is a tragic story, interesting, full of problems and the story is attractive. The story is about 2 families that are in a feud. The families are Capulet and Montague. Romeo Montague is a boy who is very romantic. He falls in love with Juliet Capulet. Romeo tries to be with Juliet and Juliet too but because of the feud they can't be together. The pair have friends who help them. Many deaths are involved in the story. After the problems they plan to be together. In the end the pair dies because of love.

Romeo and Juliet, the tragic story review 2002-08-03
The tragedy of love thwarted by fate has always intrigued writers.  In the sixteenth century, William Shakespeare took this theme and fashioned one of the world's great plays: Romeo And Juliet.  In our own time, Shakespeare's drama has been used as a basis for the overwhelmingly successful musical play West Side Story.  Though one of these works is set among the nobility of Verona, and the other among immigrant families of New York's West Side, both tell the story of the plight of young star-crossed" lovers.

As Norris Houghton writes in his introduction: "What we see is that all four young people strive to consummate the happiness at the threshold on which they stand and which they have tasted so briefly.  All four are deprived of the opportunity to do so, the Renaissance couple by the caprice of fate, today's youngsters by the prejudice and hatred engendered around them....

"Poets and playwrights will continue to write of youthful lovers whom fate drives into and out of each other's lives.  The spectacle will always trouble and move us, even as the two dramas in this volume do today."

romeo and juliet 2002-08-03
This book was written by William Shakespeare and it has the old language. Romeo and Juliet is a tragic story, interesting, full of problems and the story is attractive. The story is about 2 families that are in a feud. The families are Capulet and Montague. Romeo Montague is a boy who is very romantic. He falls in love with Juliet Capulet. Romeo tries to be with Juliet and Juliet too but because of the feud they can't be together. The pair have friends who help them. Many deaths are involved in the story. After the problems they plan to be together. In the end the pair dies because of love.

romeo and juliet 2002-08-03
This book was written by William Shakespeare and it has the old language. Romeo and Juliet is a tragic story, interesting, full of problems and the story is attractive. The story is about 2 families that are in a feud. The families are Capulet and Montague. Romeo Montague is a boy who is very romantic. He falls in love with Juliet Capulet. Romeo tries to be with Juliet and Juliet too but because of the feud they can't be together. The pair have friends who help them. Many deaths are involved in the story. After the problems they plan to be together. In the end the pair dies because of love.

romeo and juliet 2002-08-03
This book was written by William Shakespeare and it has the old language. Romeo and Juliet is a tragic story, interesting, full of problems and the story is attractive. The story is about 2 families that are in a feud. The families are Capulet and Montague. Romeo Montague is a boy who is very romantic. He falls in love with Juliet Capulet. Romeo tries to be with Juliet and Juliet too but because of the feud they can't be together. The pair have friends who help them. Many deaths are involved in the story. After the problems they plan to be together. In the end the pair dies because of love.

Romeo and Juliet 2002-08-03
This is a love story. Juliet is one of the main character. She is in love with Romeo, a Montague, who by his surname is her enemy. Anyway they love each other and want to get marry. Friar Lawrence, one of Romeo's friends, accepts to do this. That same day Romeo is exiled to Mantua because he kills Tybalt, her wives cousin. Lord Capulet, Juliet's father, anounces her that she has to marry County Paris, without knowing she is already a wife. As she can't tell her father the truth, and doesn't want to besiege Romeo, she decides to ask Friar Lawrence a solution for her problem. He has a good idea but it fails, and both lovers die.