Modern Day Examples of Romeo and Juliet By: Kelly Davis

Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet is considered on of the greatest love stories of all time. The story behind Romeo and Juliet has inspired many authors and artists to incorporate the theme of Romeo and Juliet into their work. The following are a few of the many works by different artists who have been inspired by the works of Romeo and Juliet.

The West Side Story Characters Tony- Romeo Montague Maria- Juliet Capulet Anita- Nurse Bernardo- Tybalt Riff- Mercutio Chino- Paris Baby John- Benvolio Schrank and Officer Krupke- Prince Escalus Doc- Friar Laurence Anybodys- Balthazar Action- Sampson Jets- Montague Family Sharks- Capulet Family The West Side Story is a musical written in 1957 based on the Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet. The main character Tony falls in love with Maria a girl, whose brother is the leader of the opposing gang, the sharks. In this twisted story, there will be romance, action and death, like in the book Romeo and Juliet.

Plot Similarities in The West Side Story Romeo and Juliet start out the play with a fight between the Montague and the Capulet families. The West Side Story also starts outs with a fight between the Sharks and the Jets, which are two opposing gangs, like the opposing families in Romeo and Juliet. The fight caused between the two rivals in each story are broken up. In Romeo and Juliet, the Prince Escalus breaks up the fight, while the in the West Side Story, Krupke and Schrank break up the fight, which are two parallel characters. The main female lead characters in both stories have already been previously set up. In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet has been set up with Paris, and in the West Side Story, Maria is already betrothed to Chino. Romeo and Juliet meet at a party thrown by her parents that Romeo sneaks into. Tony and Maria meet in a similar setting at a party and fall in love immediately like Romeo and Juliet did, when they see each other from across the gym. In these stories, both Romeo and Tony both go searching for their loves after the party, which are Juliet and Maria. Romeo finds Juliet on her balcony and Tony finds Maria by using the fire escape. In both stories they both have a desire to get married. In Romeo and Juliet, they are married immediately by the Friar, and in the West side Story, they have a role-play wedding during their tryst while at the bridal shop. In both stories, there is a fight scene. In this fight scene Tybalt kills Mercutio. To avenge his death Romeo kills Tybalt. This is similar because in the West side Bernardo kills Riff, and Tony the takes revenge and kills Bernardo Both Anita and the Nurse are harassed by the Montague/ Jets. In both stories, Tony/ Romeo both commit suicide in response to hearing their lovers were dead. Anita tells the Jets that Chino killed Maria, which causes Tony to commit suicide, which wasn’t the original message he was supposed to get. In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo commits suicide after hearing of Juliet's death, but he didn’t get the message that Juliet was just faking her death to get out of marrying Paris.

Gnomeo and Juliet Characters Montague Gnomeo/ Romeo- The main character and protagonist. He falls in love with Juliet, a gnome from an opposing family. Lady Blueberry/ Lady Montague- Lady Blueberry is Romeo’s mother and is the strong leader of the Blue Garden, and the enemy of Lord Redbrick, the leader of the Red garden. Benny/ Benvolio- He is one of Gnomeo’s best friends who is small in size but has a very big personality. Benny also has a very large hat. Capulet Juliet/ Juliet- The other main character and protagonist. She falls in love with a Gnome from the blue garden, Gnomeo, and she is very strong and independent. Lord Redbrick/ Lord Capulet- Lord Redbrick is the father of Juliet and can sometimes be overprotective. He is the enemy of Lady Blueberry and the leader of the Red Garden Tybalt/ Tybalt- The antagonist of the movie, and the enemy of Romeo. He is always causing trouble and playing tricks on Romeo to furthermore heat up the feud between families. Other Characters Paris/ Paris- Paris is a very smart garden gnome, who is a genius on all things horticulture and plants. Featherstone- a plastic flamingo that is really caring and enduring, but at times can be annoying. Fawn- Another antagonist the story. The fawn had a bad attitude and a very foul mouth. Shroom- a shitake mushroom who is one of Romeo's most trusted friends. He is always right beside Romeo at his side when he needs him. Nanette/ Nurse- Juliet’s friend and confidante. She is always searching for love and can exaggerate the truth to make anything dramatic.

Gnomeo and Juliet Overview Gnomeo and Juliet is a modern example of they story Romeo and Juliet, for kids. This movie consists of most of the original characters, but also has some added new ones like the Fawn, Featherstone, and Shroom. The plot is primarily the same, but uses garden gnomes to tell the story of Romeo and Juliet, but with more humor. The plot consists of two people falling in love from two families that oppose one another. There are several more similarities in the movie because the plot of the movie is based on the play from Shakespeare. But, there are many differences in Gnomeo and Juliet and Romeo and Juliet, partly due to the fact that this story is designed for much younger audiences. Some of the differences in the play and the movie Gnomeo and Juliet is that Shakespeare himself made an appearance in the movie. Shakespeare wrote the famous original Romeo and Juliet, an actual statue of Shakespeare is used in the movie and unlike the play, this story actually has a happy ending. In the original Romeo and Juliet there was a tragic resolution because two lovers had both committed suicide and two families had been fighting, ultimately causing these deaths. In Gnomeo and Juliet, it has a happy ending, and it must, in order to appeal to younger audiences. In the end, people think that Romeo and Juliet are going to be crushed by the terminatator, but they end up surviving and having a happy ending.

Letters to Juliet- Summary and Key Points Letters to Juliet is not exactly like the play like the past movies have been. This movie takes some of the essence of Romeo and Juliet and uses a different plot with similar events to make a new story. The plot is when an American girl ventures to Verona Italy on a pre honeymoon with her fiancé, she discovers the wall of people who need love guidance. This is where people write there letters to Juliet, the famous lover in Romeo and Juliet for guidance. Sophie helps answer some of these letters and she stumbles across a letter that if from a girl named Claire in the 1950’s. She answer the letter in time for her to get the response, since she is an elderly lady now, and Claire wants to now find her long lost love Lorenzo Bartolini. Claire has her grandson with her, whose name is Charlie, which at the beginning of the movie, Sophie didn’t really like that much. Sophie decides to help Claire, which she thinks will help her writing career. After searching for a while, they realize that Lorenzo Bartolini is dead, which makes Claire sad. Charlie, gets angry with Sophie for bring out sadness in his grandmother, and tells her that she doesn’t know what real loss is. This makes Sophie angry and she walks off. After, seeing the fight, Claire suggests to Charlie to apologize for being so mean to Sophie, which he does the next morning. That night, Charlie and Sophie go out to talk about love, where they end up kissing. On the last day of Sophie trip with them, Claire suddenly suggests that they should have a glass of wine to celebrate the time they have had together, when she spots someone that looks almost identical to her old love. The discover that it is Lorenzo Bartolini’s grandson, and they discover that he is actually not dead! They are reunited and decide to get married. In the meanwhile, Sophie travels back to New York, and decides to break up with Victor, her fiancé. She returns to Verona to see the wedding of Lorenzo and Claire, where she finds Charlie with his ex-girlfriend, Patricia. This saddens her and she leaves. But then, later Charlie goes to her balcony, like in Romeo and Juliet and tells her that it is just her cousin and that he loves her.

Letters To Juliet Major Parallels: The story of Letters to Juliet is set in Verona. The story of Romeo and Juliet is also set in Verona, Italy. In letters to Juliet, there is a wall where people write “letters to Juliet for love guidance” and this is where the characters of this movie begin to meet, like Romeo and Juliet also meet in Verona. The wall is said to be in the famous Capulet Courtyard. In the end of the movie, the characters Sophie and Charlie experience the Balcony scene, like in the original Romeo and Juliet. Even thought the two did not experience the same exact kind of falling in love that Romeo and Juliet did, he still comes to her balcony and professes his love, like Romeo did to Juliet.

Love Story- Taylor Swift Love Story is a song written by Taylor Swift in This song is about two young people who are in love and how the artist of this song experiences the young love similar to Romeo and Juliet. The title of this song is called Love Story, because it is telling about the artists story of love, which has a happier ending than Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet is one of the most famous love stories of all times and this could be where the story part came from. In the song “Love Story”, Taylor Swift makes repeated references to significant scenes and parts of Romeo and Juliet. In one line, she say, “ on the balcony in summer air,” referring to the balcony scene, and she make another reference by saying, “this love is difficult, but it’s real,” because the love in Romeo and Juliet was very difficult and ended up costing the lover’s their lives, but they did what they did because they felt that something was there. Lastly, she makes references in the song to Romeo making his was across the crowd and that is similar to how Romeo and Juliet met. In her music video, she also portrays a reference to Romeo and Juliet and they first loved by how she dresses, and then it flashes to modern times and her love story.