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
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The West Side Story is a musical
Tony- Romeo Montague
written in 1957 based on the
Maria- Juliet Capulet
Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet.
The main character Tony falls in love
Anita- Nurse
with Maria a girl, whose brother is
Bernardo- Tybalt
the leader of the opposing gang, the
Riff- Mercutio
sharks. In this twisted story, there
will be romance, action and death,
Chino- Paris
like in the book Romeo and Juliet.
Baby John- Benvolio
Schrank and Officer Krupke- Prince Escalus
Doc- Friar Laurence
Anybodys- Balthazar
Action- Sampson
Jets- Montague Family
Sharks- Capulet Family
Plot Similarities in The West Side
Story
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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
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Gnomeo/ Romeo- The main character and
protagonist. He falls in love with Juliet, a
gnome from an opposing family.
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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.
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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.
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.
Capulet
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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.
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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
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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.
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.
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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
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Love Story is a song written by Taylor Swift in 2008.
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.