Lot

The themes of Romeo and Juliet and west side story similar in many ways and very different too, at the same time. Let's start out with the differences, first of all Romeo and Juliet has a medieval theme where west side story has a mid 50s theme which are very different from eachover. Next Romeo and Juliet has a much more formal theme compared to west side story's less formal theme which is made of gangs instead of powerful family's and police officers instead of princes. And finally the last difference in theme is that Romeo and Juliet both suicide in the end because they can not I've without eachover, but when Tony dies, Maria does try to suicide, but her friends stop her, which means she had her gang to back her up, where Juliet didn't have even her family to back her up. Now the similaritys in the to stories themes are first that they are both romance stories focused around the two lovers not being able to be with eachover, because their families hate eachover, in Romeo and Juliet that's the capulats and the montegues, and for west side story it's the jets and the sharks. They also both share a theme in which the best friend is killed by the bother of the Juliet character and then he is killed by the Romeo character.
The setting of Romeo and Juliet is different and somewhat the same as the setting of west side story. First off romeo and Juliet takes place in medieval Britain, and west side story takes place in new York city during the 50s. Another difference in settings is when they are being married, romeo and Juliet are being actually married in a chruch, while tony and maria just plan out their marriage in clothing store that works at. Some similarities in the settings are that they both take place in a large city that's divided by to warring powerful groups.