English Studies

ENGLISH SPEECH
Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, West Side story is a blockbuster musical film of its time, and is a modern day appropriation of the timeless classic tale of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The characters in these world renowned texts portray elements of utilising the character functions in the modern day west side story as a reflection of those in Romeo and Juliet in the Elizabethan strain of the play. The characters I have chosen to replicate to you all today is the West side story Doc as a modern expression of Friar Laurence in the famous Romeo and Juliet.
Friar Laurence is perceived as a man, whom to Romeo looks at as a father figure, and adviser. Friar is a character who demonstrates a man with good intentions, who becomes shortsighted and displays a manner of craze for Romeo and Juliet’s love, as he believes that will surmount the family feud. The Jewish American Doc, a man who displays several qualities of Friar Laurence, who likes to endorse peace, is modified into a temperament who believes the dispute between the two gangs, jets and sharks, is preposterous, stating to the jets ‘you kids make this world lousy! When will you stop?’ This relates to the way Friar believes the feud between the Capulet’s and Montague’s to be the same. Tony, Romeos figure reflection, looks to the Doc as a man of trust and reliance, thus providing a similarity between the two characters as they are both looked upon as confidantes.
These two character functions obtain very different emphasis on the amount of respect they are treated with. In Romeo and Juliet, Friar Laurence plays a man of great significance, in the eyes of not only Romeo, but all essential characters. For example, among his plans to reunite Romeo and Juliet, they are thwarted by the influences of fate. Although he held good intentions, the friar feels guilty about the misfortune which he unintentionally caused. After the confession of the mishap of deaths, the prince still refers to him...