Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story share many similar themes. Romeo and Juliet both tell a story of overcoming prejudice and hatred , about forbidden, stereotype-defying love that no one thought could break The two stories are similar in many ways, even though their settings are separated by centuries: Romeo and Juliet takes place in the 1500s and West Side Story. takes place in the 1950s. Side Story both teaches how prejudice can teach you to hate and how one of your rivals can be the one to help you remember how to love. In Romeo and Juliet and in West Side Story, prejudice is so strong between two distinct groups of people that hatred is passed down from generation to generation, always against the same rival group, prejudice is so influential that the act of hating them becomes as common as their mere existence. In Romeo and Juliet, there are two distinct groups. groups of people, the Montagues and the Capulets- Romeo to Montague and Juliet to Capulet. The Montagues and the Capulets have hated each other for as long as anyone can remember: the two families are in a constant feud. The children of one family hate the children of the other, the servants spit on their rival servants. In fact, the prejudice runs so deep that the mere thought of cross-socialization is absurd. In West Side Story, the principle is quite similar. The two rival gangs are the Jets, the Americans, and the Sharks, the Puerto Ricans. The Jets hate sharks because they feel like they are encroaching on their territory when they roam the streets of New York as easily as the Jets. The Jets and Sharks have been in a constant state of turmoil since Puerto Ricans started moving to America middle of paper......measurable and choices you never thought you'd make are being made. . Romeo and Juliet decided to marry - until death did them part - they loved each other so much that even then they did not part. They killed themselves to be together – together in a place, hopefully, where they could be free of prejudice and hatred. Tony and Maria also never had the chance to run away and live together in this place. While both stories tell how hatred, prejudice, forbidden love, and stereotypes change a person, neither mentions what truly made their lives impossible: revenge. A vengeance so deep it ended lives. It was revenge that didn't solve any problems, but just led to even bigger problems. So maybe while love can do miraculous things, like help you forget how to hate your enemies, even it's not completely capable of eliminating revenge..