THE MEfAMORPHOSIS OF A LOVE STORY:
A MULTI-DISCIPLINARY COMPARISON OF ROMEO AND JULIET
by
Elizabeth Conn
A SENIOR THESIS
m
GENERAL STUDIES
Submitted to the General Studies Council
in the College of Arts and Sciences
at Texas Tech University in
Partial fulfillment of
the Requirements for
the Degree of
BACHELOR OF GENERAL STUDIES
. ~moved
1• DR~KENNETHDA-V'Is
Honors College
Chauperson of Thesis Committee
DR. RICHARD WAMj@ER
Department of Family Studies
Accepted
DR.MICHAELSCHOENECKE
Director of General Studies
December 2001
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank the members of my thesis committee, Dr. Kenneth Davis
and Dr. Richard Wampler, for their continuing support and scholarly leadership. I would
also like to Dr. Michael Schoenecke for providing help and advice whenever it was
needed.
11
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.........................................................
11
CHAPTER
I.
INTRODUCTION.......................................................
1
II.
SOURCES OF SHAKESPEARE'S ROMEO AND JULIEf... ... 3
The Montagues and the Capulets and the Manifestation
Hostility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...
3
Giovanni Boccaccio and the Rise of the Romeo and Juliet
III.
IV.
V.
Legend in Italy......................................................
4
The Legend of Romeo and Juliet Reaches England............
5
A CHARACTER AND PLOT COMPARISON BETWEEN
SHAKESPEARE'S PLAY AND GOUNOD'S OPERA.......
7
Romeo..................................................................
8
Juliet..... ..... ................................................. .........
9
The Nurse/Gertrude. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11
Friar I...aurence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13
Tybalt and Mercutio..................................................
14
Secondary Characters..... ............... .... .... ............ ........
15
A COMPARISON OF BERNSTEIN'S WEST SIDE STORY
AND SHAKESPEARE'S ROMEO AND JUUET...............
17
Dueling Families........ .......................................... .....
17
Young Lovers...........................................................
19
Death.....................................................................
20
CONCLUSION ..................................................... ..
22
1ll
Gains and Losses When the Medium Changes..................
22
Romance Versus Sexuality........................... ....... . . ......
25
In Conclusion..... ........ ........ .... ..... .............. ..... .... .....
26
BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................................................
28
IV
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCfION
Two households both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona where we lay our scene
From ancient grudge, break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean:
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes,
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life:
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows,
Doth with their death bury their parents' strife,
The fearful passage of their death-marked love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which but their children's end nought could remove,
[s now the two hours' traffic of our stage.
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. (Romeo and Juliet
Prologue. 1-14)
William Shakespeare was not the first to give the story of Romeo and Juliet to the
world, but his work, above all others, survives generation through generation as a symbol
of innocence and true love. Shakespeare's words are crafted into perfection; each line is a
perfect poem. Such magnificence can in no way be duplicated, but the story behind the
art has often been borrowed, rewritten, reworked and modernized.
Many attempts have been made to set the Romeo and Juliet story in a musical
genre. Two such pieces are the romantic opera Romeo et Juliette by Charles Gounod and
the Broadway musical West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein. The elements of
Shakespeare's 16th Century play are important issues for the people of any era, as
evidenced by the popularity of Gounod's 18th Century opera and Bernstein's 20th Century
musical, and therefore provide the perfect storyline for a dramatic musical text. Going
even further, Gounod's and Bernstein's works are more than musical compositions: they
1
are musical dramas, intended to absorb a viewing audience. "It is possible to deny music
a dramatic role, then, only if one insists that drama is a product of words alone" (Swain
4); therefore, a comparison of Shakespeare's and Gounod's and Bernstein's interpretations
reveals how the drama of Romeo and Juliet is transformed throughout various artistic
disciplines.
2
CHAPTER II
SOURCES OF SHAKESPFARE'S ROMEO AND JULIET
The Monta~ues and the Capulets and the Manifestation of Hostility
It is undeniable that Shakespeare's play was fed by pre-existing works and
legends. The first reference to a Romeo and Juliet-type story is found in the third century
A. D. in Ephesiaca of Xenophon of Ephesus (Narrative 269). Anthia, separated from her
husband, is rescued from robbers by Perilaus. To avoid marrying the man she does not
love (and in consideration of her first marriage), Anthia obtains a potion from a physician
that she thinks to be poison, but is merely a sleeping tonic. She awakes inside a tomb and
is "rescued" by another band of tomb robbers (Brooke 269). Though suicidal lovers and
misrepresented deaths are found in the earliest of literature, the "traditional conception of
the Montecchi (Montagues) and the Cappelletti (Capulets) ... begins with an obscure
passage in Dante's Purgatorio where, in one verse, the names of the factions are found
for the first time in juxtaposition" (Moore 4). In fact, evidence shows the families of
Montague and Capulet that eventually play into Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet "never
resided in Verona, and in fact, never existed at all" (Moore 3). Therefore, the
Shakespearian versions of the Montagues and the Capulets were based on political
factions. As Moore further points out, the Cappelletti, "far from being a family living in
Verona, were a faction associated with the political affairs of Cremona" and were
apparently named for the small caps they wore as an insignia (9). The first Dante
commentator to refer to the Cappelletti's and the Montecchi's as families in Verona was
"the influential Benvenuto da Imola" in 1379 (Moore 20). But "the notion of enmity
3
between the Montecchi and the Cappelletti seems to have originated with Fransisco da
Bute" in 1380 (Moore 20).
Giovanni Boccaccio and the Rise of the Romeo and Juliet Legend in Italy
The rise of the Romeo and Juliet legend in Italy occurs with the publication of
Giovanni Boccacio's romances Filostrato and Filocolo. Bocaccio's novelles are
considered to be a "dominant stylistic influence" (Moore 21) on Shakespeare's Romeo
and Juliet, not to mention Boccacio's "vaguer influence on the Romeo plot" (Moore 21).
Evidence suggests that Shakespeare took many of his plot characteristics from Luigi da
Porto, an Italian writer of the early 1500s (Muir 21). Da Porto's novella Giulietta e
Romeo (Moore 43) is the forefront of two particular Shakespearean subplots, the balcony
scene and Juliet's emerging independence as she approaches her nuptials. As Muir points
out, "da Porto tells us that Romeo used to climb Giullietta's balcony and listen to her
discourse" and that "Giullietta goes alone to the Friar's cell for her wedding; in all the
other versions she is accompanied" (22). The "first important (Italian) imitator of Luigi
da Porto's masterpiece was the Caliere Gerardo Boldieri, who adopted the feminine
pseudonym of 'Clizia'" (Moore 67). Boldieri's novella was written in 1553, twenty-four
years after the death of Luigi da Porto (Moore 67), and it brings several plot innovations
to Romeo and Juliet which "relate principally to the character of the friar; the flowery
speeches of the hero and his duel with Tebaldo; and the psychology of the heroine"
(Moore 67).
4
The Le&end of Romeo and Juliet Reaches England
Pierre Boaistau's Histories tragiques was published in 1559 and is responsible for
bringing the Romeo and Juliet legend to England. The two English predecessors of
Shakespeare to tackle Romeo and Juliet were Arthure Brooke and William Painter, the
former publishing Romeus and luliet in 1562 and the latter publishing Rhomeo and
Iulietta in 1566. While Brooke's version is considered the greatest influence by far on
Shakespeare's play, Painter's work was "faithful to (Boastau's) original" but showed little
in the way of original thought or idea (Moore 95). Brooke's poem, however, laid a solid
foundation for the play that would later become William Shakespeare's most famous
work. Parallels exist throughout Brooke's poem and Shakespeare's play. From the
beginning, like Brooke, Shakespeare opens with a sonnet, but while Brooke gives the
"main details of his plot, Shakespeare presents the general 'public' outline and the tone of
of his story" (Narrative 278). Brooke goes into deep detail during his Chorus Prologue,
describing the enmity between the Montagues and the Capulets and Prince Escalus's
attempt to form a peace between the two families (Muir 23). But the genius of
Shakespeare overshadows Brooke's attempt at every tum.
In Brooke Shakespeare "found his subject well laid out and ready for quick
dramatization, hut told with a turgid emotionalism and pedestrian repetitiveness" (Moore
21). "The surprising thing is that Shakespeare preserved so mush of his source in
vitalizing its dead stuff" (Narrative 278). Lastly, Shakespeare developed Paris, Capulet
and Montague almost entirely from Brooke's characters, but Shakespeare's characters
were "made more real and effective" (Muir 25) especially Mercutio and the Nurse, by
which, some say, Shakespeare "displayed ... his unequalled power of dramatic
5
presentation of character" (Muir 30). Overall, the Narrative and Dramatic Sources of
Shakespeare says it best: "Brooke's poem is a leaden work which Shakespeare
transmitted into gold" (277-278).
6
CHAPTER III
A CHARACfER AND PLOT COMPARISON BEfWEEN SHAKESPEARE'S PLAY
AND GOUNOD'S OPERA
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is truly unequaled, but many have tried to
recreate his timeless play, adjusting it to fit a multitude of eras and genres. Charles
Gounod lived from 1818 to 1893 (Harding 22, 223), a long life that allowed Gounod to
become a prolific composer, best know for his music of the church and his acclaimed
opera Faust (Huebner 155). Gounod's second most famous work debuted at the Theatre
Lyrique in Paris on April 27, 1867 (Henderson i). Romeo et Juliette was Gounod's
second consolidation with librettists Michel Carre and Jules Barbier (Lacombe 17) their
first being Faust in 1859 (Harding 108). Though Carre and Barbier deserve ample
recognition for their work, the opera is truly Gounod's and will be referred to as such for
the purposes of this paper, in both discussion of music and libretto. Critics were
disappointed in Romeo et Juliette after Faust, but the opera is still performed today and
therefore holds a place in history, if for no other reason than the story itself and the music
which Huebner describes as "exquisite ... each (piece) is ajewel individually cut and
meticulously polished" (156). Gounod's opera merely borrowed the story from
Shakespeare, but the change in discipline allows for alternate character interpretations
and slight plot variations.
7
Romeo
The character of Romeo is, of course, one-half of the most significant couple in
literature. As the play begins, Romeo is pouty and childish as he mourns over his lost
love, Rosaline. His flowery language doubled with Shakespeare's underhanded rhyme
scheme display an immature Romeo, not yet marred by love.
Why such is love's transgression.
Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast. ..
Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs;
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes ...
What is it else? A madness most discreet,
A choking gall, and a preserving sweet. ..
Well, in that hit you miss; she'll not be hit
With Cupid's arrow, she hath Dian's wit,
And in strong proof of chastity well armed
From love's weak childish bow she lives unharmed ...
o she is rich in beauty, only poor
That when she dies, with beauty dies her store. (Romeo and Juliet l.i.lSO211)
But in Gounod's opera, Romeo does not appear until the ball at the Capulets', where he
falls in love with Juliet at first sight. So, while Shakespeare takes the time to explore
Romeo's duality at the beginning of the play, Gounod's opera neither takes the time nor
the initiative to portray Romeo's character as anything more than a tragic, lovesick
adolescent, willing to do what he must to be with his lover. In the play, as Romeo is
developed, he is transfonned from a starry-eyed romantic to a man bent on revenge. In
Act Three, Scene One, Romeo must face the death of his close friend, Mercutio.
Romeo's language reflects his rage:
Alive, in triumph, and Mercutio slain.
Away to heaven respective lenity,
Now Tybalt, take the 'villian' back again
That late thou gav'st me, for Mercutio's soul
Is but a little way above our heads,
8
Staying for thine to keep him company.
Either thou, of I,or both must go with him. (Romeo and Juliet III.i.llS125)
Shakespeare's words are strong and relay Romeo's fury at the slaying of Mercutio, but
Gounod takes Romeo's fury to a higher level and develops it musically. Romeo's furious,
"Ah ... he is slain! Away to heaven, of shameful caution! And thou, of fire-eyed
retribution, now of my heart the law shalt be" (162-163) reveals his red-hot anger, while
the musical line parallels his fury. The line begins on an FI, a note just high enough in a
tenor's mid-range that it can be sung extremely powerfully. The line stays in the same
powerful mid-range, only straying higher on the words "heaven" and "Thou" (Gounod
162-163). Such a line, and others like it throughout the opera, reveals the inspiration
behind Gounod's decision to make Romeo a tenor. Operatic history is steeped with
lovesick and heroic tenors, and lower voices such as baritone and bass are often reserved
for older, authoritative types like Capulet and Friar Laurence. By making Romeo a tenor,
Gounod defines Romeo's character as a young, yet courageous, man.
Equally revealing was Gounod's decision to make Juliet a light-lyric soprano.
The voice part suits her perfectly, for Juliet herself is only a child, and the light lyric
voice has the agility and softness to sound almost childlike. When Juliet is first
introduced in the opera she is at the ball, singing gaily about the people and the music.
Her musical lines are light and airy, with a hint of coloratura, perhaps added in to indicate
the laughter of childhood or the giddiness of joy. Shakespeare's Juliet is also introduced
as a young, innocent adolescent. Unlike in the opera, in the play Juliet speaks for the first
9
JUliet's maturity is further revealed in her reaction to Tybalt's death, at the hand of
Romeo.
Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?
Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name
When I thy three-hours wife have mangled it?
But wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin?
That villain cousin would have killed my husband.
Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring,
Your tributary drops belong to woe
Which you mistaking offer up to joy.
My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain,
And Tybalt's dead, that would have slain my husband. (Romeo and Juliet
III.ii.97-106)
The opera portrays Juliet's reaction with a single sung phrase.
Love! Thy life Tybalt sought,
And I pardon thy blow;
For if he were alive, I should 0 longer have thee!
Naught of sorrow I feel, no remorse do I know.
He did bear thee hate and I love thee! (Gounod181-182)
Juliet's words are few, but the mournful minor key in which her recitative occurs, gives
further insight into Juliet's true feelings of loss. like Shakespeare, Gounod wants his
characters to be multi-faceted and complex, but because of restraints within the medium,
he must use the music and the words to create dualistic characters that often exist only to
move the action forward and to fill time between large-scale musical peaks.
The N urse/ Gertrude
Another character that experiences a transformation is the Nurse. In
Shakespeare's play, the nurse acts as a go -between for Romeo and Juliet and is the
equivalent of a mother to Juliet. Since she is a servant, she uses bawdy, common
language when describing Juliet's romance with Romeo.
11
You know not how to choose a man. Romeo!
No, not he. Though his face be better than any man's,
Yet his leg excels all men's. and for a
Hand and a foot, and a body ... yet they are past compare ...
J am the drudge, and tail in your delight.
But you shall bear the burden soon at night. (Romeo and Juliet II.v.3943,75-77)
Shakespeare does not allow the servant to become a flat, secondary character; instead, the
Nurse is as complex as Romeo and Juliet themselves. The Nurse supports Juliet's
romance with Romeo and is the only character that knows of their marriage besides Friar
Laurence. But the Nurse loses Juliet's trust when she advises Juliet to move on and marry
Paris. Suddenly, the Nurse metamorphosizes from a friend and confidant to a servant,
aware of her station in life and willing to betray any friendship to obey her master.
Whereas her earlier words praised Romeo, her speech after Romeo's banishment is harsh
and opposes her earlier sentiment.
I think it best you married with the County.
0, he's a lovely gentleman.
Romeo's a dishc10ut to him ...
Beshrew my heart,
I think you are happy in this second match,
For it excels you first; or if it did not,
Your first is dead, or 'twere as good he were
As living here and you no use of him. (Romeo and Juliet lII.v.218-226)
The Nurse's operatic counterpart is given little chance to be more than a silly servant.
Gounod's Gertrude plays a pivotal, but small role as Juliet's twittering caregiver. Her
lines are sparse and inconsequential, but without the existence of Gertrude's character,
Juliet would have no one to converse with and tell her secrets to.
12
Friar Laurence
Friar Laurence is presented as the most complex of the secondary characters by
both Shakespeare and Gounod. In the beginning the Friar is illustrated as a gentle, wise
man of nature.
0, mickle is the powerful grace that lies
In plants, herbs, stones, and their true qualities;
For nought so vile tat on the earth doth live
But to the earth some special good doth give;
Nor aught so good but, strained from that fair use,
Revolts from true birth stumbling on abuse:
Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied,
And vice sometime's by action dignified. (Romeo and Juliet II.iii.I6-23)
He is also Romeo's trusted advisor and cares enough to caution him from moving too
quickly, but he also supports Romeo's decision to marry Juliet.
Ay! Tho' blind be their ire when offense may be given,
I will lend my aid to you now;
May centuries of hate, that bath your houses riven,
Be quench'd in the love you avow! (Gounod 124-125)
In both the play and the opera, the Friar's behavior is almost godlike. He is capable of
sincere forgiveness, a trusted advisor and hopes for peace over all else. But by the end of
Shakespeare's drama the Friar is revealed to be only human and leaves Juliet in the tomb
with her dead husband, afraid of the consequences that will befall him if he remains.
I hear some noise. Lady come from that nest
Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep.
A greater power than we can contradict
Hath thwarted our intents. Come, come away.
Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead,
And Paris too ...
Stay not to question, for the Watch is coming.
Come, go, good Juliet. I dare no longer stay. (Romeo and Juliet V.iii.1511.56,158-159)
13
Gounod's Friar Laurence has no such conclusion. His final act in the opera is to go off in
search of Romeo, to warn him of Juliet's sleeping potion.
Tybalt and Mercutio
Other characters make their mark in Shakespeare's drama. Mercutio and Tybalt
are similar characters on either side of the court. Both are hot-tempered and willing to
fight for their loved ones to the end. Tybalt is the cousin of Juliet and is responsible for
arranging her marriage to Paris. He is gentleman and his small role reveals him to be an
aristocrat, unwilling to allow the Montagues near his family.
Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford
No better term than this: thou art a villain ...
Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries
That thou hast done me, therefore tum and draw. (Romeo and Juliet
III.ii.56-57 ,62-63)
Gounod chooses to give Tybalt more life, and portrays his character as a true man's man,
particularly when he is trying to convince Paris that Juliet will make a suitable wife at the
beginning of Act One.
How now my dear Paris! Art thou gazing on our festal and fair array
But as yet no note hast thou taken of the rarest treasure we own,
That is destin'd for thee alone ...
It (love) shall yet awake, or I wonder:
Only see! By the hand her father leads her yonder! (Gounod 18-20)
As compared to Tybalt, Shakespeare's Mercutio's role is larger, and therefore his
character is explored more deeply. Mercutio is loud and boisterous, often ribbing
Romeo, but willing to stand up for his friend's life. Mercutio makes his famous Queen
Mab soliloquy early in his role, revealing himself to be a dreamer.
14
o then I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agrate stone
On the forefinger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Over men's noses as they lie asleep ...
Sometimes she gallops o'er a courtier's nose
And then dreams he of smelling out a suit;
And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig's tail,
Tickling a parson's nose as a lies asleep;
Then dreams he of another benefice ...
True, I talk of dreams,
Which are the children of an idle brain,
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,
Which is as thin of substance as the air
And more inconstant than the wind, who woos
Even now the frozen bosom of the north
And, being angered, puffs away from thence
Turning his face to the dew-dropping south. (Romeo and Juliet I.iv.5368,77-81,97-103)
Mercutio's role in the opera is equally compelling. He is smart with his friends and there
to defend their honor when need be. Whereas Tybalt is a tenor, Mercutio's role is cast as
a baritone, further illustrating his slight bawdiness and manliness.
The roles of Mercutio and Tybalt are most pivotal during the duel scene. In
typical operatic fashion, the tempo is fast and the texture is woven together by a strong
bass line. Paired with racing melismas and short vocal inserts the scene creates tension
and excitement for the audience as Tybalt and Mercutio fight to the death.
Secondary Characters
Both Gounod's and Shakespeare's works employ several peripheral characters that
fill in plot gaps and provide subplots outside of the primary love story. Paris, Lord
Montague, Lord Capulet and the Prince (or Duke as he is penned by Gounod), all find
15
their way into the story. Paris is the eager, but unrequited lover to Juliet. Capulet and
Montague (play only) are the disapproving parents and dueling neighbors. And the
Prince (Duke) is the ruling party that finally banishes Romeo from Verona after her kills
Tybalt.
Interestingly, for the opera the librettists "introduced Stephano, the page, a
character not found in the original play, and having no necessary connection to the story"
as an effort to increase the number of roles for young female singers (Henderson ii).
Staying true to form, Shakespeare makes an attempt to develop these characters through
detail and dialog, while Gounod chose to invest his time in the primary characters and
almost exclusively the love plot. Gounod also chose to take dramatic license with the
Shakespeare's ending. The play ends with Romeo finding Juliet seemingly dead in her
tomb. Romeo kills himself with poison and Juliet wakes to find Romeo dead. She then
kills herself and Friar Laurence is left to explain their deaths to the families, which
reconcile at the end. Shakespeare's conclusion is a tidy one, suitable for the literature of
that time. The ending of Gounod's work involves Romeo finding Juliet seemingly dead
in her tomb. Romeo drinks the poison to join her in death, but Juliet awakes and the
couple sings a love duet before Romeo dies. Juliet then stabs herself with his dagger and
the sweeping fortissimo of the orchestra brings the opera to a close. Though both endings
are notably tragic, Shakespeare's expectant Juliet, waking next to her dead lover is heartbreakingly poignant.
16
CHAPfERIV
A COMPARISON OF BERNSTEIN'S WEST SIDE STORY AND SHAKESPEARE'S
ROMEO AND JUUET
In September 1957 (Laufe 222), West Side Story turned Broadway upside down.
Bernstein's musical was unlike any show that had come before it. Critics were skeptical
and "considered the unsavory plot unsuitable for musical theater" (Laufe 224); however,
viewers loved West Side Story and the production became the first musical hit of the
1957-58 season (Laufe 221). Filled with raucous sexuality and considerable ethnic
overtones, audiences were delighted to find reality within the fictional world of Tony and
Maria.
Dueling Families
Shakespeare's play begins with a violent confrontation between the Capulets and
the Montagues. As the play moves forward, it becomes clear that the hate between the
two families has become a tradition of violence embedded in a history far older than the
current members and, therefore, has little basis in the fact of the day. But the families
continue to act on the hatred that has been passed down from one generation to the next,
causing strife in Verona and angering the prince, who acts as the law of the land.
Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,
Profaners of this neighbour-stained steelWill they not hear? What ho, you men, you beasts
That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
With purple fountains issuing from your veins:
On pain of torture, from those bloody hands,
Throw your mistempered weapons to the ground,
17
And hear the sentence of your moved Prince,
Three civil brawls bred of an airy word,
By thee old Capulet and Montague,
Have thrice disturbed the quiet of our streets,
And made Verona's ancient citizens
Cast by their grave bessemeing ornaments
To wield old partisans, in hands as old,
Cankered with peace, to part you cankered hate. (Romeo and Juliet I.i.7690)
The Prince's harsh words reflect the frustration that whole city must endure when a brawl
breaks out between the two families, but also hint at the childishness of such fighting.
Comparatively, West Side Story is also a story about a monstrous, allencompassing hatred between two groups. Bernstein's choice to base the discord
between the groups on racial issues was a reflection of the times. Racial bigotry was a
huge conflict in 1950s America, and Bernstein's musical acts as a social commentary of
that era. West Side Story's racial conflict drives a wedge between the two groups and
gangs have resulted. These gangs, each festering with their own side of the same hatred,
are like families, loyal to their members and willing to risk death to combat any threat to
their way of life. This loyalty is represented wholly in a piece from Act 1: "Jet Song."
When you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way
From your first cigarette to your last dyin' day.
When you're a Jet, if the spit hits the fan,
You got brothers around, you're a family man!
You're never alone, you're never disconnected!
You're home with your own: when company's expected,
You're well protected! Then you are set with a capital J
Which you'll never forget till they cart you away.
When you're a Jet you stay a Jet. (Bernstein 14-18)
The loyalty off the Jets, and similarly the loyalty of the Sharks, is manifested in hatred
and violence. Bernstein's dueling gangs and Shakespeare's fighting families are
categorized differently, but their issues are born of the same hatred.
18
Young Lovers
If Shakespeare and Bernstein's works are based in confronting loyalty, they are
characterized by the plight of two young lovers from different sides of the strife. More
than any other aspect of the plot, Romeo and Juliet and Tony and Maria are essentially
the same couple. Both couples are young and struggle to find themselves when they find
each other. Romeo and Tony are both strong and influential in their circles and equally
immature about matters of the heart. Juliet and Maria are sweet, innocent girls, each
struggling under the weight of defying their families.
The marriage of both couples seals their fate. Although they are bound to one
another, they are forever separated from the ones they love. Shakespeare and Bernstein
do choose to handle the marriage scenes differently. Romeo and Juliet's marriage occurs
off-stage after a hasty conversation with Friar Laurence.
Romeo Ah Juliet, if the measure of thy joy
Be heaped like mine, and that thy skill be more
To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath
This neighbour air, and let rich music's tongue
Unfold the imagined happiness that both
Receive in either by this dear encounter.
Juliet Conceit, more rich in matter than in words,
Brags of his substance, not of ornament.
They are but beggars that can count their worth;
But my true love is grown to such excess
I cannot sum up sum of half my wealth. (Romeo and Juliet II.vi.25-35)
Bernstein chooses to play out the marriage scene onstage with a romantic duet.
Make of our hands one hand, make of our hearts one heart,
Make of our vows one last vow:
Only death will part us now.
Make of our lives one life, day after day, one life.
Now it begins, now we start. (Bernstein 105-107)
19
The reason the marriage scenes are handled differently may lie in the discipline itself.
Shakespeare's work is steeped in subtleties. His language is poetic and employs imagery
to produce a plot where little action is required on the stage. By keeping the marriage
scene off the stage, Shakespeare defines the love of the two characters, but also allows
the audience to draw their own conclusions about the intimacy between the couple. West
Side Story's marriage scene is played out on the stage for presumably the same reason
Gounod includes the marriage scene in the opera: the love duet.
Little subtleties exist in the musical theater discipline. Because dialogue is
secondary, music is primary, and somewhere in between the plot must reveal itself.
Consequently, exciting songs are about the action of the plot, not the conversation
between the climaxes. So Bernstein's choice to bring the marriage scene onstage can be
mainly attributed to the musical theater genre.
Death
Shakespeare and Bernstein handle death differently, and once again genre could
be the single responsible factor for the variance. Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy. The
entire plot stems from unity through eternity or the idea that even death cannot separate a
love that is true and real. To create the perfect tragedy, Shakespeare is forced to slay both
of the young lovers, giving the audience a taste of the bittersweet irony that forms real
tragedy. Unlike a musical work, a play is not contingent on several voices working
together to create power and drama. A play relies on the words of each individual
character and creates drama when a character is challenged. Therefore, Shakespeare's
20
ending creates drama through the words of Romeo before his suicide and Juliet before
hers.
Romeo a my love, my wife,
Death that hath sucked the honey of thy breath
Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty ...
For fear of that I still will stay with thee,
And never from this palace of dim night
Depart again. Here, here, I will remain
With worms that are thy chambermaids ...
a true apothecary
Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die. (Romeo and Juliet V.iii.9193,106-109,119-120)
Juliet What's here? A cup closed in my true love's hand?
Poison I see, hath been his timeless end.
a churl. Drunk all, and left no friendly drop
To help me after? I will kiss thy lips.
Haply some poison yet doth hang on them.
To make me die with a restorative.
Thy lips are warm ...
Yea,noise? Then I'll be brief. a happy dagger.
This is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die. (Romeo and Juliet V.iii.161167,168-169)
The death of Tony and the burden Maria carries as she is left behind is also tragic,
but the existence of any life allows the audience hope. Considering that most of West
Side Story's contemporaries were happy, go-lucky musicals of the 1950s, perhaps
Bernstein felt that the death of two characters would be too overwhelming for the
audience. And, as mentioned before, by modifying the death scene from Shakespeare's
original, Bernstein makes it possible for the couple to sing one last love duet at the end of
the show, which provides fulfillment for the modem audience. Even though the
conclusions are different, Bernstein's final scene is equally tragic and haunting.
There's a place for us. A time and place for us.
Hold my hand we're half way there, hold my hand
And I'll take you there. Somewhere! (Bernstein 199-201)
21
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION
Gains and Losses When the Medium Changes
The Operatic Genre vs. Shakespeare's Play
There is little doubt that a work is affected by a change in the medium. Romeo
and Juliet as an opera is very different from Romeo and Juliet as a play or even a
musical. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses and each brings its own glory to the
Romeo and Juliet legend. Music has the ability to evoke faint nuances and striking
emotionalism that mere words cannot. A good composer, as Gounod and Bernstein were
both considered to be, not only uses every note to create an emotional piece, but molds
the music into a masterpiece using the instruments of the orchestra and the voices of the
singers. Within this masterpiece, a single musical passage can relay a mood, such as
Juliet's passage from Gounod's Romeo et Juliette. Juliet's words translate as:
Ah! I tremble! Woeful hour!
They have taken him, my treasure!
Oh heart rending power! Ah woe is me!
In him was all my pleasure,
My life was he,
Yet fortune unkind holds him apart from me! (Gounod 229-235)
Juliet's line is simple, but the chords underneath provide a sorrowful support beyond the
understanding of the physical world with an occasional passing tone or accidental that
strikes at the heart of the listener. Without so much as a word, the listener knows the
sorrow in Juliet's heart as she discovers her lover is dead. Juliet's fortissimo cry and the
heartfelt plea of the chorus beneath stir the listener's emotions. One can ride on the notes
22
of the music, the high, rich chords and full voices bringing the bond of the lovers to a
plane beyond the understanding of just a word.
On the other hand, a play moves quicker and can give more description and detail.
Whereas Romeo et Juliette skims the surface of such characters as the nurse and Tybalt,
Shakespeare's play takes the time to explore both of these characters in detail. But what
truly brings out the detail is Shakespeare's legendary use of figurative language. For
example, Romeo's soliloquy from the famous "Balcony Scene."
But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east and Juliet is the sun!
Arise fair sun and kill the envious moon
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou her maid art far more fair than she,
Be not her maid since she is envious,
Her vestal livery is but sick and green
And none but fools do wear it. Cast it off.
It is my lady, 0 it is my love!
o that she knew she were!
She speaks, yet she says nothing. What of that. ..
Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars
As daylight doth a lamp. Her eyes in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night.
See how she leans her cheek upon her hand.
o that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek! (Romeo and Juliet II.i.2-12,20-25)
In these twenty lines, Shakespeare's figurative language compares Juliet to the sun,
compares Juliet's beauty to the moon, compares the moon's sick and green uniform to
Juliet's beautiful wears, compares Juliet's eyes to twinkling stars, compares her bright
cheeks to a lamp, causes Juliet to make the birds sing as if it were day, and describes
23
Romeo's desire to be a glove on the hand of Juliet, so that he might touch her cheek.
Such intimate detail in word has no real place in an operatic setting, not only because
words in an opera must be tailored to fit with the music, but also because many operas,
including Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, are either performed in the original language, in
this case French, regardless of the vernacular of the audience, often impeding
international audience comprehension, or are performed using a translation of the original
libretto which often cannot be true to the original words either because lines must make
sense in the translated language or because rhyme schemes are often necessary for flow
and motion of line.
Bernstein's Musical Interpretation of Romeo and Juliet
In Bernstein's musical, the same story is sculpted into a modem day version.
Therefore, Bernstein not only brings variety to Romeo and Juliet through music, but also
through Stephen Sondheim's libretto. Modernizing a story has a two-sided effect.
Audiences can more easily identify with characters because they are living in a modem
world with modem problems, just as the listener (or reader) is. But modernizing a story
also steals something from the original; after all, the author's intention was for that story
to occur in those times, allowing the observer to live the lives of the characters as those
characters would in the original era. Bernstein's musical interpretation is also quite
different from Gounod's. Whereas Gounod's music is full of romantic, heady chords and
easy, symmetric rhythms, Bernstein's score is raw and full of heat and almost an anxiety
that sets the stage for a drama that truly reflects the conflicts and lives of the characters
24
involved. "America's" cynicism pours from the lyrics, reflecting an immigrant's lack of
true freedom, even in the "Land of the Free."
Puerto Rico, You lovely island, island of tropical breezes .. .
Puerto Rico, You ugly island, island of tropical diseases ... .
I like to be in America! O.K. by me in America!
Everything free in America.
For a small fee in America! (Bernstein 73)
And Bernstein's angry, racy music is doubly effective when matched with the
choreography of Jerome Robbins. West Side Story is truly a dance show and at the time
the choreography was groundbreaking and a stark contrast to the "family-oriented"
Broadway shows that preceded it. Like the music, the choreography in the original
Broadway production and in professional productions today is heavily rhythmic, often
mimicking the sexual heat that underlies the entire work.
Romance versus Sexuality
Overall, it is clear that a change in genre can affect not only the meaning of a
work, but also the message it leaves to the audience. Gounod's interpretation revolves
around romance, whereas Bernstein's revolves around sex.
Gounod's Romantic Opera
Ironically, by taking on a love story of such magnitUde, Gounod created a work
that did little to differentiate itself from any other romantic opera of the era. The
restraints of recreating such a complicated story within the operatic discipline forced the
love theme into the spotlight and shoved the secondary plot themes into shadows. The
25
opera virtually ignores the friendship between Mercutio and Romeo and gives little time
to the mother/ daughter relationship between Juliet and her nurse. As a result, Gounod's
opera, though a string of wonderfully crafted musical pieces, has no real place next to
Shakespeare's play.
The Sexual Heat of Bernstein's Musical Masterpiece
Whereas Gounod's work makes no more than a mark in the history of Romeo and
Juliet, Bernstein's musical stands on its own as a living descendent of Shakespeare's
Romeo and Juliet and as a masterpiece of its own time.
Every word and every note drip with sexuality. Bernstein's 20th composition style
becomes the perfect canvas for a musical drama meant to be startlingly sexual. The
dissonant chord structure gives the piece life, and each individual chord is an echo of the
sexual frustration that builds until the consonance finally arrives and, with it, relief.
Raunchy, heated language further adds to the fire, as does the blatantly sexual
choreography.
Juxtaposed to the sexual heat is the pure relationship between Tony and Maria.
Their love shines like a white beam through the red-hot sexuality, creating a dualism of
plot and character that makes West Side Story a landmark in the history of musical
theater.
In Conclusion
Gounod's work is truly romantic, Bernstein's work is truly sexual; both stem from
a work that is and will continue to be a legend of literature. Shakespeare's play was
26
created from pre-existing stories, but he crafted those tales into a work that has become
one of the most important in history. By infusing it into another artistic discipline,
Gounod and Bernstein have retold Romeo and Juliet in a different and mind-opening
way. Though these interpretations definitely have their place in their respective genres,
Shaksepeare's play will always be the work against which all others will be measured.
27
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Apthorp, William Foster. The Opera, Past and Present, an Historical Sketch. New York:
C. Scribner's Sons, 1901.
Bashian, Kathleen Ryniker. "The Dialogue of Disciplines: An Arts Approach to
Shakespeare." Momentum 27 (Aug./Sept. 1996): 56-58.
Berges, Ruth. Opera Origins and Side Lights. New York: T. Yoseloff, 1961.
Bernstein, Leonard. West Side Story. New York: G. Schinner, Inc. and Chappell & Co.,
Inc., 1959.
Brockman, William S. Music: A Guide to the Reference Literature. Littleton, Colorado:
Libraries Unlimited, 1987.
Brooke, Arthur. Brooke's 'Romeus and Juliet ': Being the Original ofShakespeare's
'Romeo and Juliet. 'Ed. J.J. Munro. New York: AMS Press, 1970.
Brooke, Nicholas. Shakespeare's Early Tragedies. London: Muethen and Co. Ltd.,
1968.
Brown, Carolyn E. "Juliet's Taming of Romeo." Studies in English Literature /500-/900
36 (Spring 1996): 333-355.
Brown, Ivor. Shakespeare in His Time. Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd., 1960.
Conrad, Peter. A Song of Love and Death: The Meaning of Opera. New York: Poseidon
Press, 1m.
Cook, Ann Jennalie. Making a Match: Courtship in Shakespeare and His Society.
Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1991.
Critical Essays on Romeo and Juliet. Ed. Joseph A. Porter. New York: G.K. Hall;
London: Prentice Hall International, 1997.
Crowdus, Gary. "Words, Words, Words: Recent Shakespearean Films." Cineaste 23
(1998): 13-19.
Donington, Robert. Opera and Its Symbols: The Unity of Words, Music, and Staging.
New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1990.
28
Forse, James. "Arden of Feversham and Romeo and Juliet: Two Elizabethan Experiments
in the Genre of 'Comedy-suspense. ", Journal ofPopular Culture 29 (Winter
1995): 85-102.
Gounod, Charles. Romeo and Juliet. Trans. Dr. Theo. Baker. Milwaukee, WI: G.
Schinner Inc., 1925.
Grove 's Dictionary ofMusic and Musicians. Ed. 1. A. Fuller-Maitland. Philadelphia:
Theodore Presser Company, 1925.
Hankins, John Erskine. Shakespeare's Derived Imagery. New York: Octagon Books,
1967.
Harding, James. Gounod. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1973.
Henderson, W. J. "Introductory Essay" Romeo and Juliet. Trans. Dr. Theo Baker. By
Charles Gounod. Milwaukee, WI: G. Schinner Inc., 1925. i-iv.
Hoover, Kathleen O'Donnell. Makers of Opera. New York: Beechhurst Press, 1955.
Hoppe, Harry Reno. The Bad Quarto of Romeo and Juliet: A Bibliographical and Textual
Study. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1948.
Huebner, Steven. The Operas of Charles Gounod. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990.
Jackson, Arthur. The Best Musicals: From Show Boat to A Chorus Line: Broadway, OffBroadway, London. New York: Crown, 1979.
Jardine, Lisa. Reading Shakespeare Historically. London: Routledge, 1996.
Kats, Rut. Divining the Powers ofMusic: Aesthetic Theory and the Origins of Opera.
New York: Pendragon Press, 1986.
Laufe, Abe. Broadway's Greatest Musicals. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1973.
Lacombe, Herve. The Keys to French Opera. Trans. Edward Schneider. Berkely:
University of California Press, 2001.
Lasserre, Pierre. The Spirit of French Music. New York: E. P. Dutton and Company,
1921.
Moore, Olin H. The Legend of Romeo and Juliet. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State
University Press, 1950.
29
Muir, Kenneth. Shakespeare's Sources, Comedies and Tragedies. London: Methuen and
Co. Ltd., 1957.
Narrative and Dramatic Sources 0/ Shakespeare. Ed. Geoffrey Bullough. London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966.
Novak, Elaine Adams. Staging Shakespearean Theatre. Cincinnati, Ohio: Betterway
Books, 2000.
Ringer, Alexander. L. "Meyerbeer, Wagner, and the Romeo and Juliet Syndrome." Atti
del XIV congresso della Societo di Musicologia, Bologna (1987): 706-713.
Sams, Eric. The Real Shakespeare: Retrieving the Early Years, 1564-1594. New Haven,
Connecticut: Yale university Press, 1995.
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Ed. Alan Durband. London: Hutchinson and
Co., 1984.
Stavig, Mark. The Forms o/Things Unknown: Renaissance Metaphor in Romeo and
Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Pittsburgh: Doquesne University Press,
1995.
Swain, Joseph P. The Broadway Musical: A Critical and Musical Survey. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1990.
The Oxford Illustrated History o/Opera. Ed. Roger Parker. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1994.
Thomson, Virgil. Music with Words: A Composer's View. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1989.
Thorndike, Arthur Russell. In the Steps o/Shakespeare. London: Rich and Cowan, 1948.
Van Bechten, Carl. Interpreters and Interpretations. New York: A. A. Knopf, 1917.
Webb, Jesse Edgar. Costuming/or Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Thesis (M.A.):
Texas Technological College, 1964.
30