MovieChat Forums > West Side Story (1961) Discussion > So, what do you think happens to Maria?

So, what do you think happens to Maria?


I mean, she's just lost her love and her brother. Do you think she stays in New York or goes back to Puerto Rico? Do you think she eventually marries and has children? (I can't imagine she settles for Chino, though.) Anyone have any thoughts?

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Remember when we cut to the scene where she and Tony were sleeping in bed together? I always thought that she carried his child and gave birth after the story was over.

Also, Officer Krupke walked off with Chino at the end. I think that can only mean one thing.

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I'm not sure about what happens to Maria, but I do think that when Officer Krupke walked off with Chino in the end, escorting him to a waiting police car with its beacon flashing, that Chino was probably arrested for the shooting death of Tony, i. e. first-degree murder, tried, charged, and sent to prison.

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As a side note to this...I once saw a production of this (one of the best I've ever seen--by a small youth theater company) with a friend who'd been a lawyer before a change of career.

She pointed out that (at least in the production we were seeing), the killings increased in seriousness as the show progressed--from manslaughter (Riff) to murder two (Bernardo) to murder one (Tony).

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Wow!!


This:


She pointed out that (at least in the production we were seeing), the killings increased in seriousness as the show progressed--from manslaughter (Riff) to murder two (Bernardo) to murder one (Tony).


is a very interesting point, which has admittedly never crossed my mind, but now that it's been mentioned, the same kind of pattern of the killings increasing in seriousness as pointed out by your friend who you saw this special stage production of West Side story with is also true in the film version, when one stops to really think about it.

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I think she married Baby John. She, like Tony, wanted to bridge the gap between the gangs and BJ was the sweetest and showed a lot of compassion to Maria after Tony's death

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Very good point about Baby John, willowtara.

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There was the unfilmed sequel, "Whatever Happened to Baby John?" which shows the side story of what was going on while Tony and Maria were secretly meeting, Baby John was meeting with Chino and smoking on his pipe and putting that in. The sequel would have shown Baby John sitting in the back of the court every day, and after Chino was sent to prison, visiting him with chocolates, cookies and candy. Both actors in the movie weren't the most masculine of gang members, sort of hangers on and in need of protection, and Chino looked up to Bernardo as a big brother/protector, possibly more. Baby John, well, need I say more?

"Great theater makes you smile. Outstanding theater may make you weep."

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This. After she gave birth to Tony's baby she eventually found another wonderful man. She wouldn't settle since she seemed to really love Tony during the short time they were together.

Dini

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It means that Chino was arrested for the retaliatory shooting death of Tony after Tony stabbed and killed Bernardo during the rumble in retaliation for Bernardo's having stabbed and killed Riff, who was like a brother to Tony.

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She might marry someone else. Certainly not Chino, who is arrested at the end of the film.

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it took a while, but she recovered from her "first love" and ended up marrying someone her family would ultimately have approved of -- who had a job, was likely from their OWN KIND, and she ended up having a few children and moving to The Bronx.

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Sounds like the most likely scenario. Unless she just decided to become a nun or something. I don't think any man could live up to Tony in her mind.

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When you're as young as they, no one could live up to your first love. I don't know how old you are, or what your sexual proclivity is -- but I remember being 15, 16, and having my first boyfriend -- a guy I had a huge crush on, and in the language of the day, "finally landed." he was a couple of years older than I and I was head over heels IN LOVE with him. No boy would suffice after our crippling collapse. Until I got over it, and there were a number of replacements. All better than he.

The point is, Maria got over it too. Gratefully, this did not have the ending on which it is modeled -- that of the all too tragic Romeo and Juliet, where of course, they both die.

So, I'm sure she suffered, mourned, and moved on. She's probably a grandmother in the Bronx, and one of her children is a doctor; and the other is a teacher, and her 3rd, probably heads up the Diversity Division in HR at a large multinational corporation on Park Avenue.

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I hope she's retired by now. she probably put all three kids through college on her earnings in the bridal shop she and Anita owned.

No, we never completely forget your first love. Nor should we! I remember all of mine. Some fondly, some not so much! Some I regret ever having given the time of day to; and a couple I wish I could see again and kiss; or kill!

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"No, we never completely forget your first love. Nor should we! I remember all of mine..."

Just how many first loves did you have, leader-7?

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A few "first" loves in different contexts.

First high school crush.
First college boy friend.
First boy I.....
First husband


They're all still in my heart in one way or another, and 2 are still in my life.

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I'm 36, so I'm not young but I don't have the most experience in the romantic department either.

I'd like to think Maria went on to have as good a life as possible and that she's found happiness at least in her kids and grandkids. That sort of thing.

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I think she stays in new York considering the fact that the whole reason they moved there was to find a better life and back then Puerto Rico wasn't exactly the best place to live. But however I'm sure she got over the whole thing eventually and finally married and had kids, she may even name one Anton.

"Take my hand, I'll lead you to salvation"

Love Les Miserables!!!

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She drowned around 20 years later, unfortunately.

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Natalie Wood's death was sad...and eerie. Nobody really knows how she died, despite the fact that the case was re-opened 3 years ago, at around the 50th-year Anniversary national re-release of the film West Side Story.

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I realize that I'm awfully late in replying to this post, but my suspicion is that Natalie Wood was the victim of foul play.

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Well, she was living with her parents and they were still alive. I assume that like most people she mourned for a time and eventually got over the heartache. I doubt she married Chino since there seemed to be no chemistry between them. She probably married someone who wasn't in the story.






"Joey, have you ever been in a Turkish prison?"

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I think she killed herself.

I love you, Kristen Stewart. :) You are so beautiful and talented. I would love to perform with you.

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Yeah, well, that's where the source material would put her fate.

Of course she didn't kill herself due to the peculiar circumstances of Shakespear's play. But maybe Tony left her pregnant, and her family was so awful about it that she saw only one way out. Or maybe her family was horrible even if she didn't get pregnant, they abused her or planned to send her back to Puerto Rico - just because she got with a no-good hood who wasn't even a Puerto Rican no-good hood!


" Jack, you have debauched my sloth! "

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Nobody knows what really happened to Maria, but I can't imagine that she'd want to marry Chino after he'd killed Tony, the guy that Maria really loved. Who can tell, however. In real life, people date and even marry criminals all the time.

Maria and Anita just went on with their lives, after mourning for their dead lovers, working in the Bridal Shop for several more years, before deciding to go back to school so that they could change careers. Maria decides to go into the health professions, goes back to school and becomes a medical secretary at a large NYC Hospital. Anita goes back to school, to a nursing school in NYC, becoming a Registered Nurse, and landing a job at a large NYC hospital, the same hospital that she'd attended nursing school in.

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Also Chino would be spending a long time in jail.

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Chino would've more than likely been tried for and charged with first-degree murder in an adult court of law, and ended up serving a lifelong sentence with no parole, in a maximum-security penitentiary.

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Maybe she became a nun

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Maybe she became a nun.


Eh....who knows??

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