One of the things you ought to remember when looking carefully at the characters is that they are designed to mimic those from Romeo and Juliet. In this case, Tony is supposed to be the mirror image of Romeo. As such, Tony falls in love with Maria, the little sister of the leader of the rival gang.
Just like in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Tony plays the role of a tragic hero, bound by his love for Maria to pursue her with tragic results. As such, he is completely blind to everything but his love for her, and oblivious to possible other choices besides his pursuit. Because of his loyalty to her, he gets his best friend Riff killed (semi-accidentally) and suffers from that mistake.
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