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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