The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet

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Recommended: Aristotle's definition of tragedy with correct words

Tragedies show events that make the audience feel pity and fear for the tragic heroes because of the things that the characters had to go through. Many people feel that a tragedy is something that is sad and nothing more. However, that is not the case with Aristotle. According to Aristotle, a tragedy has several key components that have to be fulfilled before it can be considered a true tragedy. Romeo and Juliet, a classical play by William Shakespeare, has been called many things. An Aristotelian tragedy is one of them. This play is an Aristotelian tragedy because Romeo has a single tragic flaw, Juliet has a single flaw, and it has many key Aristotelian tragedy characteristics,.

Primarily, Romeo has a single flaw of being very rash in his actions. Romeo is rash in his actions concerning love. The best example of this is when Romeo wants to get married to Juliet the day after he meets her. Also, he just got out of his love with Rosaline and he falls into another supposed true love. The friar warns him that he is being hasty in his decision, but Romeo is blinded by love and pronounces “I stand on sudden haste” (II, iii, 93). This clearly displays that he is rash and that is his tragic flaw as he states it himself. He is also impetuous in the sense that he immediately picks a fight with Tybalt because Tybalt killed Mercutio. Romeo does not even bother to ponder about what happened nor does he speculate the consequences. He is blinded by his heart and he is not thinking with his head. Romeo’s “problem is not with the intensity of the emotion, but the inability to control and direct that emotion in a positive way” (Kerschen 261). To explain, Romeo goes with the flow and does not think about the effects of his actions which lead to ...

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...Romeo is rash in his actions, and Juliet has issues with loyalty. Undoubtedly, Shakespeare has incorporated all the key parts of a tragedy because he has the single tragic flaws in each tragic character and he has the elements of a tragedy. Tragedies are an imitation of real life, but it has to be something that is possible and has very strict rules. This means that it is not something that has happened, but rather, it is something that can happen.

Works Cited

Kerschen, Lois. “Criticism.” Drama For Students. Vol. 21. Ed. Anne Marie Hacht. Detroit: Gale, 2005. 258-261.

Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Prentice Hall Literature: Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes. Ed. Kate Kinsella, et al. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2002. 770-784.

Thrasher, Thomas. Understanding Romeo and Juliet. San Diego: Lucent Books, 2001. 78-79.

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