Aristotle proposed what is believed to be the first definition of a true tragedy. Specifically, he states that a tragedy triggers great pity and fear caused by the main characters’ actions alone. Likewise, a true tragedy lacks coincidence and fate plays little in the overall play. William Shakespeare writes the play of The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet in which the audience knows the destiny of these two tragic heroes from the very beginning. Although this play is tragic knowing that the lives of two lovers are lost, it is not a tragedy as Romeo and Juliet are not solely responsible for their own deaths. Destiny is determined through the hands of greater forces than that of Romeo and Juliet, making this play merely tragic and not a true tragedy. Therefore, the play of Romeo and Juliet is not a tragedy as coincidental events, the role of fate, and Romeo and Juliet’s numerous tragic flaws are what ultimately cause the outcome of this play.
Pure misfortune and outside pressure contribute to the chance events that create a path for Romeo and Juliet’s destiny. According to Aristotle, a true tragedy lacks coincidence as everything happens for a reason. However, the reason that Romeo and Juliet meet was because of adversity. To illustrate, when the servant needs help reading the invitations to the Capulet party, he chooses Romeo as the person to read them. Out of all the people who are in city, the servant chooses Romeo. Because Romeo read the letter, he was able to come to the party. Nevertheless, there are over a hundred different girls at the party. Considering this number, the percentage that Romeo falls in love with Juliet, his family’s enemy, is very minimal. Additionally, bad luck was the main reason that the letter explaining Ju...
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...h it is tragic that Romeo and Juliet both die in the end, this play is not a tragedy as they alone did not determine their destiny. Certainly, tragic heroes have their lives ended for different reasons, but according to Aristotle, only true tragedies have tragic heroes that bring about death through their own mistakes.
Works Cited
Moulton, G. Richard. “Innocence of Pathos: The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.” Drama
for Student. Vol. 21. Ed. Anne Marie Hacht. Detroit: Gale, 2005. 271-273.
Thrasher, Thomas. Understanding Romeo and Juliet. San Diego: Lucent Books, 2001.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. New York: Washington Square
Press, 1992.
Waters, D. Douglas. “D. Douglas Waters on Catharsis in Romeo and Juliet.” Bloom's
Notes: William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Ed. Harold Bloom. Broomall:
Chelsea House, 1996. 68-70.
There are many tragedies to be found in literature, but only a few are like Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It is a story of forbidden love in which a young couple are torn apart by their families’ feud in Renaissance Italy; the play’s tragic ending has both main characters die. Many aspects of this play have sparked a heated debate: is Romeo and Juliet a tragedy or is it simply tragic? Some critics claim that the play lacks elements that are necessary for a tragedy. Yet Aristotle explicitly states the essential components of a tragedy in his Poetics, and Romeo and Juliet meets those requirements. Romeo and Juliet can be considered an Aristotelian tragedy because of Romeo’s impetuousness, Juliet’s loyalty to Romeo, and the play’s peripeteia.
There are many forces in the tragic play of Romeo and Juliet that are keeping the two young, passionate lovers apart, all emanating from one main reason. In this essay I will discuss these as well as how love, in the end, may have been the cause that led to the tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Their strong attraction to each other, which some call fate, determines where their forbidden love will take them.
Romeo and Juliet is known as one of the greatest love stories, but it has its fair share of tragedy as well. The story riddles with themes throughout. Love is the first theme and there is no greater love than the love Romeo and Juliet share. Shakespeare offers his audiences just as much hate as love in Romeo and Juliet. The families of both Romeo and Juliet involve themselves in centuries of feuding. The ongoing feud between the Montagues and Capulets drives Romeo and Juliet into a life of secrecy, which ultimately causes their deaths. Youth is another theme and ties directly to how young both Romeo and Juliet are both in their age and their relationship. The story of Romeo and Juliet uses sex as a theme as well although not in the intimate details of more modern stories. The two lovers concerns are not with the wishes of their warring families, they just want to be together “Deny thy father and refuse thy name / Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn by my love / And I’ll no longer be a Capulet” (2.2.34-36). Love is the first theme Shakespeare displays in this play.
The play Romeo and Juliet written by William Shakespeare tells the story of two very young lovers who die. It just appears that fate controlled the outcome of the story. But if you really study and interpret the story you will realize it is a series of a few simple coincidences, which made the outcome so tragic.
In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Yukio Mishima’s The Sound of Waves, the secondary characters play an essential role in the book. In Romeo and Juliet by an English playwright and poet William Shakespeare, Friar Lawrence is an important secondary character who designs solutions for Romeo and Juliet and brings the play into the dramatic results. The failure of his plan causes the tragedy of death for both main characters at the end of the story. In The Sound of Waves, Shinji Kubo, a young and poor fisherman in Uta-Jima falls in love with Hatuse, a rich man’s daughter. Shinji and Hatsue try to be together throughout the book, but encounter many difficulties with their neighbors. Shinji’s mother tries to help Shinji and Hatsue by asking many people and going to shrines to beg the gods for help to get them together.
A character goes through many changes that depend on the kind of events they experience. The play “Romeo and Juliet” written by William Shakespeare, uses different tones and language that shows the readers that Juliet, a Protagonist, changes over time, proving the idea that she is a dynamic character. At the beginning of the play, we are introduced to a young, innocent and inexperienced girl, Juliet the daughter of Lord Capulet . She has not yet seen the real world and is raised by the person she trusts most, her nurse. Juliet begins as a naive child who has thought little about love and marriage, but she grows up quickly upon falling in love with Romeo, the son of her family’s great enemy. Due to the fact that Juliet is a girl in an aristocratic family, she has none of the freedom Romeo has to rome around the city, climb over walls in the middle of the night, or get into swordfights. As we begin to learn more about the character of Juliet, we learn that Juliet is not the girl she used to be anymore. She is more courageous and willing to break the rules. She goes against her and her family beliefs. In the beginning of the play she obeys her parents. But as the play descends Juliet is disregarding of what her parents say. She is no longer the innocent girl she use to be. Shakespeare use of language helps the reader to see the change in a character that makes them a dynamic character.
Romeo & Juliet Romeo and Juliet was a tragedy, but it did not have to be. Many things could have been done to prevent their deaths. Many characters contributed to their deaths. The sole character that was responsible for their deaths is Friar Lawrence. Friar Lawrence is responsible for the deaths of the lovers because he was secretive with their relationship, he was unable communicate effectively, and he had a cowardly persona.
We all know the story of Romeo and Juliet, the star crossed lovers who kill themselves for each other. But when you think of Romeo and Juliet, you probably think of a great romance story. But is it really? Romeo and Juliet is a play written by the great William Shakespeare and most people think this play was written as a love story that just ends very badly. Well I think otherwise. Most people are tricked into thinking that Romeo and Juliet is a love story from what others say, but in all reality Romeo and Juliet is more of a tragedy.
“Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, still-waking sleep, that is not what this is” (Shakespeare 1.1. 179-180). A string of contradictions explain the love story of Romeo and Juliet, a contradiction. Some critics consider this story a tragedy because Shakespeare once wrote; “the fault is not in our stars but in ourselves”. While others say it does not follow the standard Aristotelian form of tragedy (Krims 1). Romeo and Juliet can not be a tragedy because no flaw causes them to fall, the lovers, could not have controlled fate, and family and friends assisted them to their deaths.
Most readers are aware of the many famous deaths or acts of death within the Shakespearean plays. And when the main characters die in Shakespeare’s plays, indeed, the readers would categorize the play as a tragedy. The problem with any tragedy definition is that most tragic plays do not define the tragedy conditions explained or outlined by Aristotle. According to Telford (1961), a tragedy is a literary work that describes the downfall of an honorable, main character who is involved on historically or socially significant events. The main character, or tragic hero, has a tragic fault, the quality that leads to his or her own destruction. In reading Aristotle’s point of view, a tragedy play is when the main character(s) are under enormous pressure and are incapable to see the dignities in human life, which Aristotle’s ideas of tragedy is based on Oedipus the King. Shakespeare had a different view of tragedy. In fact, Shakespeare believed tragedy is when the hero is simply and solely destroyed. Golden (1984) argued the structure of Shakespearean tragedy would be that individual characters revolved around some pain and misery.
An Aristotelian tragedy includes many different characteristics. It is a cause-and-effect chain and it contains the elements of catharsis, which is pity and fear, and hamartia, which is the tragic flaw embedded in the main characters. The famous play Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, is about two lovers of two different families who hate each other and the misdemeanors they have to surpass. Many debate on whether it is an Aristotelian tragedy or simply tragic. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet should be regarded as an Aristotelian tragedy because catharsis is exhibited in the play, Juliet’s blindness of love is shown, and Romeo’s impetuousness is the tragic flaw that leads to his demise.
All in all, Romeo and Juliet is a true Aristotelian tragedy because of the characters, plot, and the fact that it triggers the emotions of pity and fear. All these concepts are outlined by Aristotle and need to be present in a tragedy. Because, all of the aspects of an Aristotelian tragedy are present the play is truly a tragedy. The tragedy has the perfect characters that experience an anagnorisis, peripeteia, and catastrophes. In short, Romeo and Juliet is a true Aristotelian tragedy.
Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”¬¬ is considered to be one of the most tragic stories ever told and the most asked question is ‘What, exactly, caused their deaths?’ That question has been answered from a respected, educated literature critic to the adolescent mind of an annoyed teenager. The sources that shall be used are from professional critics, but the opinion shall lean toward more of an annoyed teen. While not exactly annoyed, more exasperated, one could say. Romeo and Juliet commit suicide because of their young age. Romeo’s impulsiveness and desperation to love mixed with Juliet’s innocence and easily influenced personality prove to be a deadly pair. Romeo and Juliet’s lack of experience for love because of their age ultimately led to their death.
In regards to Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare chose fate to be a strong underlying theme which constructs the basis of the story line. Fate has the ability to control the characters’ lives and one minor change in the way it had acted would have changed the entire outcome. Through Romeo and Juliet’s spontaneous encounter, fate was largely responsible for love at first sight alongside controlling the misfortunate events that occur as a result of their love. Apart from love and misfortune, Shakespeare suggests that Romeo and Juliet were destined to die the way they did, despite the fact that it was their choice to end their lives. The outcome of the play was a direct result of fate, which to a notable extent was responsible for the many events which were destined to occur.
What is tragedy? Aristotle defines tragedy: "A tragedy must not be the spectacles of a perfect good man brought to adversity. For this merely stock us" (1). Not in every play where a hero dies is considered a tragedy. Also, "Nor, of course, must it be that of a bad man passing from adversity to prosperity: for that is not tragedy at all, but the perversion of tragedy, and revolts moral sense". Further "Nor, again, should it exhibit the downfall of an utter villain pity is aroused by undeserved misfortunes, terror by misfortunes befalling a man like ourselves". "There remains, then, as the only proper subject for tragedy, the spectacle of a man not absolutely or eminently good or wise, who is brought to disaster not by sheer depravity but by some error or frailty". "Lastly, this man must be highly renowned and prosperous-and Oedipus, a Thyestes, or some other illustrious person" (Quiller-Couch 1). "A tragedy, he tells us, is a play in which the chief characters experience a change from good fortune to bad, and in a comedy, alternately, the change is from bad to good" (Fallon, Themes 210). The tragedy in Macbeth is between friends, but the tragedy in Hamlet occurs within the family.