preview

Romeo and Juliet Essay

Best Essays

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 …show more content…

This demonstrates how bad luck was the causing factor of Romeo and Juliet meeting, and why they eventually die because of Romeo misunderstanding the situation. Moreover, outside pressure from the chorus of the play helps contribute to chance events that occur. For example, Mercutio teases Tybalt over fighting which is eventually triggered because of this. The fight is playful at first, but because of their fighting, Romeo steps in, and Tybalt was able to stab Mercutio. Ultimately, this is a chance event that all comes back to Mercutio, as if he never instigated Tybalt to fight, Romeo wouldn’t have had to step in, causing Mercutio to die. [transition], this leads to Romeo fighting Tybalt, who gets killed, causing Romeo to be banned. [Transition], another outside force, Paris, leads to a chance event. He plans on marrying Juliet, which leads to her fake plan of dying. Romeo actually thinks she is dead, so he goes to the tomb where she lies and here meets Paris, where they dual. Paris is much older and stronger than Romeo, yet he still is defeated. This is such a coincidence that Romeo doesn’t die because now he is able to see Juliet and commit suicide. If only Paris wasn’t also in love with Juliet, the entire plan of the fake death would have never gone through and then neither Romeo nor Juliet would have died. However, perhaps the greatest outside force to cause chance events to occur to Romeo and

Get Access