Key Elements Between Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and Zentners Goodbye Days following Aristotle’s guidelines of On Tragedy (Essay Example)

Tragedies occur every day, from accidents to misfortunes to deaths. Aristotle knew how to write them, plot, character, thought, diction, and spectacle are the main elements he incorporated into his works. William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and Jeff Zentners Goodbye Days includes and use some of these elements derived from Aristotle’s On Tragedy. 

William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has Tragic Hero elements, along with Aristotle’s Tragic aspects. When Romeo kills Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, it shows the relationship between On Tragedy’s Tragic Hero Sequence and Romeo and Juliet “They fight, Tybalt Falls” (3.1.129). Romeo kills Tybalt over the death of his friend Mercutio. This shows Romeo’s fatal flaw, his impulsivity. This relates to On Tragedy because it reveals the Tragic Hero sequence, spectacle, and  Character. Romeo then realizes his foolish act and calls himself “Fortunes Fool” (3.1.131). Later in the play, Romeo poisons himself, thinking Juliet is dead while she is really asleep “Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss, I die” (5.3. 130). It shows again that Romeo is impulsive, but also shows spectacle and plot because Juliet wakes up just in time to see Romeo and Paris dead in front of her. Juliet then kills herself with Romeo’s dagger thinking that that if she cannot have Romeo in this life, she will have him in the next “This is thy sheath. There rust and let me die. [Stabs herself with Romeo’s dagger and dies]” (5.3.184).

Likewise, Jake Zentners Goodbye Days shares some of Aristotle’s tragedy elements. When Carver has fell into love with his dead best friend’s ex-girlfriend, he states that “I have fallen in love with her quietly” (Zentner 75). Carver Briggs falls in love with Jesmyn, creating character flaws and moral conflicts leading to the two becoming further apart than they have ever been and it connects because it shows key parts of tragic events. Even though Zentners Goodbye Days does not exactly follow Aristotle’s rules from On Tragedy, it still induces tragic elements throughout the story, such as when Carvers only three friends, die because Carver was texting them while they were driving “he slammed into the rear of a stopped semi on the highway at almost seventy miles per hour. The car went under the trailer, shearing off the top” (Zentner 3).

As you can see, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Zentners Goodbye Days include the aspects of On Tragedy by Aristotle. Romeo and Juliet and On Tragedy share a Tragic Hero sequence and spectacle, character, plot and diction. Goodbye Days partakes in character, plot, and diction from On Tragedy. Even though Goodbye Days has a “Happy Ending”, it still follows most of Aristotle’s key elements of Tragedy. Aristotle, Shakespeare, and Zentner all knew and know how to write tragic events, ranging from deaths, mis unfortunate events, and accidents.

Works Cited

Aristotle. "On Tragedy." CommonLit, 2022, https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/on-tragedy. Accessed 26 April 2022. 

Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet, edited by Julie Schumacher, Perfection Learning, 2004.

Zentner, Jeff, Goodbye Days, New York, Penguin Random House, 2017.