Romeo And Juliet Tragedy Essay Example

In the play, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare the coincidences and the excessive tragic events take away the perfection of a perfect tragedy. The rush of their love is the root cause of everything going bad in the play. The inconvenience of Friar John not being able to reach Romeo, and the timing when Romeo gets to the tomb before Juliet is awake makes the play into an excessive tragedy. In the play, the ongoing theme is the horrible luck that the two lovers get.

Mercutio and Benvolio somehow convince Romeo after he got heartbroken by Rosaline to go to the party. The two houses that have had deadly clashes for many generations, their children, in some way, fall in love with one another (Baker). Even after they find out about their families they continue to see each other. Romeo and Juliet falling in love, getting married, and ultimately killing themselves for one another in a week are insane (“Overview of Romeo and Juliet”). Romeo goes to Juliet's house, sneaks up to her balcony, and coincidentally her parents don’t hear them and he doesn't get captured. 

Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, hates the Montague family. Tybalt finds out that Romeo, a Montague, is at a Capulet party and he gets furious about it. Tybalt should’ve fought Romeo then and there, but instead let Romeo have his fun. If Tybalt decided to fight Romeo, probably Romeo and Juliet would’ve never fallen in love with each other. 

Tybalt decides that it's a good time to fight Romeo and tries to, however, Romeo declines the duel and Mercutio takes the challenge instead. Romeo conveniently interrupts the “dual” that was a play fight and ends up killing Mercutio. After Romeo interferes with their battle and Mercutio is seriously injured, Tybalt runs away but coincidentally comes back and is killed by Romeo (Lyon). Romeo is the reason Mercutio died, and to kill Tybalt for no reason is just insane. Benvolio knew it was a play fight and should’ve told Romeo before he interfered with the duel. Romeo's punishment is banishment by the prince instead of execution, even though the Prince made it a law that if you murdered someone, you would be executed. Lady Montague dies when she found out Romeo was banished and this adds to the excessive events. 

It begins to be such an excessive tragedy when Friar John gives Juliet such a crazy plan and somehow it is going to work. In addition, Romeo does not know about the plan and Friar John, the person that was supposed to deliver the message, gets quarantined. This leads to the killing of both of them.  

People may say, yes, it is a crazy plan and it is expected to go wrong. Juliet had no other way to escape and live with Romeo. However, the timing was off when Romeo enters the tomb, Paris finds him, dies, and then Romeo dies minutes before Juliet is awake is so excessive. Subsequently, Friar Lawrence comes to deliver the message to Romeo but it’s too late, Romeo is already dead. Juliet wakes up and Friar Lawrence leaves her in the tomb because guards are coming. Romeo, even though he brought poison, also brought a knife that Juliet was able to kill herself with. 

After we see Romeo and Juliet dead in the final scene and the clash is now finished, however, this is the end since there are no future generations in the family to continue the feud (Lyon). The play could’ve been two lovers struck by tragic fate, but the continuous casualties and inconvenient coincidences make the play an excessive tragedy.