Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Is Romeo and Juliet a tragedy?support your answer (tell me why!!)

Essentially, it is is not. Romeo and Juliet is better described as a rom-com with no jokes worth mentioning. The 'tragedy' concerns that worst of dramatic constructions, the deus ex machina, in this case the utterly implausible existence of a potion which convincingly imitates death. There is no such potion. But early adolescents being what they are - impressionable, gullible and stupid - the potion's effects are mistaken. And of course, if one's pubescent lover seems to have died, what else would you do but stab yourself?


It is vital to distinguish between 'tragic' events and tragedies. The former may be very sad: a car containing the world's best-adjusted family - mother and father still deeply in love, siblings the best of pals, lovable labrador puppy, parrot, goldfish etc, all of whom perish when car's brakes fail on precipitous cliff-side road - whilst the latter are very different: the wretched protagonists of King Lear, for example, whose personalities pre-destine their doom.


In other words, car accidents and their like are serendipitous, whilst tragedies are inexorable.

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