The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet The famous Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote his definition of tragedy almost 2000 years before Romeo and Juliet was written. Although his definition isn’t a full definition of tragedy, it does help readers of the play understand the ending and the crazy turn of events that leads up to the tragic end of the play. In his definition, Aristotle describes the most important part of a tragedy as, “...the structure of the incidents.” He also says, “There must be a convincing chain of events to change a given situation from good to bad fortune.” Another excerpt from Aristotle’s definition that is seen in Romeo and Juliet is “...reversal and recognition...”. Reversal and recognition, as described by Aristotle, is when characters in a tragedy bring about their own downfall. This is true about Romeo and Juliet because Juliet took the sleeping potion to be with Romeo, but since the message never got to Romeo, Juliet takes the potion. When Romeo sees Juliet, he thinks that she is dead and kills himself and Juliet killing herself. These specific excerpts …show more content…
then I defy you, stars! Thou know'st my lodging: get me ink and paper, And hire post-horses; I will hence tonight.” In this quote Romeo is resisting the stars and is saying to gather the horses for he is going to travel to Juliet and end his life so he can be with her. This relates to Aristotle’s definition of tragedy because it is at this moment that all of the terrible things that have been happening to Romeo finally break him and he decides to end his life with poison. The convincing chain of events Aristotle talks about in his definition of tragedy leads up to this moment where Romeos good fortune turns from not just bad, but to terrible and he