It’s someday in the late 1500s and you’re about to go to your local theater you sit down and hear “Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,” (Prologue Act 1) you’re about to see one of the most taught plays in history, Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet is a play written by William Shakespeare about two rival families and both the fortunate and unfortunate events that occur. The play was written somewhere between 1594 and 1596 yet many of the themes included are still common today. A tragedy in literature is defined as “a branch of drama that treats in a serious and dignified style the sorrowful or terrible events encountered or caused by a heroic individual.” Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy from the constant …show more content…
The prince of Verona comes to the neighborhood and delivers a speech reprimanding the two families, “Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace”(1.1 84) “That quench the fire of your pernicious rage” (1.1 87). The prince uses very negative and dramatic language to describe their feud and it’s potential consequences that could result because of it. This is at the very beginning of the play, again supporting the claim that it is a tragedy, it starts with the introduction of a conflict. Most love stories start with introducing the two …show more content…
“A glooming peace this morning with it brings. The sun for sorrow will not show his head. Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things; Some shall be pardoned and some punished; For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo” (5.3 305-310). In the end, Romeo goes to visit Juliet’s grave, even though she is not dead, and kills himself. Juliet awakens from her sleeping potion, sees Romeo dead and stabs herself to fall into his arms. The prince speaks of these events not as a story of true love, but as a truly sorrowful and tragic occurrence. He uses language like glooming, sorrow, and woe, all suggesting a negative end to the