Romeo And Juliet Tragic Hero Essay

Murder, suicide, and love in the play of Romeo and Juliet is all fueled by one person Romeo Montague, Verona’s tragic hero. A tragic hero is a character whose actions eventually lead to destruction of themselves or those around them. In the play Romeo exhibits many traits of a tragic hero considering that he has several tragic flaws that lead to his downfall, he goes through a reversal of fortune, and his actions cause the audience to feel pity for him.

Romeo has many tragic flaws such as being emotionally immature. In the opening scene of the play Romeo’s father is concerned about his well being, Romeo has been isolating himself since he found out that Rosaline has promised herself to God and he cannot be with her. In an attempt to get his mid off of Rosaline, Romeo is dragged to a Capulet party where he sees Juliet for the first time. With just one look at Juliet any thought of Rosaline abruptly leaves his mind and he becomes infatuated with her instead. He exclaims,

The audience pities him that he acted so hastily in ending his life because had he waited only a few more minutes he would have realized Juliet was not actually dead and they would both still be alive. In the last line of the play the narrator establishes a base for the audience to feel pity: “For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.” (V, iii) In this line the word woe is strategically placed to stir up feelings of distress in the audience. Additionally this line is meant to be poetic, it rhymes so that it will stick in the audience’s mind after they have left the play or finished reading the script. Shakespeare uses this sentence to convey how unfortunate the outcome of Romeo and Juliet’s love story was. Shakespeare intends for the audience to feel pity for Romeo throughout the play by having him make outwardly and self destructive decisions that impact the lives of the people of