How do Romeo's impulsive actions, driven by his tragic flaw of impulsiveness, fulfill the criteria of Aristotle's tragic hero? In the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare follows Romeo, a young man of noble birth who is admired for his reputation and good manners. Despite the feud between their families, Romeo falls quickly in love with Juliet, a Capulet, on their first meeting. Their rashness and haste propel him into hasty decisions, leading to an impulsive wedding. Romeo’s impulsiveness is a crucial part of his tragic flaw in not thinking about the consequences of his actions, leading to his untimely ending. Romeo embodies the character of Aristotle's tragic hero through his amiable qualities, loyalty, high status, and calamitous flaw …show more content…
Capulet, head of the noble Capulet household, takes notice of his humbleness when Romeo and his friends crash the Capulet party. When Tybalt approaches his uncle to inform him of their uninvited guests, Capulet reminds him that Romeo has shown good manners and holds a high reputation, and no harm will come upon him. Stating so in the quote, “Content thee, gentle coz. Let him be alone. He bears him like a portly gentleman, And, to say the truth, Verona brags of him Being a virtuous and well-governed youth.” - Capulet, Act 1, Scene 5. Even if Romeo does not engage much with the idea of his image, he still is a crucial person for Verona. At the end of the play, when he and Juliet end their lives, the impact of their deaths brings an end to a 1000-year feud. Only someone of extreme importance, death, can cause such an impact. Romeo plays the part of the tragic hero of high status through these examples and in the end, just like Aristotle's hero, he will be destroyed by only himself and his …show more content…
The first account of his hasty decisions comes when he meets Juliet. Upon their first meeting, Romeo and Juliet have fallen deeply enchanted by one another and want to be married as soon as possible. While Juliet's naivety may be excused, Romeo, being older, should grasp the gravity of his actions. Romeo constantly risks his safety to raise himself in Juliet's company while still aware of the life-threatening dangers of his actions. Their marriage is short-lived for Romeo, mourning the fresh loss of his companion, acts in a fit of revenge and slays Tybalt, Juliet's cousin. Soon after hearing about the death of his beloved, Romeo decides that he will die together with her. Romeo takes note of Juliet's life-like complexion in the quote, "Beauty’s ensign yet Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks, And death’s pale flag is not advancèd there." Romeo, Act 5, Scene 3. highlights his fixation on Juliet's appearance while disregarding the consequences of his actions, he takes his life. In hindsight, had Romeo shown patience instead of acting on his impulsivity, he might have avoided his tragic fate. Thus, Romeo fully fulfills the fated tragic hero, as described by
“Wilt thou provoke me? Then, have at thee boy!” says Romeo, the murderer of Paris. In the play The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, a young man named Romeo falls in love with Juliet, a maiden from the opposing family. Romeo latches on to the thought of being with Juliet, and crosses great boundaries. Romeo’s gestures can be interpreted as romantic, loyal, and passionate. However, I believe he is mentally unstable and extreme in his decisions. Romeo does not consider the future of others, as well as himself.
When the play begins, Romeo is heartbroken over Rosaline, but then he meets Juliet and after only hours he proposes marriage to her. The way that Romeo so quickly and full-heartedly falls in love shows how emotional he is, but also portrays his impulsivity which in this case is driven by his love of love, not necessarily his love of Juliet. After witnessing, his best friend, Mercutio’s death he is furious and his emotions take over. He proposes a duel to his best friend’s killer, Tybalt. Without regard for consequences, Romeo kills Tybalt in an emotional
Final Essay “I went from adolescence to senility, trying to bypass maturity”.-Retired American musician Tom Lehrer. Adolescents often show lack of maturity. Romeo and Juliet is a story about two kids who meet and fall in love on the same day, only to get married a few days later. Then Juliet is supposed to marry another person named Paris after a day of being married to Romeo which then leads to all three of them being dead. In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare uses figurative language to display that adolescents can make decisions that are not thought through.
The definition of impulse is a sudden strong and unreflective urge or desire to act. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, expresses what it means to act on impulse. This play tells about two young adults, Romeo and Juliet, who belong to two feuding families in Verona, the Capulets and Montagues. They fall in love at first sight and decide to get married the next day, acting on impulses. Their marriage is performed by a man named Friar Lawrence in the hopes that it will end the feud between the families. However, all their lives take a turn for the worse when Romeo becomes banished from Verona by Prince Escalus. The Friar devises a plan so Romeo and Juliet will be able to be together. The
Immediately after Romeo hears of Juliet’s death, he makes the major decision of killing himself in a very short amount of time. Once he makes his choice, he does not spend enough time considering what he should do, and so he is not thinking clearly about what exactly he is doing and how it affects not only him, but the people around him. After Romeo kills himself, Juliet awakens to find him dead, which leads her to kill herself. By choosing to die, Romeo not only kills himself, but also Juliet because he did not use his time to think about his actions.
The evidence is overwhelming; Romeo’s impetuousness is undeniably responsible for his and Juliet’s death. It is this tragic flaw no his nature that indicates him as a tragic hero, rather than the pawn of fate he declares himself to be. Throughout Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, his rash and impulsive nature and hubris are made crystal clear, revealing the consequences of his hast actions and how they influenced both his own and Juliet’s decisions. His tendency to blame fate to atone for his actions directly correlates to his nature and which ultimately, classifies him as a tragic hero. “Man is manacled only by himself; thought and action are the jailers of Fate.” – James Allan
First of all, Romeo and Juliet are both deeply in love with each other. With this in mind, Romeo and Juliet began to develop their personal hamartias that remained evident until the finale. One of them being Romeo 's sudden rashness. For example, Romeo quickly insisted on marrying Juliet. During act 2, scene 2, Romeo wanted to ask Juliet to get married with him, however, she disagreed because they just met. Later on, Romeo says, “th ' exchange of thy love 's faithful vow for mine" (II,ii,127). This simply shows Romeo 's rashness because he wants to rush the marriage even though he isn 't ready and his rashness soon influenced Juliet as well. Furthermore, another hamartia displayed in the play was his impetuous decisions. His lack of forethought explains how it affected the misfortunate causes in the play. For instance, during the fight between Mercutio and Tybalt, Romeo had tried to stop the fight saying, " courage, man, the hurt cannot be much." (III,i,91), which sadly lead to Mercutio 's fatal death. Likewise, if Romeo weren 't there to stop the fight, possibly Mercutio could have won and could have avoided the misfortunate events of Romeo getting banished from Verona. On the other hand, Juliet 's hamartia was that she became too loyal to Romeo which had affected the misfortune of their appending death. For example, Juliet was loyal to Romeo abandoned the marriage with Paris by taking the
Impetuosity in their sense of honor, love, and their sense of idealism contributed to Romeo and Juliet to an early death. They both had a sense of honor and were full of love and idealism. These virtues, honor, love and idealism, that seek to sustain life, end up destroying them. Romeo and Juliet become victims of their own fate because they carry everything to the highest standards and are too inexperienced to decide the fate of the love between them. Romeo had honor as his virtue, which caused him to fight Tybalt for killing Mercutio:
Romeo’s tragic flaw impetuousness causes him to make decisions quickly, which contributes to his tragic death. Romeo acts with haste when he marries Juliet, even though he does not even know her for twenty-four hours. Juliet tells Romeo, “It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden, / Too like the lightning” (II, ii, 118-119). One can see that even Juliet recognizes Romeo’s impetuousness and questions if they are moving their relationship forward too quickly and hastily. Romeo allows his anger to guide his actions and this gets him into trouble many times throughout the play. One example of this is immediately after Tybalt kills Mercutio. Romeo is so devastated by his friend’s death that he does not think clearly and acts impulsively. Normally, Romeo does not attack Tybalt, but in this situation, Mercutio’s death angers him and is ravenous for revenge. Romeo regrets killing Tybalt and even discerns his flaw when he says, “Oh, I am fortune’s fool!” (III, i, 130). Romeo realizes that he should not have...
Throughout the play, Romeo is constantly impulsive and the hasty decisions he makes have grave consequences. First, he marries Juliet after having known her for only a day. He barely even knew her and yet less than 24 hours after meeting her they get married. Not once does he think of the consequences that will come from marrying Juliet. An even more reckless decision comes later in the play, when Romeo kills Tybalt. After a duel in the streets resulting in Romeo’s friend Mercutio being killed by Tybalt; Romeo decides to seek revenge. “For Mercutio’s soul is but a little way above our heads… Either thou or I, or both must go with him.” (3.1.88-91) He begins to fight Tybalt and ends up killing him. Romeo doesn’t think about the danger he’s putting himself in, nor does he think about what kind of trouble he could get in. It is this fight that leads to him being banished from Verona, thus separated from his new wife. Romeo’s final act of impulsiveness is the most severe, killing himself. After learning that Juliet was dead, he immediately decided that he wanted to be dead too. He did not consider the other options, let alone stop to make sure Juliet was actually dead. If he had not been so quick to kill himself, he would have real...
Jackson Wootten Mrs Rechin English 1 Honors 16 April 2024 The death of Romeo and Juliet The play Romeo and Juliet is written by William Shakespeare. During the play two characters, Romeo and Juliet, discover an immense amount of love for each other, however they can not be married due to the long lasting fight between their families. Despite the disapproval of the two’s love, Romeo and Juliet devise a plan to marry each other and be together. Throughout the play, Tybalt, Juliet's cousin, becomes a main character who opposes the love between the two characters. Tybalt ultimately leads to the death of Romeo and Juliet through his hatred of Romeo and Montague, his refusal to allow peace between the Capulets and Montagues, and finally his death causing Romeo’s banishment and the creation of the plans that killed both lovers.
The actions and flaws behind characters had a large effect on the outcome of Romeo and Juliet. It’s known to be a tragedy that occurred solely because of fate, however Romeo’s impulsive behavior was also a leading cause. Romeo acts hastily and rarely considers the consequences of his actions. His mistakes led to several complications that could’ve been prevented if he took the time to think before he did something regrettable.
Have you ever been so impulsive that you did something you regretted, like killing someone? Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet gives us an insane look at impulsivity and its dangers. Both Romeo and Juliet have caused death with their impulsiveness to others and to themselves. Impulsivity is to blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Romeo’s impulsivity killed Tybalt, himself, and Juliet’s impulsivity caused her to kill herself.
Ms. Silano ENL1W1-03 17 May 2024 Impulsivity: The Solidification Of One’s Death To be impulsive is to act upon one’s emotions without keeping logic in mind. When someone is in this state, decisions and actions are performed without thought. While one is in this situation, anything will be done in order to complete the goal, no matter the risks or dangers. In Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, the characters display the consequences of impulsivity in multiple scenarios which leads to their demise and the death of innocents. Romeo and Juliet are impulsive due to their dangerously irresponsible thought processes which leads to their destruction because Romeo and Juliet got married too quickly, Romeo hears of Juliet’s “death” and he runs towards his demise,
Romeo is a static character. Romeo shows no character development throughout the story as he is reckless from the beginning of the story and does not change. Romeo and Mercutio are planning to go to the Cauplet’s party, even though Romeo suspects there might be some consequences. Romeo and Mercutio discussing going to the party. "I fear, too early; for my mind misgives/ Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars."