Definition of a Shakespearean Tragedy.

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Definition of a Shakespearean tragedy. During the Victorian era, the most popular theme for stage plays were those based on a comedy theme, offering the audience laughter, humour and generally concluding in a “happy ever after”. However, in contrast Shakespeare wrote a number of plays, incorporating a “tragedy” theme, ensuring the audience experience, a rollercoaster of emotions, comprising of joy, romance, fear, grief and trauma, a tragedy always concludes with a tragic ending, resulting in the hero or main characters meeting their death. One of Shakespeare’s earliest plays penned around 1591 and possibly the greatest tragedy of English Literature is Romeo and Juliet. Considered as the ultimate love narrative Romeo and Juliet is a tragic play about two teenage "star-cross'd lovers"[destinies follow opposite directions] whose unfortunate and untimely deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. Within this assignment, the main characters within Romeo and Juliet will be analysed, to assess each individual’s contribution to the tragedy. On concluding the essay, a judgement will be made, to discuss who or what was to blame for the tragedy and how it may have been prevented. Romeo, one of the most dominate characters within the play, is the only son of Lord and Lady Montague. The 16 year old teenager portrays many varied attributes that led to his actions and affected his judgement during the play. The name Romeo is linked to Synonyms such as lover, wooer, gallant and even wolf, all attributes that justify Romeos desire for love, passion and adventure. These desires contributed greatly to Romeo’s immature nature as he acted on impulse without considering the impacts of his actions. Romeo is completely blinded by love and passion, longing for his idealistic love story with a happy ever after, idealisms directed from his love for romantic literature. Initially
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