A Tragedy Emerges

A Tragedy Emerges by Sarah Brown

The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet was written by William Shakespeare. This is a play about two star -crossed lovers; Romeo and Juliet. Their families, the Montague’s and the Capulet’s , hate each other; and even while that is going on, Romeo and Juliet’s love just grows stronger. At the end of the play, tragedy strikes them; Romeo and Juliet both kill themselves. This all starts because Juliet’s parents want her to marry Paris; and she doesn’t want to. So, Juliet goes to Friar Lawrence for help. He gives her a vile of sleeping potion that will make her appear, but not actually be, dead. She is found dead, or so it seems, in her room; so, her parents now have to put her body in the burial chamber. By this time, Friar Lawrence has sent a letter addressed to Romeo telling him Juliet is not dead; but he never gets it! Romeo’s “man” Balthasar see’s them putting Juliet in the chamber, so he rushes to get to Romeo and tell him the news. Romeo freaks out and hastily goes to the chamber to find Juliet. Paris is already there; he wont move, so Romeo kills him. After finally getting inside the chamber, Romeo finds Juliet…dead. He kills himself with a vile of poison that he bought. Juliet awakes, and finds Romeo dead; she stabs herself with Romeo’s knife. And with that, they both lay…dying.

Before I say anything about the characters, you have to know about William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright. He was born on April 23, 1564, and died on the same day in 1616. When he was 18, he married Anne Hathaway and had three children. His most famous plays were comedies and tragedies. Some of his tragedies include: King Lear, Macbeth, Othello, Titus Andronicus, and of course Romeo and Juliet.

Now, Romeo is a very tragic character. Him and Juliet meet purely of chance. Romeo and Benvolio are accidentally invited to a party by the doorman who cannot read. Romeo initially went to the party to see his love, Rosaline. While at the party, he saw Juliet and it was love at first sight. By the end of the scene, he finds out that Juliet is a Capulet, and she finds out that he is a Montague. They realize that the only way they can be together is to not let anyone know.

In act 3 scene 1, Mercutio is killed by Tybalt, who then is vengefully killed by Romeo. Since Tybalt is Juliet’s cousin, and Romeo killed him, Juliet has an even harder decision of choosing sides. Even though she loved her cousin, she is far too deep in love with Romeo to let him go, and she has already married him; Romeo and Juliet are married by Friar Lawrence in act 2 scene 6.

As the play goes on , the plot unfolds as well as more tragedies and more drama. In the end, everyone is pretty much dead; which expresses the name of the play; The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.