Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare)

Romeo and Juliet · Tragic conventions

Sort the play into its tragic conventions

Which tragic convention does each moment or feature of the play show?

9 of 9 still to sort.

A tragedy is a play dealing with tragic events, and it often ends with a death. But 'sad story, people die' isn't enough to spot one. Tragedies share conventions: the way something is usually done. Romeo and Juliet was one of Shakespeare's earliest tragedies (he wrote 12), and it uses them all. Pick a moment, choose where it belongs, then read why. (The eighth convention, good versus evil, gets its own debate further down.)

The prologue: the ending, told first

Arguably, this is the biggest difference between Romeo and Juliet and Shakespeare's other tragedies. It is the only one where the audience is told the tragic outcome at the very beginning. Before any character speaks, the Chorus sets up the plot. Open each phrase to see how it seals the lovers' fate.

The plot on the Freytag pyramid

A Shakespearean tragedy traditionally follows the Freytag pyramid: five parts that climb to a climax and then fall. Picture the first two parts going uphill, the climax at the peak, and the last two coming down. In a tragedy, the resolution often results in death.

Act 3 Scene 1 · Close reading

The climax: where love loses to honour

Romeo is now secretly married to Juliet, and Tybalt tries to provoke him into a fight. Tap each underlined phrase to see how the scene turns.

Good versus evil · Two ways to see Tybalt

Is Tybalt the villain?

Good versus evil is the eighth convention of tragedy. But who counts as 'evil' can depend on where you are standing. Switch between the two views.

Is Tybalt the villain of Romeo and Juliet?

What you need to know

• A tragedy is a play dealing with tragic events that often ends with a death. Romeo and Juliet was one of Shakespeare's earliest tragedies; he wrote 12.
• The conventions of a Shakespearean tragedy are a tragic hero, hamartia, conflict, fate, supernatural events, tragic waste, catharsis, and good versus evil.
• Romeo is the tragic hero and his hamartia is impulsiveness: he acts on his emotions without thinking about the consequences.
• The plot follows the five-part Freytag pyramid, with Act 3 Scene 1 (Mercutio and Tybalt killed, Romeo banished) as the climax.
• Arguably, the prologue makes this tragedy unique among Shakespeare's: it tells the audience the tragic outcome before the play begins.

The big picture

Romeo and Juliet is a Shakespearean tragedy: a play built from recognisable conventions (a tragic hero with a hamartia, conflict, fate, tragic waste, catharsis, good versus evil) and shaped like the five-part Freytag pyramid, with Act 3 Scene 1 as its climax. What makes it unusual is the prologue, which tells the audience the ending before the story begins.

⚠ Watch out

Treating tragedy as 'a sad story where people die' and retelling the plot. A tragedy is a set of conventions, so name the convention, point to the precise moment that shows it, and explain its effect.

Memory hook

The prologue is a spoiler you can't un-hear: every moment of their love is watched by an audience who already knows how it ends.

Check yourself

Without looking back: choose one moment from the play for each of hamartia, tragic waste and fate, and say in one sentence why each moment fits its convention.