Question

Read the play’s Prologue at the beginning of Act I, Scene 1. How can you tell that Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy based on the plot and character information the Prologue contains? In the space below, write a 150-word essay analyzing the plot elements that are indicative of a tragedy. Include at least four specific references to the text.

Answer 1

Keeping this definition in mind, most of the lines in the prologue alude to the fact that the play will be a tragedy. It talks about how civil blood will make civil hands unclean, how two star-crossed lovers will take their own lives, and how their deaths will end a long-term dispute between two respectable families.