How would you describe the character of Romeo and in what ways is his character responsible for the tragedy.

Romeo and Juliet

Essay for standard grade folder Alex Chen

Romeo is a young teenager, a member of the Montague household, who secretly got married with Juliet, a Capulet whose family were bitter enemies of the Montagues.

Romeo had a very different personality then the rest of the people in the Montague’s or the Capulet’s household. Most people from that two household hate each other. But everyone, even the Lord Capulet, who’s the head of his enemy’s household, knew that Romeo was a gentlemen.

Romeo has many different characteristics. If I have to use five adjective words to describe Romeo, it would be:

Impetuous

Peaceful

Courteous

Religious

Romantic

Romeo is impetuous because most of the time, before he does anything he doesn’t think about what’s going to happen to him after he does it. And that caused a lot of problems later on in the story. For example: when he gate cashed the Capuet’s party, he didn’t think about what was going to happened to him when he gets caught by the people in the Capulet’s household. This caused the problem between him and Tybalt, who’s the cousin of Juliet. If he didn’t do this then there is pretty much no chance of any of those four people (Mercutio, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet) giving their lives when they are so young.

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Romeo is peaceful because he hardly ever joins a fight, when all his friends always do. In Shakespeare days, young members of each rich household did not have many things to do. Most days they just picks on the people in the other households and mess around. It was mainly the Capulet’s household and the Montague’s household who had major problems between each other’s. There is once when Romeo joined a fight, and killed Tybalt, the cousin of his love. I do not think though that you can blame Romeo for killing Tybalt as he was determined to fight Romeo and when he refused, Romeo's closest friend Mercutio stepped in and drew his sword. They fought and Romeo intervenes trying to stop them, but this according to the dying Mercutio gave Tybalt the opportunity to kill him, "I was hurt under your arm". Romeo then fought and killed Tybalt. Perhaps if he had thought about what he was doing a little more before acting, the deaths of him and his fair Juliet would have been averted.

Romeo is very idealistic. Because it seems that Romeo is either not afraid to take risks or just doesn't think about any of his actions, in the balcony scene he risks getting caught by the Nurse, and then later in Juliet's bedroom when Lady Capulet was looking for her. Also because they were so deeply in love with each other, that they refused to be split up and therefore took risks to stay together which eventually led to their deaths. But if Romeo had a thought about it before he did it, he might have came up with a much better idea then ending with both of them dead.

Romeo is also very courteous. And there are many examples of him being courteous. From the quotations below it tells how others think about Romeo:

Capulet: content thee, gentle coz, let him alone;

‘A bears him like a portly gentleman:

And to say truth, Verona brags of him.

To be a virtuous and well-governed youth. (Act1.5)

-It shows that Capulet is impressed with him of the things that he had done and the things that Lord Capulet have heard. Even though that he is the only son of his enemy’s household.

Nurse: Your love says, like an honest gentleman, and a

Courteous, and a kind, and a handsome, and I

Warrant, a virtuous…

-It shows that the nurse really likes Romeo and wants Juliet to get marry with him as soon as possible. She thinks that Romeo is different from the other people in his household, and that she thinks he was perfect for her.

From the way Romeo speaks I think he is very religious also. Here are some quotations.

This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this.

My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand.

To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

Juliet also speaks in a same kind of way, and that she found Romeo quite interesting by the way he speaks. So speaking in a same way as Juliet is an also very important reason of them being together.

One of the many characteristics that Romeo had was that he was very romantic. At the beginning of the story when everyone else was fighting against people in other household, he was walking about with flowers in his hand. Thinking about some love. He is the kind of people that thinks about how to fall in love with a girl. At the beginning of the story he thought that he was in love with a girl called Rosaline. And all he did was that he saw the girl from far away. But that’s enough to make him fall in love with her. He said that she didn’t like him. Later on, when he saw Juliet. He fell in love with her on the first second he saw her. And that he already had the idea of getting marry with her on the same day he first saw her. That shows how romantic he is, and that he can fall in love so quickly, unlike the others, who just fight and fight all the time

Since that Romeo had all these characteristic, he ended up secretly married with Juliet, and died in a very young age. If he didn’t have some of those characteristic then he might have end up living happily with Juliet ever after; But maybe if he didn’t have some of those characteristic then he might have not met Juliet at all. So I think over all Romeo has a very interesting characteristic.