ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare’s most popular plays during his lifetime and along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently performed plays.

Detailed explanation-2: -Question: Why is Romeo and Juliet a tragedy? Answer: Very simply, Romeo and Juliet can be considered a tragedy because the protagonists-the young lovers-are faced with a momentous obstacle that results in a horrible and fatal conclusion. This is the structure of all Shakespeare’s tragedies.

Detailed explanation-3: -Apart from the early Titus Andronicus, the only other play that Shakespeare wrote prior to 1599 that is classified as a tragedy is Romeo and Juliet (c. 1594–96), which is quite untypical of the tragedies that are to follow.

Detailed explanation-4: -In 1562 Arthur Brooke published The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet, the first English version of the story of Romeo and Juliet. His long poem was very popular among Elizabethan readers, enjoying several reprints.