Romeo Was Not a Hero

Aristotle analyzed a bunch of Greek dramas and wrote about their structure. Based on that study, he strictly defined the characteristics of a tragic hero. Why is that important? Because he influenced the Elizabethan theater 2000 years later. It’s obvious that Shakespeare copied Aristotle’s recipe for a tragedy. Shakespeare didn’t write out his recipes for plays, but Aristotle did.

So what was Aristotle’s recipe for a tragic hero?

1. He is the protagonist.
2. He had to be be virtuous: In Aristotle’s time, this meant of noble birth, capable, powerful, and responsible to the rules of honor and morality that guided Greek culture, i.e. “heroic”, even by today’s standards (except for the noble birth and Greek culture part).
3. He had to be flawed.
4. He had to suffer a reversal of fortune due to a character flaw.

How Does Romeo Measure UP?

1. He is the main character,    ✔
2. He is of noble birth,    ✔
3. He is certainly flawed,    ✔
4. He suffers a reversal of fortune due to a character flaw,  ✔
5. Capable, powerful, and responsible, i.e. “heroic”,   ✘

He’s immature

We are not explicitly told Romeo’s age, but when Lord Montague is pleading for his son’s life, he refers to Romeo to as “boy”. We can assume he is about sixteen so his relationship with Juliet would have been age-appropriate during the Elizabethan era. (Juliet is thirteen, and her parents are pressuring her to marry.) In any case, Romeo acts like a typical self-absorbed teenage boy.

He’s fickle

He broods all night in the forest because he is in love with Rosaline, who doesn’t love him back. He describes her as “The all-seeing sun / ne’er saw her match since first the world begun.” Rosaline, however, chooses to remain chaste, and Romeo says: “She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow / Do I live dead that live to tell it now.” Following that impassioned declaration, he jumps from Rosaline to Juliet with mind blurring speed.

He’s hasty and impetuous

He marries Juliet the day after meeting her without giving a thought to the consequences of marrying the daughter of his family’s enemy. In that era, the least the parents would have done is have the marriage annulled. Lord Capulet has arranged Juliet’s marriage to Paris in four days’ time. When Juliet refuses to marry, he threatens to disown her. If he and Juliet were disowned, what then? Even worse, if Juliet’s kinsmen would kill Romeo on sight in there compound, why wouldn’t they kill him upon learning of the marriage/?

He’s rash

When Romeo sneaks into the Montague compound, and Juliet warns him that if any of her kinsmen find him there, they will kill him. He replies, “…let them find me here. My life were better ended by their hate, Than death proroguèd, wanting of thy love.” He’s not thinking this through.

He’s a bumbler

When Mercutio and Tybalt are fighting, Romeo tries to intervene, and Mercutio is stabbed under Romeo’s arm. He then takes revenge for Mercutio’s death without stopping to consider the consequences: he has killed the cousin of his wife, for which her family will surely exact revenge, he is banished from Verona, and his mother, Lady Montague, dies of grief.

He’s a child

Unable to cope with the trouble he’s landed himself in, After killing Tybalt he flees to Friar Lawrence’s cell distraught, crying, and losing control of himself.

He’s impulsive.

On hearing of Juliet’s death, he cries, “then I defy you, stars!” and springs into action. When he’s in the tomb with Juliet, he instantly resolves to kill himself.

He’s an idiot

Self-absorbed, immature, fickle, hasty, impetuous, impulsive, bumbler, rash, no thought of consequences–certainly not capable, or powerful–not heroic. It’s hard to settle on an overarching flaw except that he is still a child who could have used better parenting.