Hyperbole In Romeo And Juliet

“The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare, is the tale of two families in a lifelong feud with their delinquent children falling in love. Romeo and Juliet’s forbidden love, at first sight, causes trouble and even death in the town. The young lovers plan to escape and be free from ridicule and arranged marriage fails tremendously as Juliet doesn’t tell Romeo what is going on by a stroke of bad luck. In the end, the two lovers die and kill themselves in a “tragic” way. The deaths of Romeo and Juliet could be considered tragic, but their tale as a whole is much less tragic than the title suggests. With sad events and tragedy written all over it, the play is bound to be a substantial amount of tear jerkers. This is not the case
Exaggeration is a hallmark of comedy. Instead of being a serious tragedy, Shakespeare makes the characters over exaggerate simple things and problems adding a level of humor instead of seriousness. When Juliet and her father get into an argument instead of sounding serious he sounds irrational when he says “Or never after look me in the face. Speak not, reply not, do not answer me!” Instead of sounding intimidating, he sounds like a child who won’t listen or look at his daughter if she’s not married. Even our main character Romeo is at fault when he firsts meets Juliet he goes right into his lovey-dovey descriptions of a girl he never met. He says she is “beauty too rich for use”. He also forgets his sorrow over Rosaline, when he says, “Did my heart love till now?” Lady Capulet is also very dramatic after the argument between her husband and Juliet. She says, “Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word.” making her also act like a child ignoring Juliet. These exaggerated feelings and lines make it seem less serious and much more comedic to the
Whether this has been made intentionally by Shakespeare in an attempt to push the genre boundaries or it was a mere accident that shows how all tragedies can be comedic in certain lights, there is certainly comedic elements scattered around this famous play. If it was intentional, many readers out there should not immediately trust what the title or genre suggests, but interpret it in their own way and push the boundaries of categories such as “comedy” or “tragedy”. All in all, “The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet” shows many comedic elements that could suggest a deeper reading into the genre of tragedy and a re-looking of one of Shakespeare’s most famous