In the play Romeo and Juliet, Romeo is the tragic hero who through his tragic
flaws, ended the life of his bride and his own. In Shakespeare plays, tragedy is identified
as a story that ends unhappily due to the fall of the protagonist. Romeo's act of falling in
love too quickly and deeply, pride, and poor decision making are his tragic flaws and
contributes to the death of Juliet and himself. By analyzing Romeo's tragic flaws, it is
evident that the play is classified as a tragedy.
One of Romeo's tragic flaws, being that he falls in love too quickly and too
deeply brings him to an awful end. In the beginning of the play we are introduced to
Romeo being deeply and hopelessly in love with Rosaline. However, Rosaline did not
feel the same way about Romeo. Romeo shows he is unhappy with Rosaline's actions
when he says to Benvolio: "Not having that which makes having short." This very well
illustrates how deeply Romeo was in love with Rosaline. In the next scene we realize
that Romeo has fallen for another, which is Juliet. We can quickly identify Romeo's flaw
of falling in love too quickly and deeply when he forgets about his feelings for Rosaline
and concentrates on Juliet. Juliet too realizes that Romeo's love for her was too fast
when she said: "It is too rash, too undivis'd, too sudden." Romeo's strong love for Juliet
made him act without thinking when he kept contemplating suicide and saying that he
can't live without her. He shows he his love for her when he sees she her dead, not
knowing it was a plan, then drinking the poison right away. He shows he will do
anything for his new love, including risking getting caught by the Capulet guards at the
orchard, and killing himself to be with Juliet. This tragic flaw of Romeo was the reason
why his death came so untimely and surprisingly.
Romeo's pride was another reason why this play ended in a tragedy. Dur...