The old school Shakespeare version is tragedy, while some of the newer remade ones are comedy for the wrong reasons.
Poll: Romeo and Juliet: A tragedy or a comedy?
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I'd say comedy because I enjoyed the ending because I hated both the main characters and I hated the play
I'm not a "Plays are boring" kind of guy, I love Richard III and Hamlet, but Romeo and Juliet was either a really bad play, or a really ironic play about the stupid infatuations of youth that the audiences of the world have completley missed the subtext of
At the start, Romeo is infatuated with this girl who has sworn herself to chastity. He is SO unhappy and will never love again...blah blah blah. He goes to crash a Capulet (or Monty, I forget which way round it is) party and immediatly falls in love with Juliet with the same level of "She's the One, I'll never love anyone else" infatuation that he had with another girl literal HOURS before.
Juliet is an air-head who drops the frankly awesome/sucsessful/charming/nice Paris for that douche stalker who happens to be his family's sworn enemy as well
Then they're both so overdramatic and conveluted in their plans to escape their families that they end up killing themselves
Boo fecking Hoo
I hate that prat, Romeo. What an absaloute f*cker
I'm not a "Plays are boring" kind of guy, I love Richard III and Hamlet, but Romeo and Juliet was either a really bad play, or a really ironic play about the stupid infatuations of youth that the audiences of the world have completley missed the subtext of
At the start, Romeo is infatuated with this girl who has sworn herself to chastity. He is SO unhappy and will never love again...blah blah blah. He goes to crash a Capulet (or Monty, I forget which way round it is) party and immediatly falls in love with Juliet with the same level of "She's the One, I'll never love anyone else" infatuation that he had with another girl literal HOURS before.
Juliet is an air-head who drops the frankly awesome/sucsessful/charming/nice Paris for that douche stalker who happens to be his family's sworn enemy as well
Then they're both so overdramatic and conveluted in their plans to escape their families that they end up killing themselves
Boo fecking Hoo
I hate that prat, Romeo. What an absaloute f*cker
Maybe the ending's a downer, but that doesn't make it a tragedy. It's a failed tragedy. There's a whole lot of English class I've forgotten since I was in grade 9, I don't properly remember all the stages of a tragedy (hamartia, reversal of fortune, catharsis, etc) but the reason Romeo and Juliet's not considered a "tragedy" is because Romeo never realizes his flaw, he blames fortune and dies.oliveira8 said:
By the same token, just because a play has funny bits, that doesn't make it a comedy. Pretty much all of Shakespeare's proper tragedies have comic reliefs to do away with some of the tension and keep the audience entertained.
Paris is an airhead. A nice guy, but oblivious.GrinningManiac said:
They play with this in the DiCaprio version by making him a "space man" at the Capulet's ball.
So you're telling me the bit where Juliet pretends to kill herself, then wakes up after Romeo tops himself out of anguish over her death isn't funny? I pissed myself laughing at that pair of stooges. The only thing to top that was watching Bambi's mum take a slug to the bonce...oliveira8 said:
Boy meets girl. Respective families have a longstanding feud so boy and girl meet in secret. Girls fakes death to be with boy. Boy thinks girl's death is real so kills himself. Girl kills herself when he discovers boy has killed himself. Family is faced with the pointless death of two their kids as simply being caused by their own stupid feud. Recap of story is dropped at the end: "never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."
They say Shakespeare speaks human better than anyone else. If you're looking at all of this and thinking, "COMEDY!" then maybe you're not human.
They say Shakespeare speaks human better than anyone else. If you're looking at all of this and thinking, "COMEDY!" then maybe you're not human.
Its a tragedy. Simple as, no debate. Though as is the theme of many of shakespeares plays, it has some elements of humour in it, though obviously the whole two lovers doomed to never be together except in death thing is not an element of humour.
One thing to remember is Shakespeare includes hints of comedy in almost all his pieces. Often such lighthearted moments are ironic, rather than simply comic. And as to the question of Tragedy/Comedy, Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy. Keep in mind "genres" like such had and have different meanings for stage productions than movies or games. For example, take 300. Movie genres simply refer to it as 'action'. In theatre, such a story would be a 'heroic tragedy'.
Similarly, a story where everything just keeps going wrong for the protagonist in a comic fashion, and the ill luck continues through the end of the play, would be a comic tragedy, or "it's bad, but funny". This is not to be confused with, "so bad it's funny", which is what we call a 'tragery'.
Similarly, a story where everything just keeps going wrong for the protagonist in a comic fashion, and the ill luck continues through the end of the play, would be a comic tragedy, or "it's bad, but funny". This is not to be confused with, "so bad it's funny", which is what we call a 'tragery'.
Tragedies must end in death for the hero, at the very least as far as Shakespeare is concerned. Look at MacBeth, Hamlet, Othello; all tragedies, all deaths. R&J is no different.
And very overrated in my opinion... Twelfth Night is my favourite, alongside Othello.
And very overrated in my opinion... Twelfth Night is my favourite, alongside Othello.
And if you ask me, this question should only be applied to Shakespeare's original work. If we're talking about some other movie, or abridged version in a book, or somesuch, we aren't talking about Shakespeare. We're talking about some brickheaded fuckbucket that thought it was a good idea to rip him off.
/thread.zen5887 said:
Also, someone gets hit in the groin - comedy.
Seriously is this even a debate?
The only reason anyone would say it's a comedy is to be a pretentious dbag and try to wow us with their grad school english diploma.
Look I can make ridiculous accusations too!
The Matrix wasn't sci-fi, it was Horror! Why? Scary robots!
He said that because the film is very happy and not sad at all until Mercutio's sudden death, it was a comedy.zen5887 said:
Finally someone who doesn't call it a romance! In high school most people called it a romance (even some of the teacher). But back to your question, I'd have to say tragedy.