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How does Shakespeare introduce tragedy in the Prologue of Romeo and Juliet?

In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare indicates the tragic nature of the play in the fourteen line sonnet which makes up the Prologue. The word prologue comes from the Greek "prologos," which literally means before the word. The Greeks employed the Prologue, usually spoken by the "Chorus," in their dramas. Shakespeare does the same thing in Romeo and Juliet. In this case, the Prologue basically tells us both the conflict and the resolution as...

In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare indicates the tragic nature of the play in the fourteen line sonnet which makes up the Prologue. The word prologue comes from the Greek "prologos," which literally means before the word. The Greeks employed the Prologue, usually spoken by the "Chorus," in their dramas. Shakespeare does the same thing in Romeo and Juliet. In this case, the Prologue basically tells us both the conflict and the resolution as it uses tragic terms such as "grudge," "mutiny," "blood," "fatal," "piteous," and "strife." In fact, the Chorus comes right out and says that the two young lovers will wind up committing suicide:




From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life



Moreover, the Prologue indicates the play would describe the "piteous overthrows" and "death-marked love" of Romeo and Juliet as they are doomed by the feud which rages between their families.



Most of the audience would have already known some of the plot of the story as they would be familiar with the English poet Arthur Brooke's "The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet," published about thirty years before Shakespeare's version. They were there to hear Shakespeare's take on the story and would have been quite interested in the words as Shakespeare was virtually reinventing the English language. 



Audiences in Elizabethan times would also know the genre of a play by the color of the flag which would fly at the top of the theater on the day of the performance. White was flown for a comedy, red for a history and, for Romeo and Juliet, a black flag for tragedy.

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