Romeo and Juliet (Vol. 33) | Robert Carl Johnson (essay date 1969)
Robert Carl Johnson (essay date 1969)
SOURCE: "Four Young Men," in The University Review, Vol. XXXVI, No. 2, December, 1969, pp. 141-47.
[In the essay below, Johnson analyzes Benvolio, Tybalt, Paris, and Mercutio, focusing on their characterization, their roles in precipitating the tragedy, and their perception of events in the play.]
The cornerstone of A. C. Bradley's theory of tragedy is that "the calamities and catastrophe follow inevitably from the deeds of men, and that the main source of these deeds is character."1 A problem with Romeo and Juliet that critics often raise is that it is too much a tragedy of fate, that the star-crossed lovers are doomed from the start.
Shakespeare, however, has developed his play so that what at first glance might seem to be the workings of chance are instead the results of character. Besides Romeo Shakespeare distinguished between four other young men who contribute to the...
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