What are 4 reasons for making Romeo and Juliet a tragedy?

Answer 1

The story of Romeo and Juliet, which did not originate with Shakespeare, cannot be anything but a tragedy. The absolutely essential part of the plot, the part that makes a story a Romeo and Juliet story and not a Cinderella story, is that one of the lovers, believing the other to have died, commits suicide. He is mistaken, and when the other lover finds what he has done, she commits suicide also.

The lovers in the story are bucking their parents' wishes in being in love (Not necesarily because they are from warring families as in the Shakespeare version of the tale--it could be for any reason) and their inexperience and lack of support from their families is a contributing factor in their tragic end. Indeed, the moral of the story in its inception may have been, "Look, kids--see what happens if you don't obey your parents."

Literature is full of stories where lovers have to get past the objections of parents or at least the parents of the girl involved, but they succeed and everyone lives happily ever after. Shakespeare himself wrote two plays with this type of plot: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Hermia wants to marry Lysander but her father wants her to marry Demetrius and is prepared to have her killed if she won't) and the subplot in The Merry Wives of Windsor (Anne Page's parents have set her up with two guys, neither of whom she wants).

So, if you want a story where Romeo and Juliet end up happy, you really want a Hermia and Lysander story, not a Romeo and Juliet story at all.