Romantics Forum Tragedy as a Form of Romance?

 Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare. Often viewed as a romantic tale, however, the main characters both end up dead in the end. To me, this type of story seems rare. It's not every day that you see love stories end in death aside from Romeo and Juliet copy cats(or the actual story itself being retold).

 Why is that? Sure, you could argue that happy endings sell better. But why isn't it more common practice to defy this tradition? To start your story at the top and just go nowhere but downhill from there.

There are several examples of the theme of romanticism occurring in a tragedy. And it is perfectly okay to start at the top and go downhill from there. But they wouldn't sell good. It's because people want to read stuff that cheers them and not depresses them. But not selling good does not mean it's bad.

Moreover, it is possible to draw out a positive meaning out of a tragedy. For example, the death of Romeo and Juliet made two rival families come closer to each other. Sure, what happened to the characters was tragic, but tragedy is often the reality of life. Sometimes dreaming too high or reaching to high is what makes the fall all the more painful and tragic. And thus, it can be said that it is necessary to be at a higher point at least initially when writing a tragedy.

But often one also emphasis on how that 'high' state of living was achieved. Some people end their stories their. But that does not mean the story end. The story for real continues and the fall occurs and those who are brave enough to write about it shall write about it.