Consider the characters and their roles ' Romeo and Juliet' who do you find responsible for the tragedy at the end of the play?

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Toni Lowery                           Romeo and Juliet Assignment.

                           

Consider the characters and their roles ‘ Romeo and Juliet’ who do you find responsible for the tragedy at the end of the play?

‘Romeo and Juliet’ is one of the most famous plays written by William Shakespeare, it is set in Verona, Italy. At the time it was common for parents to arrange their daughter’s marriage it was very unusual for the daughter to argue or refuse the marriage. In the play a young couple unfortunately fell passionately in love with each other, the end result was tragic as it resulted in the death of Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet. They belonged to families who were bitter enemies. Who is responsible for their deaths? It is very easy to come to a conclusion and blame the parents, but every character needs to be considered before making a decision.

    Benvolio is a great friend to Romeo. Throughout the play Shakespeare gives him the role as a peacemaker, who is always honest and reliable, but there is a hint of weakness, early in the play because he persuades Romeo to gatecrash the Capulet Ball, even though he has the best interests of Romeo at heart, it is were he meets Juliet which is fate working against them.

    The role of peacemaker is reflected in the type of language Benvolio uses, not fiery like Tybalt or as eloquent as the Friar, but he is well spoken and uses his language to great effect because he tries to look for the positives in every situation and is very diplomatic. He is persuasive and clearly indicates to Mercutio that trouble will soon appear ‘I pray thee, good Mercutio, let’s retire;

            The day is hot, the Capels are abroad.’

This shows that he knows Mercutio very well and has his best interests at heart he is also very sensible. So could Benvolio take some responsibility for the deaths?

  Prince Escalus is the prince of Verona, and passes judgement on laws affecting the citizens of Verona. He is determined to put an end to the fighting on the Verona streets whatever happens. He gives a proclamation and states:

’ If ever you disturb our streets again, your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace’

Which is aimed at the Montagues and the Capulets. Later on in the play he compromises and is fair in his judgement but he does banish Romeo, he uses his figure of authority well and tries to solve most situations, he listens to both sides of the story (i.e. Tybalt and Mercutio) before jumping to conclusions. He just wants peace on the streets of Verona. The type of language he uses is strong, emotive and direct. An example of this is:

 ‘For never was a story of more woe

  Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.’

 Paris is a young and nobleman and kinsman to the Prince; in the play he is always courteous and well mannered towards others, which is apparent in his language. He offers to marry Juliet and the proposition forces Romeo and Juliet to take drastic action. He can be considered as being slightly shallow and certainly is not perceptive of Juliet and her feelings. He makes clear his intentions of wanting to marry Juliet but not his reasons. He is also seen to act on opinions or rumours. He is innocent towards the tragedy, but probably forced the suicides to happen sooner than they would, if he hadn’t intervened. Shakespeare uses him to create more problems for the young couple to face and therefore there is not much that he could have done to shoulder the blame for the deaths.

   The Nurse is involved with Juliet. Throughout the play she is seen as the messenger. She is very good at keeping secrets and she always acts on Juliet’s behalf and has her best interests at heart.

She is seen defending Juliet when her father hits out at her and refuses to postpone the marriage to Paris:

                          ‘God in heaven bless her!

                            You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so.’

 The Nurse’s language is always full of advice, even though she is known to gossip, as nurse to Juliet her language towards her reflects the love she has for Juliet and that she is prepared to do anything that makes Juliet happy. Even though she is the reason why they could get married, her involvement was out of pure love that she has for Juliet. The responsibility that the nurse could receive would be small, even though she helps them to get married. She gives Juliet bad advice by telling her to marry Paris, and leaving her alone the night before the marriage to Paris.

  Balthasar is Romeo’s servant and is similar to the nurse, he informs Romeo of Juliet’s death out of loyalty and isn’t aware of the plan, responsibility on his part can be seen to be non-existent, only one negative point can be made against him, he lets Romeo enter the tomb, but he really doesn’t have the power to stop Romeo.

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  The Apothecary is a poor man who sells Romeo the rat poison, he should accept a little bit of responsibility, but not much, as at this stage, Romeo would still have taken his own life. He really didn’t want to sell the poison but his status and poverty forced him to

 ‘My poverty but not my will consents.’

  Friar John is the reason why Romeo didn’t receive the letter, because fate is seen working against Romeo and Juliet again. He makes a slight detour on his way to Mantua to visit a sick Friar, and unfortunately the town ...

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