And so, good Capulet, which name I tender
As dearly as mine own, be satisfied.” (Act 3 Scene 1)
Romeo tries to explain to Tybalt that he cannot fight him, without revealing that he has married Juliet. Mercutio cannot believe Romeo will not fight and so he confronts Tybalt himself, with tragic consequences:
“Tybalt, you rat-catcher will you walk?” (Act 3 Scene 1)
Romeo then avenges Mercutio’s death by killing Tybalt himself:
“Staying for thine to keep him company:
Either thou or I, or both, must go with him.” (Act 3 scene 1)
Romeo is then found guilty of murdering Tybalt and thus the Prince banishes him to exile:
“And for that offence
Immediately we do exile him hence.” (Act 3 scene 1)
Lady Montague on hearing of her son’s exile dies of shock:
“Alas, my liege, my wife is dead tonight;
Grief of my son’s exile hath stopp’d her breath” (Act 5 scene 3)
Lord Monatague is telling the Prince that his wife is dead.
When Juliet was being forced to marry Paris, Friar Lawrence offered a solution to Juliet’s problem:
“Hold then, go home, be merry, give consent
To marry Paris…”(Act 4 scene 1)
Friar Lawrence is telling Juliet not to worry that she is already married to Romeo, but to go home and say that she will wed Paris. Friar Lawrence then goes on to suggest to Juliet, to drink some sleeping potion so her family will think she is dead. Friar Lawrence tells Juliet that he will send a letter to Romeo explaining what is to happen and how Romeo can rescue her, and then they can both run away to Mantua:
“Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.
And this shall free thee from this present shame”(Act 4 scene 1)
Friar Lawrence is explaining what will happen if his plan works,
and he gives the letter containing instructions to Friar John to deliver to Romeo:
“I could not send it…
So fearful were they of infection.” (Act 5 scene 2)
However Friar John cannot find Romeo because of the fear of disease so fails to deliver the letter:
“Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift” (Act 4 scene 1)
The whole plan depends on the safe arrival of the letter.
So when Friar Lawrence arrives at the tomb to find both Romeo and Paris dead and Juliet awaking, his first instincts are to run away with Juliet to get away from the trouble:
“ Stay not to question, for the Watch is coming.
Come go, good Juliet, I dare no longer stay” (Act 5 scene 3)
Friar Lawrence tells Juliet that Romeo and Paris are both dead and how his plan has failed. When Juliet refuses to leave, Friar Lawrence selfishly leaves to get out of trouble, and by doing so he leaves Juliet alone with her dead husband. She is so distraught that stabs herself with Romeo’s dagger:
“there rust and let me die. ” (Act 5 scene 3)
These are the last words that Juliet utters before she dies.
So I feel that Friar Lawrence is partly to blame for all the deaths in the play. He, by marrying Romeo and Juliet started a chain of events that lead to the tragic ending and by suggesting such a dangerous plan he was playing with their lives.
Romeo and Juliet can also be blamed for their own deaths. They were very much in love and should have taken things more slowly. They both rushed into their marriage without thinking of the consequences it may have on their families’ situation:
“Thou art thyself through not a Montague,” (act 2 scene 2)
Juliet is telling Romeo that he is the man she loves even if he is a Montague it does not matter to her. Romeo and Juliet did not tell their parents about their love:
“I will not marry yet, and when I do, I swear
it shall be Romeo” (Act 3 scene 5)
Juliet hints to her mother about her love for Romeo. Although, neither Romeo nor Juliet tells their parents about their marriage in case they try to stop them seeing each other. Romeo acts with hast throughout the play without thinking things through. Romeo rushes into marriage and then when he hears about Juliet’s supposed death, he rushes straight back to Verona:
“And hire post-horses; I will hence tonight”(act 5 scene 1)
Romeo tells Balthasar to go and get horses, as he wants to leave Mantua that night to be with his fair lady Juliet in Verona. Furthermore Romeo acts suicidal as Juliet had when Romeo was banished:
“whose sale is present death in Mantua,” (act 5 scene 1)
Romeo is inquiring for an apothecary for poison, as he wants to be dead like Juliet. So when Romeo gets to the tomb and finds Paris there, he does not think about what he is doing and ends up slaying Paris
“Wilt thou provoke me? then have at thee, boy!” (act 5 scene 3)
Romeo states that he does not want to fight, but Paris insults him so he fights for his honour. As soon as Romeo sees Juliet dead, he takes the potion because he cannot live through the agony.
“Here’s to my love! [Drinks] O true apothecary!
Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die. [Dies] (act 5 scene 3)
Romeo takes the poison and dies. When Juliet wakes up to find her husband dead with a bottle of poison next to him, she also cannot stand the pain of living without him.
“Yea, noise? Then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger,” (act 5 scene 3)
Juliet quickly stabs herself using Romeo’s dagger so as to join him in heaven.
Lord and Lady Capulet are also characters that can be held to blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. They were partly responsible for keeping the feud going between the Montagues and the Capulets. They did not pay enough attention to what Juliet wanted, and they tried to force her to marry Paris. Juliet was already married to Romeo and therefore could not marry again.
“’Proud, and ‘I thank you’ and ‘I thank you not’
And yet ‘not proud’, mistress minion you” (act 3 scene 5)
Lord Capulet starts to lose his temper with Juliet because she is refusing to marry Paris. However, the family’s attitude towards Juliet changes when she agrees to marry Paris, not knowing that Friar Lawrence’s plan meant that she would not have to.
“ Pardon I beesech you!
Hencefoward, I am ever rul’d by you” (act 3 scene 5)
Juliet tells Lord Capulet that she is willing to marry Paris because she will obey his wishes. Juliet then carries out Friar Lawrence’s plan and takes the sleeping potion knowing that she will wake up in a tomb. Unfortunately, when the Capulets find Juliet apparently dead their reaction was quite unexpected:
O me, O me, my child, my only life!
Revive, look up, or I will die with thee” (act 4 scene 5)
Lady Capulet is genuinely upset and shocked about the death of her daughter, although whilst Juliet was alive she was very rude to her. I think this is because had Juliet married Paris, her daughter would have wealth and status. When Capulet and Montague met at the tomb they decided to end the feud that killed their children.
“O brother Montague, give me thy hand.
This is my daughter’s jointure, for no more
Can I demand.” (act 5 scene 3)
If Montague and Capulet had ended the feud earlier they would have saved the lives of their children.
The tragedy was not the fault of any one character but can also be blamed on an act of Fate. From the beginning Romeo and Juliet’s relationship was cursed with ill fortune.
“From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life.” (Prologue)
This quote, from the very beginning of the play, sums up the bad luck that runs throughout the plot. Fate has it that the stars are controlling the events of the play. Two young people take their lives for their love. Just before Romeo meets Juliet at the party he can sense that something bad is going to happen:
“Some consequences yet hanging in the stars” (act 1 scene 4)
Romeo is telling himself that if he enters the party something terrible is going to happen to him, as if his future is written in the stars. He believes that the stars control his destiny. On hearing of Romeo’s banishment after he killed Tybalt, Juliet refers to the stars:
“Take him and cut him out in little stars,” (act 3 scene 2)
Juliet is alone talking out-loud about what she feels of Romeo’s banishment. She is very upset that she may never see him again. So she wants to put him in the sky so she can always see him.
“ Is it e’en so? then I defy you stars!” (act 5 scene 1)
Romeo hears about Juliet’s death and blames the stars for it.
To conclude my discussion about the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, from the very beginning the love of Romeo and Juliet was destined for disaster. Although there were many events throughout their lives that contributed to their deaths, I feel Fate is most to blame. Romeo and Juliet believed the stars controlled everything and that the stars were against them. These beliefs played a large part in how they reacted to the many events that lead to their deaths.
