The cause of death was being born!
This shows that Shakespeare wanted us to know the ending of the play. He is telling us that it is going to have a sad and tragic ending. He tried to give a ‘taster’ so people would come and watch the play to get the whole story on why it had such a tragic ending.
Romeo and Juliet have love at first sight, but it just so happens that Romeo is the son of Juliet’s father’s enemy the Montague’s!
“His name is Romeo, and a Montague, the son of your great enemy.”
This line is said by the ‘Nurse’
She gives the line central to the whole play. It sets up the tragic tension! He is the son of the Capulet’s great enemy.
Shakespeare gives Romeo bad fate from the start. He makes Romeo look hasty and foolish. He always seems to fall into traps when it comes to love.
He ironically falls in love with Juliet who just happens to be the daughter of his great enemy, out of all the women he could have fallen in love with, he fell in love with the worst possible! Nurse is warning Juliet of the problems that could occur, that could be dangerous.
Romeo wants to make his own decisions, instead of fate controlling his life. “And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars”
This is in the last scene. Romeo is talking to the audience. He is saying to get rid of the yoke (head brace) of the stars to set him free. This shows he wants to control his own life, his own destiny.
Romeo also tempts fate in a couple of places in the play.
“Let me be ta’en let me be put to death”
Here Romeo is saying basically “put me to death!” He is challenging fate here by saying it; this is quite ironic as he dies within a few days.
Fate is not the only culprit that could have killed the two lovers. What about family pressure?
The fathers in Shakespeare’s day were the boss of the family. They even chose who you married.
Capulet wants Juliet to get married to a man of his choice. He talks about when and who. “She hath not seen the change of fourteen years:
Let two more summers wither in their pride
Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.”
Capulet basically says that in two more summers they should consider Juliet ready for marriage. When she is sixteen. This puts a lot of pressure on Juliet because what if she isn’t ready? What if he isn’t right for her? She is being pushed into things, especially when Capulet agrees to Juliet marrying Paris the following week.
Capulet meets Paris and tells him about Juliet, hoping they could marry. Juliet doesn’t yet know about him.
“But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart;
My will to her consent is but apart:
And, she agree, within her scope of choice”
Here Capulet is talking to Paris. He tells Paris to win her gently, to get Juliet’s heart.
His consent is only a part of the plan for it to work; she will have to agree by her own choice.
This is Capulet’s plan to get Paris and Juliet married; this also puts a lot of pressure on Juliet because she has not got a choice. She is pushed into it, as a father’s word was law.
When Juliet told Capulet she didn’t want to marry Paris (of whom he chose) he was furious.
“Hang thee, young baggage! Disobedient wretch!
I tell thee what; get thee to church on Thursday,
Or never after look me in the face.
Speak not, reply not, do not answer me!”
This is a very powerful speech given by Capulet to Juliet. Capulet says if Juliet doesn’t get to the church on Thursday to marry Paris, he will never talk to her again, and she will be thrown onto the streets!
But she has married Romeo already! That’s the problem.
This puts a lot of pressure on Juliet. Should she forget about Romeo, marry Paris and stay in the family? Or leave her family have no assets and stay to marry Romeo? These are her two options.
Capulet gives Juliet one more chance to redeem herself, by giving her a choice. (If it counts as a choice). He says she can marry Paris or she can beg and die on the streets. It’s not really a choice at all but it’s all she has got.
“An you be mine, I’ll give you my friend;
An you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets”
Capulet may not have given Juliet a wide variety of options but he gave her a chance to have what she wanted. He says she can marry his friend Paris and not be put on the streets or she can have exactly that.
It is all up to Juliet.
What about adolescent passion? Maybe this all happened because of the stupidity of the two lovers. For instance maybe they didn’t know if they were in love or not.
“Did my heart love till now?”
He says this when he meets Juliet. It is love at first sight.
Romeo asks a question that makes you wonder if he truly knows what love is. He thought he loved Rosaline but maybe he didn’t. Romeo shows that he is very unstable and doesn’t know who he loves. (If any)
Maybe the lovers rushed into things to fast.
If that thy bent of love be honourable,
Thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow”
Here Juliet is talking. She says of you mean it send me word tomorrow. They have only just met that night and they are talking about marriage! Is this all a bit too fast?
Romeo goes to see the apothecary to get poison to kill himself because he thinks Juliet is dead. There is evidence of this her in A5 S1 L34
“Well Juliet I will lie with thee tonight”
This is what Romeo says to himself, just before he goes to see the apothecary.
He thinks Juliet is dead so he buys poison to take himself with her. You could say that he was stupidly in love with her. Again he does things in a passionate haste.
Then Romeo kills himself next to Juliet.
“Here’s to my love! O true apothecary!
Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.
Romeo killed himself in haste thinking Juliet was dead; he did not wait to check. He was too hasty.
Maybe none of the above are right. Maybe it was all down to the feud.
Could the lover’s deaths have been caused by the hatred between the Montague’s and Capulet’s?
There is so much hatred in the air between the two families. They always resolve in sword fights. “Draw thy tool; here comes two of thy house of Montagues”
This shows that the two families hate each other bitterly.
This all started because Mercutio took Romeo go to the party, which they were not even meant to be at!
The two families see each other as enemies
“Thou art a villan”
This is Tybalt to Romeo.
Just before Mercutio gets killed he expresses his feelings in anger to the two feuding families.
“I warrant for this world. A plague o’both your houses!”
Mercutio is very angry; he thinks the two families are pathetic and he puts a curse on both their houses (not literally).
Maybe it was chance. Maybe it was just bad luck that all this happened.
Maybe it was luck that Romeo met Juliet in the first place! If it was not for Mercutio to get tickets for the Capulet’s ball there would be no Romeo and Juliet
Romeo was not meant to be at the party so if he did not go he would not have met Juliet in the first place. He chose to change his luck
When the Prince banished Romeo from Verona he was forced to leave. Later on Friar Lawrence sends a letter to Romeo updating him on what has happened. Unfortunately this does not arrive.
. “her body sleeps in Capels’ monument” because he obviously did not know at this point that Juliet was faking her death and thus this wrong message sends Romeo back to Verona and to his tragic end.
The letter was of most serious importance that it got to Romeo, but it did not.
“This letter was not nice but full of charge,
Of dear import”
The letter was very important as it contained the vital information that Romeo needed.
I personally think that the tragic ending was caused mostly by adolescent passion because they rushed into things too fast! They were too hasty in their approach. Also in the way that they are too young to know what love is! For example Romeo kept on saying how much he loved Rosaline but then when he met Juliet he forgot all about her! I think all the topics I have covered have some relevance but are not the whole cause.
I leave you with a quote which I mentioned earlier, I think it very powerful in the way that an innocent man died because of the hatred between the two families.
“A plague o’both your houses”
A plague called love
