Romeo is a young adolescent from the Montague family. He excludes himself from the continuous feuding of the two families, Capulets and Montagues and concentrates on the finer things in life. He is a strong believer in fate and love. Although claiming to have fallen in love once with Rosalind, Romeo acts, as Juliet is his first and true love. Brushing away Rosalind’s rejection as a shadow of his make-believe first love. As Juliet is a member of the Capulet family she is a sworn enemy of the Montagues. Old Capulet and Montague aren’t fine role models to their young offspring, as they act rashly and impetuously by trying to fight each other on the street of Verona. Therefore Romeo has had no one but Friar Lawrence as a guide to advise him. Romeo has proved to be deep and passionate although acting rashly at times in the play.
After killing Tybalt irrationally blames fate as a scapegoat for all of his problems caused by his own hasty actions, ‘O! I am fortune’s fool’, after realising that he has murdered Tybalt Romeo concludes that he is fortune fool.
In contrast Friar Lawrence seems to have a plan as to how the future will be, Friar Lawrence is the priest confidant to Romeo. Friar Lawrence’s only intention is to bring peace between the feuding families. Nonetheless he faces many obstacles, which he deals with ineffectually as the problems amount and become much more futile as the protagonists are hopeless at dealing with their problems therefore sharing them with others to cause more grief. I believe that Friar Lawrence is a well-intentioned man and was not deliberately trying to harm either of the protagonists. Friar Lawrence is in disbelief when Romeo comes to announce that he is love with Juliet and would like to marry her. Friar Lawrence sees it as almost immediately after his rejection from Rosalind, ‘Holy Saint Francis, what a change here! I s Rosalind, who thou didst love so dear, so soon forsaken?’ (Act 2, Scene 3)
Although not immediately consenting to marry the protagonists, he eventually agrees, as he believes that once the two are wed the two feuding families will reconcile at the joy of their marriage. Ironically it is the death of Romeo and Juliet that reconciles the two families.
Juliet an intelligent yet innocent young girl whose life is taken away from her due to family ties. Although spontaneously falling in love at first sight I believe she was more thoughtful of her decisions but was lead astray when Romeo contributed his thoughts. She marries Romeo through Love yet she wonders how ties can easily be formed so shouldn’t they also be easily broken. Juliet is more considerate of the consequences but the hastiness of Romeo results in her notion being forgotten. Romeo contrasts Juliet as she is thoughtful and takes time to make decisions but these are useless, as everything seems to speed up and take dangerous turns. Juliet’s practicalities are shown when she in contrast to Romeo, is concerned that he will get caught by her family on the balcony scene ‘If they do see thee they will murder thee’ and the after wedding night when they spend the night with each other. Considering how lonely Juliet is she I believe she is brave and courageous to counsel herself at such a young age, Romeo is benefited with the ability to talk to Friar to counsel him when in doubt. Whereas Juliet is lonesome and she must choose how to tackle all of life’s problems. She proves herself not to be a ‘bright angel’ by taking a drug to impersonate death but also to be a brave, determined and sophisticated young women, as she only wants to be with her one and only true love Romeo.
The nurse is the nanny of Juliet and I believe she has mothered Juliet all of her life. Although caring for Juliet she has no depth, she simply interested in the physical qualities of a man therefore making her shallow. She regards Romeo and Juliet’s love to be simply physical therefore being unable to understand Juliet, praising Romeo she says, “though his face be better than any man’s, yet his leg excels all men’s: and for a hand, and a foot, and a body… yet they are past compare”.
Regardless of Juliet’s feelings after Romeo has killed Tybalt she turns against Romeo, ‘Shame come to Romeo’, yet she still insists on helping prepare the wedding night. The nurse is hypocritical as she once said that Romeo’s physical attributes excelled all other men yet after Juliet is forced to marry Paris the nurse refers to him as a ‘dishclout’, which proves her lack of understanding of Juliet’s love for Romeo.
The nurse contrasts the Friar as the Friar’s intention is too only promote happiness and peace between the two families, the nurse however is only interested in what Juliet will be able to experience physically with either of the men.
Lord and Lady Capulet are the parents of Juliet they and the Montagues are accountable for the continuous feud. I believe they are liable to the tragedy, due to their relationship with their daughter. Unlike the Lord and Lady Montague who always appear needlessly worried about their son, Lady Capulet is somewhat a stranger to Juliet, personally I see her as only as a birth mother for Juliet, Lord Capulet however much he may love his child he appears to an ignorant narrow-minded bully. This emerges in Act 3, Scene 5 when the two parents attempt to force Juliet into holy matrimony with Paris.
Regardless of Juliet’s feeling Capulet believes of his daughter as another piece of property which he can invest in to excel his wealth by marrying her off to a rich man. Personally I think that these two parents are part of the main cause of the tragedy due to their forceful and dictating manners.
In the protagonists view fate is somehow against their love naming them the ‘star-cross’s lovers’. Considering that throughout the play the characters believe in fate they also believe their actions in the future is already crafted before hand, as did the people of the 15th Century.
The prologue of the play suggest that Romeo and Juliet are meant to be a happy couple, the prologue refers to their love as ‘death mark’d love’ which ostensibly suggest their ill fated tragedy. The sense of a tragic ending is backed up by the feelings of foreboding that both characters experience.
Fate seems to take charge of the play, most of the characters fear fate, Romeo however is a strong believer that fate is key to all his problems and vows not to let fate run his life, ‘Then I defy the stars’. On the other hand Romeo is liable for Tybalt’s death rather than fate at this moment of the play, Friar Lawrence advises Romeo to change his ways and stop blaming fate, which is incredibly hypocritical as towards the end of the play when his scheme goes wrong, he also blames fate and misfortune as the ingredients for the tragedy, ‘unhappy fortune’, ‘Ah, what an unkind hour’.
I believe that Romeo is one that is accountable for the tragedy as he was pathetically sure that his plan that was disorganised and feeble would work and allow him to take Juliet away. For a young man with depth Romeo seems brainless and dim-witted considering the affects of his actions and not being able to confess that may be he was the one who acted to hasty leading to his death, instead he decided fate is the answer and overlooks his view that fate does not control our actions we do.
