Romeo’s friends and family are worried about his state of mind because in Act One Scene One his mother says “Fright glad I am that he did not take part the fray.” This tells us that his mother is glad that he didn’t want Romeo to take part in the feud between Montagues and Capulets that had been going on for centuries. We know that Romeo’s father is also worried about him because he says “unless good consel may the may the cause remove.” This means that unless they can give him some good advice to help him get over Rosaline then Romeo may stay quite and isolated for a longer time and may become worse. Benvolio feels that Romeo should move on, “Be ruled by me, forget to think of her” Benvolio is telling Romeo to forget about Rosaline and move on with his life.
From the evidence above we can see that Shakespeare introduced the character of Romeo as an ‘emotional wreak’ “With tears augmenting the fresh morning’s dew.” This is spoken by Romeo and shows that he is sensitive. We would suggest that he is to blame for his own downfall because he is easily upset, weak and emotional.
I think that when the messenger asked if Romeo could read in Act One Scene Two was fate because the messenger could have asked anyone but he didn’t he asked Romeo. When Romeo read the list and saw Rosaline’s name it was his decision to attend the Capulet’s ball was his own and was not fate. “I’ll go along, no such sight to be shown, but in splendour of mine own.” This means that Romeo had decided to go to the ball but no one except his love, Rosaline, can recognize him as a Montague.
Romeo originally went to the Capulet’s ball to see Rosaline as he was in love with her but as soon as he sees Juliet he instantly falls in love with her. When Romeo approaches Juliet he uses Rhetoric language to persuade Juliet to kiss him. “My lips, two blush pilgrims, ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.” This means that he want to kiss her and is trying to persuade her to do this by using words like pilgrim to make it sound holy.
Even when Romeo finds out Juliet is a Capulet he is still determined to see her again so he goes to her garden and tries to woo her some more, in Act Two Scene Two, when he asks her top marry him. “Th’ exchange of thy love’s faithful vow for mine.” He is acting on impulse and did not think about what he was doing or the consequences it might bring. It was his own decision to go to the Capulet’s garden and his own actions let his proposal.
In Act Three Scene One Romeo doesn’t want to fight Tybalt “Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee,” Romeo has married Juliet and so Tybalt is his cousin so he doesn’t want to fight him, this is his decision, but Tybalt thinks Romeo is winding him up so continues to aggravate Romeo. Mercutio decides to fight Tybalt for Romeo and dies in the process but he curses both the Capulets and Montagues. “A plague o’ both your houses!” Mercutio died because of the feud and so he wants both houses to suffer. Fate did not have any part in this part of the play because all of the characters made the decision to do what they did. Romeo became enraged when Mercutio was murdered he didn’t think about the actions he was about to take and he just acted on impulse. “This shall determine that.” Romeo decides to fight Tybalt, his own actions lead to the death of Tybalt, if he had thought about what he was doing before he did it then Tybalt wouldn’t have died. This is where he is mainly to blame for his own downfall because if he hadn’t killed Tybalt then he wouldn’t have been banished to Mantua.
Friar Lawrence gave Juliet the poison that would send her to sleep but make it seem that she was dead; he did this so that Romeo and Juliet could be together again. He sent a letter to Mantua but fate got in the way and Balthazor, Romeo’s friend who saw that Juliet was dead, had reached Mantua before the messenger did with the letter explaining the situation. Balthazor told Romeo that Juliet had died it is at that point when Romeo, again, acts on impulse and goes back to Verona to mourn the death of his wife. In Act Five Scene One Romeo buys some poison off an apothecary so that he could be with Juliet. From this we learn that Romeo has evolved from being kind and caring to being impulsive and spontaneous to suicidal. His own actions in Act Three caused the change in character and the eventual death of both Romeo and Juliet.
When Rome goes into the Capulet’s tomb he sees Tybalts body and asks for his forgiveness he then sees Juliet’s body. “Why art thou yet so fair?” Romeo says this to Juliet and is asking why, after being dead so long, she is not pale yet. If Romeo had waited a few more minutes before taking the poison then he would have known that Juliet was still alive. This is when fate intervened but it was also because of Romeo’s actions because if he hadn’t have bought the poison and if he didn’t have killed Tybalt then none of it would have happened. “Thy drugs are quick, Thus with a kiss I die.” This quote is from Act Five Scene Three, they are Romeo’s last words. At this point fate yet again intervenes and Juliet awakes to see the Friar and Romeo’s dead body. “o comfortable Friar, where is my lord?” At this point Juliet doesn’t know Romeo is dead and when she sees Romeo’s body she is full of grief and kills herself.
Romeo and Juliet’s deaths are partly to do with the Friar’s fault because if he hadn’t given Juliet the sleeping potion then Romeo wouldn’t have returned to Verona, bought the poison and killed himself. Even though the Friar was trying to help the young lovers he played a key role in their downfall but if they hadn’t have died then the feud would never had ended. Both families lost their only child due to the feud and so they both decided to end the feud, this could e because of fate.
The deaths of Romeo and Juliet could have been fate to eventually lead to the end of the feud, but the events that lead up to the deaths were mainly to do with the decisions made by Romeo and the other characters and so fate did have a key role in Romeo’s downfall but he is mainly to blame because of the rash decisions he made and the impulsive behavior he shows near the end of the play.
