Romeo and Juliet

Authors Avatar

Romeo and Juliet

Who is to blame for their deaths?

William Shakespeare is one of the most famous authors of all time. His intelligence, imagination, creativity, and many other skills are applauded by readers until this day. Shakespeare's plays are traditionally organized into three groups: Comedies, Histories and Tragedies. Shakespearean tragedy usually depicts a central character in the play that falls from grace and dies, along with a fair proportion of the rest of the cast. In other words, it is a drama with a necessarily unhappy ending. Shakespeare wrote tragedies from the beginning of his career: one of his earliest plays was the Roman tragedy Titus Andronicus, and he followed it a few years later with Romeo and Juliet. This is possibly one of his most recognized plays in modern times. Shakespeare shows his dramatic skill freely in Romeo and Juliet, providing intense moments of shift between comedy and tragedy, and weaving plots and subplots to paint a clearer picture of the story.  It is mainly a romantic tragedy, based on the lives of two teenagers; madly in love with one another. It is cased on the rivalry between their families, the Montagues and the Capulets, and how that led to quite complicated circumstances for both of them. Unknowingly, other characters such as the church Friar and Juliet’s Nurse contributed to the tragedy in one way or another, and finally resulted in their deaths. The two families are left distorted and dismayed in the end, with no choice but to accept the facts and make peace, although at a hefty price; the lives of their two young children. The epic tragedy in the play may have been avoided, if it weren’t for the hasty decisions and recklessness of some of the characters. Blame; this word means “to hold responsible”. Quite a few of the characters share the blame for the deaths but which of them were “prime suspects”? Was it Friar Lawrence, whose careless thinking caused the situation to worsen? Or was it the Nurse who didn’t play quite an important role in the play but encouraged Juliet in her romantic ideas? Or was it Romeo, whose impetuosity cost him, as well as others, a hefty price? Last but not the least; was it just simple fate that led to the unfortunate scene? These accusations will be closely examined in this essay. It will then help you to find out what role they played in the deaths and could they have been avoided?

Some characters have very little to do with the plot but they have the plot revolving around them. Friar Lawrence is one such character. As a member of the Order of St. Francis, a group of wise and generous priests, Romeo and Juliet trusted Friar Laurence completely, turning to him for advice, and solutions. Romeo approaches the friar in Act 2 scene 3, to get some guidance about Juliet. Romeo greets the Friar "Good morrow, father", and Friar Lawrence responds by calling Romeo "young son". It is not just the exchange between the priest and the penitent. The Friar also stands in for Romeo's own father since there are no scenes between Romeo and his parents. Father and son relationships at this time may not have been strong and also, religion was quite important in the upbringing of the children at this period. The Friar is the only person to whom Romeo turns for advice, and he is the last person to whom Juliet turns after all others have forsaken her. In this sense, he is father to them both and responsible for their actions. He is suspicious of Romeo's sudden change of heart. He knows that Romeo has been craving for Rosaline and he tells Romeo that Rosaline did not return his love because she could tell that it "did read by rote, that could not spell". By this, he meant that he was never really in love with Rosaline and that he was just repeating empty words he didn't really understand. This made him even more doubtful about Romeo’s newly found “love”, and he was right to do so, considering Romeo’s thoughtless personality. Nevertheless, he decides to marry Romeo and Juliet, hoping to end the feud between the two families. Through his words, Friar Lawrence demonstrates the he is a good intentioned, yet sometimes short-sighted, man who is not afraid to take risks to help others;

Join now!

“But come, young waverer, come, go with me,
In one respect I'll thy assistant be;
For this alliance may so happy prove
To turn your households' rancor to pure love.”

Although it was unintentional, Friar Lawrence’s decision was the spark that made these unfortunate events to slowly unfold. At the same time, the Friar recognizes that the use of the tradition of matrimony in such an evasive manner may very well have terrible consequences. He worries that this will definitely result in a sad ending;

“So smile the heavens upon this holy act,
That after hours with sorrow chide us ...

This is a preview of the whole essay