At this point in time I can relate to the initial question. For now I would have to say that perhaps Romeo is responsible for their deaths, the reason being he attended the Capulet party uninvited, this was the sole reason they met which in turn will obviously result in their deaths. Another person to blame could be Juliet who was responsible for the engagement which also may in turn result in their deaths. Having said this there would be no reason to have gone to the Capulet party uninvited if Lord Capulet and Montagues predecessors hadn’t caused an argument in the first place. As you can see right at the beginning of the book there is already several people to blame for the death of Romeo and Juliet.
Romeo asks Friar Lawrence to marry them and he agrees, in hope that it will end the ongoing argument. Now that’s another person I can add to the list of who’s to blame,
if Friar Lawrence hadn’t agreed to marry the couple perhaps they wouldn’t have been killed. With the nurses help the two get married the following afternoon “For by your leaves, you shall not stay alone, Till holy Church incorporate two in one”.
Now many people are taking part in the lead up to the couple’s death. Capulet and Montague’s ancestors for starting the argument, Romeo for going to the party, Juliet for arranging the marriage, Nurse for helping arrange the marriage Friar Lawrence for marrying the couple.
The list will continue to get longer as the book progresses. It may be clear to see now that the initial question may already be able to answer. It wasn’t just Romeo and Juliet who caused their deaths; it was a whole string of events which link together. However we will see if this rule can be applied after I finish this task.
In act 3, Tybalt, who’s furious at Romeo for going to the party comes looking for him. “Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries That thou hast done me, therefore turn and draw.” Romeo is now related to Tybalt by marriage so refuses to fight him. Mercutio fights Tybalt instead and is killed through fault of Romeo “I am hurt. A plague o’both houses, I am sped:” Romeo kills Tybalt in revenge and is banished from Verona by the prince. Friar Lawrence thinks of a plan to help Romeo and Juliet, Romeo will go to Mantua, after a while Friar Lawrence will tell everyone about their secret marriage and beg for the princes forgiveness.
Before Romeo leaves he spends one night with Juliet, in the meantime Lord Capulet promises Paris that Juliet will marry him and arranges the marriage for Thursday. Dawn comes and Romeo leaves narrowly missing Lady Capulet who comes two tell Juliet of the marriage with Paris, Juliet refuses to marry Paris but is threatened to be banished from the house if she doesn’t. “And you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets,”.
More people have now been added to the list of who is to blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet
Capulet and Montague’s ancestors for starting the argument, Romeo for going to the party, Juliet for arranging the marriage. Nurse for helping arrange the marriage, Friar Lawrence for marrying the couple, Tybalt for killing Mercutio and getting Romeo banished and Lord Capulet for arranging Juliet to marry prince and threatening to banish Juliet if she doesn’t
In act 4 Juliet goes to visit the Friar who comes up with a complicated and dangerous second plan. Juliet is to accept the Paris marriage but the night before the wedding she must take a potion which will make her appear dead. “For no pulse shall keep his native progress but surcease,”. The Capulets will place her in a tomb, meanwhile Friar Lawrence will arrange for Romeo to collect her from the tomb and take her to Mantua.
The final act begins with the news of Juliet’s death arriving to Romeo before Friar Lawrence’s letter. Romeo is devastated to hear of Juliet’s death and buys a poison which will kill him instantly “such mortal drugs I have, but Mantua’s law is death to any he that utters them”….. “I pay thy poverty and not thy will”
More people have now been added to the list of who is to blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet
Capulet and Montague’s ancestors for starting the argument, Romeo for going to the party, Juliet for arranging the marriage, Nurse for helping arrange the marriage. Friar Lawrence for marrying the couple and arranging such a risky plot to bring Romeo and Juliet back together. Tybalt for killing Mercutio and getting Romeo banished, Lord Capulet for arranging Juliet to marry prince and threatening to banish Juliet if she doesn’t, Balthasar for telling Romeo of Juliet’s death unaware of the plot and Chemist for selling fatal drug to Romeo.
Romeo’s plan is to take the poison in the Capulet tomb next to Juliet and rest with her for an eternity. “Well Juliet, I will lie with thee to-night:” Friar Lawrence hears of Romeos idea and rushes to the Capulet tomb to be there for when Juliet awakens.
Romeo arrives at the tomb and tries to break in “Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open, And in despite I’ll cram thee with more food.” When Paris tries to arrest Romeo they fight and Paris is killed “O I am slain, if thou be merciful, Open the tomb lay me with Juliet.” Romeo enters the tomb and finds Juliet’s dead body; he takes the poison and dies instantly. Friar Lawrence arrives just as Juliet awakens from the dieing potion and Friar Lawrence tries to persuade her to leave “Go thee hence, for I will not away”, Juliet refuses to leave and when the Friar has gone Juliet kills herself with Romeos dagger “Yea noise? Then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger. This is thy sheath, there rust and let me die”.
Now the couple are dead. Now all the people who have been listed as potential reasons for Romeo and Juliet’s death can be completed:
- Capulet and Montague’s ancestors for starting the argument
- Romeo for going to the party
- Juliet for arranging the marriage
- Nurse for helping arrange the marriage
- Friar Lawrence for marrying the couple and arranging such a risky plot to bring Romeo and Juliet back together. Also for leaving Juliet unattended when they were both in the Capulet grave
- Tybalt for killing Mercutio and getting Romeo banished
- Lord Capulet for arranging Juliet to marry prince and threatening to banish Juliet if she doesn’t
- Balthasar for telling Romeo of Juliet’s death unaware of the plot
- Chemist for selling fatal drug to Romeo
- Romeo for taking the potion when already seeing that Juliet didn’t appear to be dead
- Juliet for stabbing herself.
The Prince, Lord and Lady Capulet and Montague arrive to find the three young people dead. Friar Lawrence explains what has happened and the prince blames the feud for the deaths. Lord Capulet and Montague shake hands. “O brother Montague, give me thy hand, This is my daughter’s jointure, for no more can I demand.” Here the Capulets and Montagues put their differences aside and no longer will there be conflict between the two houses.
We call this play a tragedy because the main characters die at the end when everything seems to be going so well throughout the book. In order to see how Shakespeare managed this I am going to look at the language, themes and structure of the play.
Language is used in all of Shakespeare’s work to great effect. Language can be used to create different atmospheres, an example of this in Romeo and Juliet would be in act 4 scene 3 lines 11-54. Juliet is seconds away from taking the sleeping potion. Many things are going through her mind about what could go wrong; the language becomes more and more uncontrolled, she does not pause for breath. “O look methinks I see me cousin’s ghost, Seeking out Romeo that did spit his body upon a rapiers point: stay Tybalt, stay!” Juliet takes the potion calling out for Romeo. Tension was created here by lack of control Juliet had on the scene, the language paced increased and the audience was led to believe that Juliet was going into a state of madness as Juliet sees Tybalts ghost. The speech ends with a climax as Juliet takes the potion and the audience is eager to see what happens.
Language can also be used to set character moods, variables and status. This is done in all of Shakespeare plays and is used effectively in Romeo and Juliet. Blank verse is the most formally used language in the book and is often used by important characters such as Prince, Romeo, and Juliet. All upper class or more formal characters speak in iambic pentameter (blank verse), this shows formality and that the character speaking has a high status. “Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?”
Having said this, important characters in Romeo and Juliet not only speak in blank verse, they often use poetic techniques such as personifications, imagery, metaphors and rhyming couplets, all which add depth and character and status. In the speech where Juliet is deciding whether to take the potion (see above), Shakespeare uses oxymoron’s brilliantly to give Juliet a confused state of mind “O look methinks I see me cousin’s ghost, Seeking out Romeo that did spit his body upon a rapiers point: stay Tybalt, stay!”
In my opinion Romeos use of all these poetic devices symbolises that Romeo doesn’t actually love Juliet, this would be fairly difficult as by the end of the book he still had spoke to her only a handful of times. I believe that Romeo wasn’t in love, he was more obsessed and hypnotised by Juliet’s offers and beauty.
Characters with a lower status and of less importance generally speak in prose. “Act 1 scene 5 (servants speaking)”. An interesting conversation occurs between a very high status character Lady Capulet and seemingly low status character Nurse in act 1 scene 3. This conversation shows the differences between languages very well.
The Nurse is loud, coarse and chatty. She uses slang and shortened words. The rhythm of her language is uneven, sometimes in prose, sometimes in verse. She reports speech and tells stories. She interrupts herself and others and cannot seem to keep quiet. Lady Capulet is much more formal. She says only what is necessary, her lines are short, factual and to the point. The only time when Lady Capulet does speak a lot is when she describes Paris (lines 81-95), speaking in rhyming couplets. This way of speaking could be compared to Romeo’s love poetry about Rosaline, clever but artificial.
As well as language themes are used to great effect throughout the content of the play. Some of these involve fate, conflict, life and death, power, time, but most of all love.
There are many kinds of love in Romeo and Juliet. The main focus of the play is the love (in my opinion obsession) between Romeo and Juliet. The love scenes between them are set apart from the rest of the play, even in the Capulet party time seems to stand still when the two are together.
In contrast to this is the love involving Sampson, Nurse, Mercutio and Gregory is more of a naughty sexual type of love. They seem to view love only in a physical sense. Romeo and Juliet marry each other because they are in love with each other; others in the play see the marriage in achieving a particular purpose. Lord and Lady Capulet try to make Juliet marry prince for status and financial gain, even Friar Lawrence agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet because he believes it will end the feud. Other love relations in the play include Romeo, Mercutio and Benvolio. Romeo and his parents, Juliet and Nurse and Juliet and her parents.
As I mentioned earlier, Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy. A definition of a tragedy or a tragic hero (what tragedies are based on) would be a character whose nobility or achievement we admire, and whose downfall and death through a weakness or error, coupled with fate arouses are sympathy.
One of the main ways on which Shakespeare achieves such brilliant tragedies is through his exceptional ability to use dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is when at least one character is unaware of an important fact which the audience knows about, this is often hinted at and is usually used to show scorn or ridicule. An example of this in Romeo and Juliet would be when Romeo goes to kill himself. The audience knows that Juliet isn’t dead and it is hinted at by the way she looks to Romeo. “Thou art not conquer’d, beauty’s ensign yet Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,” Romeo kills himself in despite of this which makes Romeo and Juliet a tragedy.
In conclusion I have learned that it was not Romeo or Juliet’s single actions which led to their deaths. A turn of events including certain characters such as Friar Lawrence, prince, Mercutio, Tybalt, chemist, Nurse etc all help lead up to their deaths in different ways. Of course Romeo and Juliet are partly responsible but without other events such as Friar Lawrence’s late letter, then perhaps they would not have died. Therefore Romeo and Juliet are not to blame for their own deaths.