"Romeo and Juliet commit suicide. Therefore they are completely responsible for their own deaths". Do you agree with this assessment of the play? You must refer to the social and historical context in which the play was written.

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Kirsty Oram        English Coursework        11RC

“Romeo and Juliet commit suicide. Therefore they are completely responsible for their own deaths”. Do you agree with this assessment of the play? You must refer to the social and historical context in which the play was written.

Romeo and Juliet was written by William Shakespeare in 1599 and is classed by many critics as a tragedy. There are a few reasons why they class it as a tragedy and these factors are:

        

There are a lot of reasons as to why Romeo and Juliet’s romance was doomed. Firstly, the lovers’ families were feuding and had done for a long time before this is backed up by a quote that Shakespeare says, “ancient grudge”. This tells us that the feud has gone on for a long time and that there must be a lot of hatred towards one another. Secondly, Romeo turns up at the Capulet’s party, where he is trying to see the lady he loves (Rosaline), instead he meets by chance Juliet. It is here that they fall madly in love and declare their vows before they even know each others’ true background. A few days later, they decide to get married in secret and tell no-one. Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin decides to fight Romeo, but Mercutio steps in and gets killed instead. Romeo, upset by the death of Mercutio, takes revenge on Tybalt and kills him, thus getting banished from Verona and to Mantua. Meanwhile, Juliet, depressed at Romeo being banished from Verona, is being told by her mum and dad that she has to marry Paris. Distraught, Juliet goes to visit Friar Laurence who gives her a potion that will stop her breathing and give her a death like appearance for forty two hours. Friar Laurence sends a letter to Romeo, but he does not receive it and hearing that Juliet is dead goes to a pharmacist and buys a potion. He takes this potion and dies just as Juliet arouses from her death like state. Seeing that Romeo is dying, she stabs herself and dies with him.

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I agree with the statement that has been made, for a number of reasons. Firstly, they were the ones who physically killed themselves. They were not murdered by anyone and they did not kill each other, “Here’s to my love. O true apothecary: Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die”. Romeo saying this shows that he took the potion himself and was not killed or forced to drink it. Juliet also killed herself, as she says: “Yea noise? Then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger. This is thy sheath, there rust and let me die”  Juliet ...

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