Romeo and Juliet - who is to blame for their tragic deaths.
Vishi B Romeo and Juliet English Lit. Coursework11E Romeo and Juliet was a play written some four hundred years ago by a famous writer named William Shakespeare. This tragic story is eccentric, to the other plays that Shakespeare had created. In the following essay I shall be investigating who is most to blame for Romeo and Juliet’s tragic deaths. I will be looking for evidence to blame someone for these tragic deaths, however I shall be looking at all of the main characters doings in this play that may have affected the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. I think Romeo and Juliet themselves were partly to blame for their deaths. They are young and absurd. They are so deeply in love that they, in some ways, are taken over by love which leads to their deaths. It starts controlling their actions and that is why they rushed into marriage without taking anyone or anything else into consideration. This is Juliet’s first relationship, so she has had no other experiences with love. She is therefore not familiar with the strong and powerful feeling. She must be quite overcome by this sudden rush of desire for another human being. Romeo has fallen in love many times before. It is almost like a hobby for him, he has only recently ended his obsession with Lady Rosaline. Friar Lawrence thinks Romeo hasn’t had a long enough gap between his two lovers, “What a change is here!” He warns them they could be moving too quickly, “Wisely and slow, they stumble that run fast.” “These violent delights have violent ends”. I think their marriage was a quick rash decision, which passed them by without much thought going into it. Juliet does feel her relationship is going too fast at times. “It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden. Too like the lightning.” Although ironically, she is the one who suggests marriage in the first place. Maybe it was partly to test whether Romeo was himself dedicated to their new found relationship or whether he was just having some fun and not caring about Juliet’s feelings. Maybe if they hadn’t rushed into marriage, things might have worked out. That will never be known. Once Romeo had been exiled from Verona, they couldn’t live without each other so death seemed like the only option, so the audience thinks. Capulet had arranged
Juliet’s marriage to Paris and now she had loved and lost Romeo, she was prepared to die rather than marry again. If Friar Lawrence had not been able help her, she will have to kill herself. When Romeo hears of Juliet’s so called death, he states “I defy you, stars” and talks of killing himself, this also meant that he was defying fate. Fate also was a huge asset towards the deaths of both Romeo and Juliet. He goes and buys a bottle of poison from the apothecary and drinks it next to Juliet’s tomb, where he thought that Juliet ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
Juliet’s marriage to Paris and now she had loved and lost Romeo, she was prepared to die rather than marry again. If Friar Lawrence had not been able help her, she will have to kill herself. When Romeo hears of Juliet’s so called death, he states “I defy you, stars” and talks of killing himself, this also meant that he was defying fate. Fate also was a huge asset towards the deaths of both Romeo and Juliet. He goes and buys a bottle of poison from the apothecary and drinks it next to Juliet’s tomb, where he thought that Juliet was dead. Shortly after, Juliet awakens from her sleep and finds Romeo dead beside her, she cannot bear to see that Romeo her first and most probably the last love of her life was dead, so she decided to do the same. She has an option of leaving with the Friar but instead chooses to stab herself, using Romeo’s knife. The two lovers both chose to kill themselves, even though they did not have to. However, I can understand them wanting to be with each other and for having such strong love, that they just can’t live without each other. If Romeo hadn’t been as headlong in taking his life. Things may have been resolved and they might have lived happily ever after. If Romeo was alive when Juliet woke up, neither would be dead; but other problems would still be lingering, such as Paris and the wedding. I think the feud that the parents had started, in their youth, was another main culprit to blame for the tragic losses, of the lovebirds Romeo and Juliet. The opening scene displays an umbrella over the tragedy; the feud between the two houses, Montague’s and Capulet’s. When Romeo finds out Juliet is his enemy, he says, “O Brawling love. O loving hate.” When Juliet finds out Romeo is her foe, she says, “My only love sprung from my only hate.” So as we can see, the feud that both families’ elders had created, carries on throughout the entire play, putting a lot of stress, pressure and difficulty into Romeo and Juliet’s relationship, thus the couple were forced in to their own deaths for the sake of their love. Without the feud it would mean the lovers wouldn’t have been forced into suppression, then they might have had an ounce of hope for their relationship. It would slow down the speed and urgency of their hasty marriage, as Capulet would have approved the marriage, which would have delayed the ritual from taking place, thus both of Romeo and Juliet would have enough time to know each others properly and then take the decision if they should be life partners or not. There would have been no problem with Capulet and Romeo, Capulet would have accepted Romeo as a son-in-law because in Act 1 at the Capulet Ball; he seems to like Romeo; before he finds out he is a Montague. There would have been no fight if the feud didn’t exist, thus Romeo would not have had a reason to kill Tybalt. Therefore, Romeo wouldn’t have been banished. Friar Lawrence had the lover’s interests at heart. He tried to help the situation as far as he could. He helped along the secret meetings and wedded Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet on the part that it might stop the progress of the families’ feud, however he went behind the backs of the ones he most respected. Again, he wanted what was best for everyone; although sometimes it may have seemed like he was on Romeo and Juliet’s side alone. He thought up of the plan for Juliet to escape her marriage to Paris, by faking her own death. He gave her a sleeping potion, which would make her fall asleep for some forty or more hours and make her look to be dead. Happily when she woke she would be reunited with Romeo, had Friar’s letter reached Romeo on time. This plan was Juliet’s last resort but she was desperate and the Friar knew that if he did not meddle with their affairs, it was likely the couple would commit suicide. I don’t think he would have given her the potion if he didn’t think she was on the verge of killing herself; it could have gone wrong in many ways such as, it might have been too weak or strong and she may have woken up too early or late. It was a big risk that Juliet was prepared to take. Friar was not to know the letter did not going to reach Romeo in time; which was the reason the plan went horribly wrong. We cannot really blame Friar to such extent that he was the main culprit for these tragic deaths, but he should really have stayed with Juliet in the tomb, which would have stopped Romeo from killing himself as he would know that Juliet is faking death for the sake of their love. When he heard Romeo was on his way to the tomb, he hurried there as fast as possible, yet he was not fast enough, he was too late. Tybalt has a bad temper and he was the one that caused the fight. But it was in reason with the family feud and he certainly would not have challenged Romeo if it were not for the feud. I don’t think it would really be fair to blame the tragedy wholly on him, but he did have some part in the deaths, and would be partly to blame. The Nurse was not supportive enough for Juliet so she had to turn to Friar Lawrence who was the one who thought up the plan, which in turn caused their deaths. If the Nurse had been more supportive maybe she could have helped Juliet work things out an alternative way to drinking a potion. The Nurse did want Juliet to be happy and she didn’t know the full extent of Juliet’s relationship with Romeo. From what she knew, she thought marrying Paris was Juliet’s best interest. I don’t think she was to blame at all. Capulet and Lady Capulet are very harsh unapproachable parents. Juliet feels she cannot turn to them in times of trouble. Her Nurse is nearly always the first person she talks to about her troubles. The Nurse is normally sympathetic and gives her4 good guidance, only in this case she didn’t quite agree with Juliet. Juliet realised she had to start making decisions for herself rather than relying on other people. When Romeo asked the apothecary for a potion to kill himself, the apothecary did not refuse him. He was so miserable and poor that he prioritises his hunger over the loss of somebody’s life, so he only had a small fraction to blame for the deaths, but he was helpless. Romeo offers him money and that is all the apothecary was wanting. Even though the apothecary should really have tried to persuade Romeo it was a bad idea to commit suicide; Romeo was the one who asked for the potion and the apothecary cannot be blamed to such a degree of pressure. I think fate plays a big part in Romeo and Juliet. It bought the lovers together at the Capulet party, when Romeo sneaks in to it to catch a glimpse of his beloved Rosaline; instead he caught sight of Juliet and fell in love with her. Fate caused the fight with Tybalt, which then caused Romeo’s exile out of Verona and prevented the messenger from delivering the letter to Romeo, which was sent from the Friar. These were all the major events, which developed a foundation to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Throughout the play, stars are mentioned frequently, this symbolises the fate in the tragic story. The sonnet in the prologue refers to, “Star-crossed lovers” and “death- marked love”. Also, when Romeo is wooing Juliet on her balcony, he describes her eyes as bright stars. On their wedding night he called the stars “bright candles”. In Romeo’s last speech, just before he kills himself, he says he will, “shake the yoke of inauspicious stars”. This means he blames the ill and unfortunate stars, or, in other words “fate”. Romeo and Juliet are united eternally in death and the two families reconcile over the dead bodies. This fulfils Friar’s dream. “Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife”. In Act1, scene 4, Romeo has a dream and his friends tease him about him taking it so seriously. He says, “Some consequences yet hanging in the stars”. Perhaps foreseeing what is about to happen at the Capulet Party. After Friar has wedded the lovers, he hopes the “Heavens will smile on their joy”. This is ironic as they both die and death is linked with heaven. Romeo says, “This day’s black fate on moe days doth depend,” just before his fight with Tybalt. He means that the day is going terribly wrong and it is all a bit threatening. There are so many references to fate in Romeo and Juliet which I think it is also not entirely to blame. I think it is partly to blame, but other people have also contributed a great deal. Fate can’t really be blamed fully for anything, as nobody really knows what fate is. They think it is their destiny and their life is foreseen and dictated by some kind of power, which they call ‘fate’. But nobody can prove it because we all have to make hundreds of decisions in our lives; whether they are small or big, they are all equally important. But I think the small ones are more linked to chance than fate. For example, if you leave school ten minutes late because you decided to go and talk to your friend for a while; then you got hit by a car, which happened to be going very fast when you were crossing the road on your way home; that would be chance, as it wouldn’t have happened if you kept to your normal daily routine. When Juliet wakes up only seconds after Romeo kills himself, I think that is chance because it wouldn’t have happened if the potion had been a touch weaker. To sum up this essay, I think that all of the previously stated characters, along with fate are partially to blame for the deaths of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. As I have reached to a conclusion, all of the characters and events only add up to being the causes of the tragic deaths. Not a single character, or theme is entirely to blame for the tragic deaths.