Romeo and Juliet - Who's to blame for their deaths?

Jemma Alderson

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a very famous love story written by William Shakespeare, it includes love, hate and revenge that causes the tragic deaths of two star-crossed lovers. The story starts with a pathetic on-going feud between the two families, the Montagues and the Capulets, which prevents Romeo and Juliet being together. If only this feud had not been continued by such people as Tybalt, Juliet Capulet’s cousin and Mercutio, Romeo Montagues’ very close friend, the two lovers may have stayed alive and ‘lived happily ever after’. The play has many characters, each with its own role in keeping the plot line. Some characters have very little to do with the plot but some have a lot to do with it. Friar Laurence isn’t involved in the story that much, but when he is, it is crucial to the plot line. The Friar demonstrates that he had good intentions, but sometimes he is a man who is not afraid to take risks to help others

It all begins with the feud erupting between the servants of the two families. The people in the town were too scared to walk the streets of Verona because it was that violent. One evening the Capulets decided to hold a ball, in which Romeo hoped to see Rosaline, whom he thought he loved. Neither Romeo nor Juliet had seen one another before this night. Juliet’s cousin Tybalt noticed Romeo as a Montague straight away and wanted to fight, but Lord Capulet insisted he didn’t.

Romeo finally caught sight of Juliet and it was instant ...

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Romeo finally caught sight of Juliet and it was instant attraction. They danced and talked and had no idea who one another were. Juliet sent her nurse to find out who this stranger she had fell in love with was, her nurse told Romeo where Juliet was and he sneaked his way into the Capulets garden and spoke to Juliet from her balcony. They vow their undying love and agreed to marry.

Romeo and Juliet spoke to Friar Laurence about the marriage and he agreed to marry them in secret. People blame the Friar for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet because he should have told their parents and not agreed to secretly marry them when he knew full well, the two families would not be happy about it.

The day after the wedding, Romeo killed Juliet’s cousin Tybalt in a rage after Tybalt killed his best friend Mercutio, also a kinsman to the Prince. People blame Tybalt for carrying on the feud by killing a Montague. There was a lot of rivalry between the Montagues and the Capulets; it affected society in a very large way, they felt they were involved and were too scared to go out in case they got caught up in a fight. The Prince and other people felt he was to blame because he believed that if he had stopped the feud in the beginning, many lives may had been saved, some people agree with this reason and some people disagree because the feud was between the two families and it is there problem.

Romeo and Juliet killed themselves because they couldn’t bear to be apart. As the two lovers were destined to be together, the Friar agreed to marry them without any hesitation:” In one respect I'll thy assistant be: for this alliance may so happy prove, to turn your households rancour to pure love”. He is saying that the only reason he will marry Romeo and Juliet is because he hopes that the marriage will end the hostilities between the two houses. This made the Friar seem very untrustworthy; he knew marrying them both was wrong, but still carried on with it. The Friar’s plan was for Juliet to pretend to her family she had died, so that she could run away with Romeo and live with the love of her life. Friar Laurence arranged a messenger to tell Romeo of this plan to take a sleeping potion so she seems dead for 42 hours, and Romeo returns as she wakes up and they run away together. Sadly the messenger did not get to Romeo in time, and so Romeo had heard from his servant, that Juliet had died. Many people blame the Friar for their deaths because he was responsible for getting the message to Romeo. If he had told Romeo of the plan himself, that may never of happened.

Some people also blame fate for the cause of the deaths; it was not the fault of an individual, it was entirely bad luck. Fate brought the two together, and they fell in love, but if people blame fate, wasn’t it fate that Romeo did not receive the news?

I personally believe the Friar was totally to blame. Even though the Prince should have acted earlier to stop the feud. Friar Laurence should have never agreed to marry the couple in secret. He should have spoke to both the families and told them that they were in love, but he didn’t. The Friar thought up the plan for their future he tells Juliet the plan will work and not to worry when he says "Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift, and hither shall he come; and he and I shall watch thy waking, and that very night shall Romeo bear thee to Mantua”. He didn’t take full responsibility even though their lives were in his hands, whether or not he knew that, he should have acted sensibly and got the news to Romeo himself, but he didn’t. If he had then the story of the star-crossed lovers meeting and falling in love, would have had a happy ending, but thanks to the Friar, the story ended with two very tragic deaths.