Juliet is a young Capulet, who is not yet 14 years old. She is gentle, loyal, obeying girl who thinks for herself. When she first encounters Romeo, She falls for him instantly. Juliet is a very practical young lady by quickly asking Romeo to marry her that is fate. This is very much against her parent’s will, as they wanted her to marry Paris, whom she does not love. She also seems to be in love with Romeo in that she does not think of the consequences of her actions. She is loyal to Romeo, shown in the balcony scene where she is worried about him being caught:
The orchard walls are high and hard to climb
And the place death, considering who thou art
(Act two Scene 5)
She is different from Romeo, though in fact that she does not blame fate for the things that go wrong. Instead, she blames her birth as we read in the rhyming couplets:
Prodigious birth of love is to me,
That I must love a loathed enemy.
(Act one Scene 5)
Friar Laurence talks to Romeo and advises him on the situation. Where as Juliet is on her own, and has to make her own decisions, with the Nurse offering little or no help. Romeo’s parents seem very caring and loving. Juliet’s parents, especially Lady Capulet, are very cold hearted and uncaring. They force Juliet into marrying Paris without giving her a chance to air her point of view:
She shall be married to this noble earl.
(Act three Scene 4)
Juliet visits Friar Laurence, who is pleased to give his advice to them both, as she at the time was very distressed at the thought of having to marry Paris:
Oh bid me leap, rather than marry Paris
From of the battlements of any tower.
(Act four Scene 1)
The Friar is a man with good intentions, but he is persuaded to take many risky actions by Romeo and Juliet, such as agreeing to marry them both without their families consent. I think he gets too involved and relies upon himself to much to ensure the smooth running of his plans.
He also goes behind the backs of Juliet’s parents by agreeing to marry the pair, but he feels he has a good reason for this. “To turn your household’s rancour to pure love, to reconcile the two feuding families.” The Friar is concerned about what he is doing when he steaks, “These violent delights have violent end”, and he quickly makes another plan when the plan soon came to a halt to reconcile the families Romeo is banished. Now he makes another plan, which is as risky as the first. Romeo is to go to Mantua; where Friar who arranges a meeting between Romeo and Juliet. The plan goes extremely wrong, and again, he accuses fate, “Unhappy Fortune”.
Juliet, who now faces the rest of her life with Paris, turns to Friar once more for a solution. He supplies her with a “sleeping potion” which will make her sleep for 24 hours but to others she will look like she has died so that on her wedding day she does not have to marry Paris. She then would be taken to Capulet’s vault. Meanwhile, after receiving a letter from Friar, Romeo would make his return to Verona and would be with Juliet when she wakes up. Juliet was very pleased to receive the potion from Friar Laurence:
Give me, Give me! Oh tell me no fear!
(Act four Scene 1)
I think Friar Laurence is one of the main people to blame for the tragedy, as it was his plans that went wrong. From Romeo and Juliet’s view though, he was very helpful and always seemed to have the solution for their dilemmas.
The Nurse was one of Juliet’s closest friends, apart from Romeo. She is not particularly clever or sensitive, and does nothing to warn Juliet of how an involvement with a Montague might cause problems not only to Juliet, but to her entire family. In Act one Scene 3 when Lady Capulet is discussing the possibility of marriage to Paris, she makes jokes and finds it very amusing, “A bump as big as a young cockerels stone”. Though she may be very simple minded and talkative, she is very loving and fond of Juliet:
“Well sir my mistress is the sweetest lady ”
(Act two Scene 4)
The Nurse does not seem to have got too carried away with the situation, but is eager for Juliet to marry. She offers no advice or caution to what Juliet should be doing, although she clearly knows that Juliet is young and inexperienced. She also makes no effort to suggest that this will be a problem. Like Friar Laurence, she goes behind her subordinate backs, acting as Romeo and Juliet’s Messenger, such as when she is asked by Juliet to discover Romeo’s identity. At first the Nurse admires Romeo:
“Why he’s a man of wax”
(Act one Scene 3)
But warns him not to lead Juliet into any wrong:
“Fools paradise”
(Act two Scene 4)
The Nurse protects Juliet probably mostly because she is still very young and naïve.
After Tybalt’s death, the nurse turns against Romeo:
Will you speak well of him that killed your cousin
(Act three Scene 2)
Shame come to Romeo
(Act three Scene 2)
Finally, when Juliet needs the Nurse most “Comfort me, Council me”
When her parents tell her that she must marry Paris, the Nurse disappoints her by simply telling her to forget Romeo, and obey her parents order. At this point Juliet dismisses the nurse instantly ending their ‘mother, daughter relationship’. I think the Nurse was partly to blame too. I do not think she really understood the consequences of what could happen if things got out of hand. The Nurse had good intentions, but in her concerns for Juliet’s welfare, she became overly excitable and could not hold her tongue.
This Last expansion of hatred is the way Tybalt challenges Romeo to a duel. Mercutio steps in, but Tybalt is happy to fight him as well Romeo attempts to sort out the situation in a peaceful way, but Tybalt is not in the slightest interested. In his anger over the death of his dear friend Mercutio, Romeo takes revenge, and in his anger kills Tybalt. I think Tybalt should also take some blame in the tragedy, as it was his actions that killed Mercutio. This, in turn, led to his own death and Romeo’s banishment.
Mercutio is a likely character that tries to resolve as many of Romeo’s problems as possibly, and advises him in a light hearted way. For example, he says to Romeo:
Thy wit is a very biter sweeting: it is a most sharp sauce.
He is loyal to Romeo in the way he steps in when Tybalt Challenges his friend. I believe his death is a turning point in the play as Romeo then avenges his deaths by killing Tybalt. All these deaths add more fuel to the fire. I think Mercutio should not have intervened, but the tragedy as neither Tybalt nor Mercutio knew of Romeo and Juliet’s love for each other. Also, Tybalt would probably have fought Romeo anyway; one of them probably was being killed.
The prince is the ruler of Verona. He tried fairly hard to keep peace, but not enough to stop the tragedy. He is big in his threats, but does not seem to carry them out he has the chance to enforce the death penalty upon Romeo. For example, after the deaths of Mercutio and Tybalt, the Prince tells the citizens of Verona:
Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe?
(Act three Scene 1)
In other words, he seeks justice for these murders. If he had tried harder to prevent the quarrelling and carried out more of his threats then maybe the feud might not have got as bad as it did.
However, at the end of the play, he accepts some of the responsibility for what has happened by:
Winking at discords
(Act five Scene 3)
He also tries to bring the two sides together by:
What a scourge is laid upon your hate,
That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love
(Act five Scene 3)
I do not think there is only one single person who is actually to blame for the tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet. But, I strongly believe that Friar Laurence plays a huge part in the tragedy, mainly through his complicated plans, which simply, were failures. Romeo did not receive the letter, so when he heard the bad news from Balthasar, he thought Juliet really died. Friar Laurence should not have granted the request of Romeo and Juliet, especially without careful consideration of the consequences. I feel that the Nurse played a part in the tragedy because if it were not for her Juliet would have not taken the sleeping potion not to get out of marrying Paris. I feel fate played a part in Romeo and Juliet falling in love and getting married. Also I feel that the member of each families were greatly to blame as if they were not at constant feud Romeo and Juliet might have lived happily ever after but that was not the way Shakespeare wanted the Play to end.
Presented By:
Sylvia Claxton
3/12/04
