Romeo arranged their wedding in secret mainly because he knew that neither sides of the families would agree to it, and it would have most definitely caused an argument between the two families.
Later after Romeo was banished from Verona, he heard that Juliet was dead; he rushed back to Verona, without considering anything else. Romeo did not even ask Friar Lawrence to see if it was a plan.
Romeo also wanted revenge for Tybalt, as Tybalt killed Mercutio. Romeo explained to him “I do protest I never injured thee, but love thee better than thou canst devise till thou shalt know the reason of my love, and so, good Capulet, which name I tender as dearly as my own, be satisfied”. Shortly after, Romeo without thinking killed Tybalt.
But Romeo never told the truth to anyone as his mother and father were not very understanding and was scared someone would get hurt.
5. Friar Lawrence
Friar Lawrence should have never agreed to marry Romeo and Juliet in secret, mainly because both of their families would have not agreed and could have started an even bigger problem than there already was, and would have caused the Montagues and Capulets to fight.
Juliet said “I’ll to the friar to know his remedy, if all else fail, myself have the power to die”. Juliet wanted this potion to make herself look and seem dead for a couple of days; So Friar Lawrence prescribed it to her. He told her, “Tomorrow night, look like thou look alone, let not the nurse lie with thee in thy chamber, take thou this vial being then in bed, and distilling liquor drink thou off”.
Next day she was found in her bed presumably dead, a funeral was made for her with family and friends attending. Balthazar approached the church that Juliet was in to find out what was going on. Friar Lawrence went to approach Balthazar to explain the plan to him, for him then to tell Romeo, but Balthazar ran off back to Romeo.
When Balthazar got to Romeo he told him, “Her body sleeps in Capel monument and her immortal part with the angel’s lives”.
Friar Lawrence also was worrying then, so he tried to inform Romeo again by sending him a letter to tell him about the plan. It did not reach him. Romeo wanted to kill himself as the information he was given made him think his love was dead.
6. Lord and Lady Capulet
Lord and Lady Capulet were partly responsible for keeping the warfare going between them and the montagues. The Capulets had control over their household, and could have stopped the fighting between them if they had wanted to. Lord and Lady Capulet should have paid more attention to Juliet’s wishes and should have listened to her opinions.
Juliet’s parents wanted her to marry Paris, but Juliet had already married Romeo earlier that day. Juliet preferred Romeo to Paris and would have told her parents about Romeo only if he was not the son of the opposition. Therefore Juliet was scared to say anything about Romeo, so she said to her parents that she just didn’t like Paris and did not wish to marry him, her father replied “Thursday is near, lay hand on heart, and you be mine, I’ll give you to my friend; and you be not hang, beg, starve, die in the streets, for by my soul, I’ll ne’er acknowledge thee, nor what is mine shall never do thee good. Trust to’t, be think you, I’ll not be forsworn”.
Juliet had to make a hard decision because if she married Paris she would be unhappy and would be married to two men, and if she didn’t her father would not acknowledge her and would throw her onto the streets with no belongings.
Also her mother said “Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word, do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee”.
Juliet’s parents may have acted differently if they had known the truth. Juliet could not take either way as she could not predict what would happen as her parents were to strict on her decisions, which lead her to faking her own death which actually caused more trouble as Romeo thought she was really dead. When she woke up out of the deep sleep, she found Romeo lying dead beside her, this then lead to the real death of Juliet.
7. Tybalt
Tybalt caused the hatred between the Capulets and the Montagues and made it worse than it already was in the first place. He also got Romeo banished from Verona. He did this by trying to make Romeo angry, but because Romeo had married Juliet he wanted to be nice to Tybalt, and make no further enemies. Also it was because by law Romeo was now related to Tybalt and he did not want to make his relationship with him worse, Tybalt said “Romeo, the love I bear for thee can afford no better term than this, thou art a villain”, and Tybalt would not accept that, as Romeo said to him “Thou canst devise, till thou shalt know the reason of my love, and so, good Capulet, which name I tender as dearly as mine own, be satisfied”.
Tybalt was annoyed by this and he tried to harm Romeo, therefore Mercutio tried to split the two apart, and because of Mercutio getting in the way of him, Tybalt killed him. Romeo shouted at Tybalt and got carried away; Romeo got caught up in the moment and killed Tybalt.
8. Lord and Lady Montague
Lord and Lady Montague, like the Capulets, were also responsible for keeping the warfare going between the two families.
If Romeos mother and father had been more understanding towards him, Romeo would have not have felt that he had to keep secrets from them, such as when he married Juliet, because they did not seem to take very much interest in him. Romeo’s father was not scared easily as he would always join in with fighting, his wife Lady Montague would always have to pull him back, so he would not start or get involved in a fight, as lord Capulet said to him “Thou villain Capulet, hold me not, let me go”.
9. The Capulet nurse
The Capulet’s nurse should not have encouraged Juliet in her romantic ideas. The nurse secretly carried messages from both households to help the lovers meet each other. She also helped Romeo and Juliet get married, even though she could have been caught and punished badly.
All she really wanted was for Juliet to be happy as she knew her parents were very strict to her. The nurse went to find Romeo, She said “Bid her devise some means to come to shrift this afternoon, and there shall at Friar Lawrence’s cell be shrived and married”. To Juliet she said “Marry the man whom thou love”. Later on that day Juliet married Romeo.
After, Juliet’s father told her that he would leave her on the streets if she did not marry Paris, then the nurse said that “It would be best to marry Paris”.
10. Juliet
Juliet shouldn’t have disobeyed her parents, as at the ball she stumbled upon Romeo and fell in love, at the time she knew that her father was marrying her to a gentlemen named Paris, whom she danced and romanced with. But she did not know that Romeo was a Montague.
Lord Capulet wanted her to marry no one else but Paris as he was young, handsome and polite. “Thursday is near, lat hand on heart, advise and you be mine, I’ll give you to my friend and you be not, hang, beg, starve, die on the streets, for my soul, I’ll neer acknowledge thee, nor what is mine shall never do thee good”. “Trust to’t, bethink you, I’ll not be forsworn”. So if Juliet did not marry Paris her father would throw her onto the streets. Lady Capulet also said “Talk not to me, for I have done with thee”.
Juliet’s parents did only want her to marry Paris; she had already married Romeo, The son of their enemy.
Juliet was asked by Romeo on the night of the ball to marry him so that he did not lose her, so afterwards they arranged to get married the next day, Juliet stupidly accepted, and too soon. Worst of all she didn’t even mention it to her parents.
Juliet decided to then fake her own death, and Friar Lawrence planned this and said that he would inform Romeo about the plan, But Romeo did not get the message and thought Juliet was dead so he killed himself beside Juliet.
11. Apothecar
The Apothecary was a selfish man as he sold a potion to Romeo which was used to kill off the body’s cells inside of him.
Romeo went to see the Apothecar to ask him if he had a potion that could kill him.
Romeo had nothing to live for in his life as his wife Juliet was apparently “Dead”. But the Apothecar knew if he gave Romeo this potion he could get into serious trouble. The Apothecar knew that the accusations could be murder, or for owning a forbidden substance. But the Apothecar was already in some trouble anyway as he owed other people ducket. So he thought he could pay the other people back their ducket he owed them, with the ducket that Romeo was giving for the potion. The Apothecar said “Such mortal drug I have, but Mantua’s law is death to any he that utters them”.
The Apothecar then went to get the potion which was hidden, and handed it over.
“My poverty, but not my will, consents”.
The Apothecar wanted to get rid of his debt to the people he owed ducket to, but did not want Romeo to die, but Romeo wanted this. So the Apothecar agreed for both of their sakes, for Romeos loneliness and the Apothecars debt issues.
12. Prince Escalus
Prince Escalus should have acted earlier to stop the warfare between the two families. It was wrong of the Prince to banish Romeo from Verona as a punishment for killing Tybalt, as the fight was started by Tybalt and was his fault. Tybalt killed one of Romeo’s friends, Mercutio; this then gave Romeo a motivation and a reason to be angry with Tybalt.
Even though the Prince knew that the two families were really bad enemies anyway, and would always be in battle with each other, the Prince also knew that it was the Capulets that nearly always started the fight.
When the Prince found out that Romeo had killed Tybalt he said to his men “Let Romeo hence in haste else, when he is found, that hour is his last”.
Everyone paid the consequence’s as everyone had something to do with Romeo and Juliet’s death. The Prince later said outside to a crowd after the body of Romeo was found next to Juliet’s “Where be these enemies? Capulet, Montague? See what a scourge is laid upon your hate, that heaven finds means to kill your joys with love! And I, for winking at you discords too have lost a brave of kinsmen. All are punished”. So both friends and family of both Romeo and Juliet have suffered some type of pain or discomfort from their deaths which left them in tears.
13. Balthazar
Balthazar was one of the many reasons why Romeo died, due to him telling Romeo information he wasn’t sure about. Balthazar had told Romeo that Juliet was dead, after seeing her body lying in the church with people around her with wreaths and flowers. At the time of seeing this he also saw Friar Lawrence approaching him, Balthazar did not know that the Friar was going to tell him information about a plan they had made, but Balthazar was not thinking along the line of a plan.
Benvolio thought that Friar Lawrence was approaching him to tell him that Juliet had passed away. Therefore Balthazar did not think and ran to find Romeo about what he had seen, He explained “Her body sleep in Capels monument, and her immortal part with the angels lives”.
14. Paris
Paris did not do very much in the play of Romeo and Juliet, as all he did was fall in love with Juliet. Lord Capulet introduced Paris to his daughter as he thought he was a polite, nice, intelligent and good looking man for his daughter to marry.
Lord Capulet spoke to him and told him “Wednesday is too soon, a Thursday let it be, a Thursday tell her, she shall be married to this noble earl”.
All Paris did was love this lady, and was not his fault for her father introduced him to her. But nobody knew that she was a married woman as it was a secret, and Romeo was afraid of another man taking her.
Juliet had to marry Paris or else her family would leave her on the streets. And Friar Lawrence’s plan did not work as Romeo did not get the message that told him about it. Therefore Romeo blamed Paris for taking Juliet, and Romeo killed Paris.