“My wife is dead tonight; grief of my son’s exile hath stopped her breath”.
The Montagues have been involved in the feud and could not keep Romeo under control this lead to the death of Tybalt that added to the play’s horrific events.
The feud has brought both families to hate each other. Even though the feud is lead by the parents the hatred has been passed down to the next generation this means that the children and the servants of both the families live in a world of brawls and fighting. Tybalt is a cousin of Juliet and Kinsman to the Capulet parents is the most involved in the feud and enjoys the fighting. Any sight of a Montague and Tybalt would be eager to start a fight. At a party held by the Capulets Tybalt notices Romeo
“Now by the stock and honour of my kin, to strike him dead I hold it not a sin”
He is only held back by Lord Capulet. The words that Tybalt says means that he would kill a Montague and It wouldn’t matter. If Tybalt were not such a strong believer in the feud then he would not have murdered the people that he did. The feud caused Tybalt to kill Mercutio a friend to Romeo whose last words were a curse upon the feud and the families
“A plague on both your houses”
This was a prophecy and an example of dramatic irony this meant that something bad would happen to the families and the audience knew this.
The nurse is a servant of the Capulet family who looks after Juliet as motherly figure other than Juliet’s actual mother. The nurse feels that men do not respect their wife or woman as much as they should.
“No less, nay bigger, women grow by men”.
This means that men make women pregnant (then they don’t care).
She wants Juliet to get married but it doesn’t matter whom. She wants Juliet to marry Paris so that she and Juliet do not get in trouble with Juliet’s parents but she also wants Juliet to marry who she wants and suggests that she marries Romeo “Then hie you hence to Friar Lawrence’s cell there stays a husband to make you a wife” this may have contributed towards the tragedy at the end of the play. If they had never married then the doomed plan at the end of the play would have been avoided.
The Friar is an important character in the play; he is a friend of both families and is a possible link between them. He is a close friend and teacher to Romeo so is much closer to the Montagues. When Romeo and Juliet fell in love the friar took this as an advantage and got them married. He believed that the marriage would stop the feud. “In one respect I’ll thy assistant be: for this alliance may so happy prove to turn your households’ rancour to pure love” The friar made a plan that would let Romeo and Juliet live their life in peace from their parents and away from the feud. His plan meant that the two could meet in private and run away together. However, an important part of the plan failed and it lead to the tragedy of them both committing suicide. This means that the friar may be responsible for the tragedy.
Romeo and Juliet, both still young, have grown up with the feud they have learnt to hate each other’s family. They knew what the feud would do to the families but yet when they met they fell in love. “Did my heart love till now? For I swear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night” a quote from Romeo. Even though he loved Juliet he chose friend over love when Tybalt murdered Mercutio, Romeo hunted Tybalt down and killed for revenge. Killing her cousin made Juliet think about how ruthless Romeo was but forgave him. I think fate and destiny brought these two loves together, they were destined to meet because of this I feel they are not responsible for their actions and are not to blame for the tragedy.
Right from the start Romeo and Juliet could have been controlled by fate and destiny they were destined to meet and doomed to die together, so that the feud would stop. The whole process was out of the control of the people involved, so the entire tragedy may have been no one’s fault, it was all left to fate and destiny to decide their future together
Throughout the play the dominant theme is hate because of the feud. The hate comes through strongly during fighting but during most of the fighting scenes love is shown except not as much. “I do protest I never injured thee, but love thee better than thou canst devise… and so, good Capulet, which name I tender as dearly as mine own, be satisfied” Romeo refusing to battle with Tybalt as he is family because he loves and married Juliet. Towards the end after Romeo kills Tybalt Juliet hears this grave news about her cousin and she uses the combination of love and hate to describe Romeo she calls him a “Beautiful tyrant” a “Fiend angelical” and a “Honourable villain”. These are examples of an oxymoron where two opposite ideas are used together in the same sentence. Right at the end of the play is only where love triumphs over hate. This is where Romeo and Juliet die together for what they didn’t know would stop the feud. “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! … All are punished” Prince Escalus speaks to both families stating they were punished with love from heaven.
In the play “Romeo and Juliet” the parents of both the families are not responsible enough for their children, they want what’s best for themselves and not their children. If parents listened to what their children had to say things could possibly have been better. The parent substitutes, Nurse and Friar Lawrence are a bit more responsible than the parents, both of them listened to what Romeo and Juliet wanted, they wanted what was best for the children not for themselves. Neither of the parents or the parent substitutes are to blame for what happened. The feud has been passed down from generation to generation. The younger generation in the play are taught to hate each other and end up fighting every time they meet each other causing hatred to escalate even more. The younger characters were responsible enough not to fight but in the end it took two innocent ‘children’ to die to stop the fighting. I don’t think the younger generation are to blame as they were not in control over their emotions as their parents controlled them. No one should take the blame; Fate and destiny chose Romeo and Juliet to help the crisis come to an end. Fate brought them together to get married and to die to save both families from an everlasting war.
