“Marry my Child, early next Thursday morn”
This is where Lady Capulet is telling Juliet that she is to marry but at this point in the play unknown to her parents Juliet is already married to Romeo.
Another character whom the blame could be pinned onto is Friar Lawrence.
Friar Lawrence is a very central character in the play apart from Romeo and Juliet. Most of the problems caused are mainly a result of Friar Lawrence. The first problem that he causes is that me marries Romeo and Juliet even though he knows that the families would disapprove. His reason for doing this was he thought that if he brought these two people together then he thinks that he will bring the two households together in peace.
“For this alliance may so happy prove, to turn your households rancour to pure love”
Later on in the play when he gives Juliet the potion he does not realize that he undoubtedly caused Romeo and Juliet’s deaths and also the letter he writes to Romeo, does not reach him in time, this is Friar Lawrence’s fault as he should have made all the necessary arrangements to make sure that the letter got to him,
“Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift”
Juliet herself could also could take some of the blame for her own death because she could have told her parents about her marriage to Romeo in the first place then a lot of this mess would have been prevented. The reason Juliet does decide to kill herself is because she feels she cannot live with out Romeo and she did not want to marry Paris.
“How shall this be prevented? My husband is on earth”
In this quotation Juliet is trying to think of a way she can get out of the marriage to Paris. Another reason Juliet could be to blame for her own death is when she wakes up from having taken the potion in the tomb she finds Romeo dead. Friar Lawrence tries to get her to go with him.
“Lady, Come from that rest of death”
Juliet denies him. She tells him that she is not leaving
“ Go get thee hence for I will not away”
Juliet then decides to kill her self for she feels she cannot live with out Romeo and she wants to be with him even though she was given a chance to live
“O, happy dagger! This is thy sheath there rest and let me die”
She kills herself on Romeo’s dagger so she has to be partly to blame for her own death.
Romeo can be to blame for his own death as well. The reason I feel he is also to blame is because when he kills Tyblt he runs which leads to his banishment and this is why Juliet took the potion and when he arrived at the tomb and thought she was dead he took the poison he got off the apothecary. So Romeo indirectly causes Juliet’s death all because of a misunderstanding.
The Price of Verona also has some part to play in the two lover’s deaths.
“If ever you disturb out streets again Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace”
The Price from the beginning of the play warns the Montagues and the Capulets with death. During the play he does nothing about the fighting, this can be seen as ironic because id he had done something in the very beginning to stop the fighting then perhaps none of this would have happened.
“ Immediately do exile him hence”
This is the quotation in the play where the Prince id banishing Romeo for killing Tybalt. This can also be seen as ironic because if Romeo had not of been banished then Juliet would not have felt the need to go ahead with her plan and so neither of them would have been dead, so the Prince has to take some of the blame.
Could the idea of fate come into the cause of the deaths of Romeo and Juliet?
In the Prologue as was mentioned earlier Romeo and Juliet were referred to as the “Star-Crossed lovers” This means that, from the beginning, Romeo and Juliet were destined to be together and die together. “Death-marked love” so nothing any one really did was deliberate, it was fate that they were meant to die together.
There are many references to fate throughout this play. In Act One Scene Four Romeo has a premonition of a disaster. Her knows and feels that something bad is going to happen.
“I fear, too early; for my mind misgives Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars, Shall bitterly begun his fearful date- By some vile forfeit of untimely death.”
In Act Two Scene Six Romeo is awaiting Juliet’s
Arrival, he is impatient and then says:
“This love-devouring death does what he dare”
This is saying that his love for Juliet is so strong that he would be willing to die for her. This is also another instance of fate being blamed in this play.
In Act Three Scene Five Juliet gets a feeling of something bad happening, like Romeo dying
“I have and ill-dividing soul, Methinks I see thee now thou art so low as or dead in the bottom of a tomb”
This quotation is ironic because Romeo is found dead at the bottom of Juliet’s tomb in Act Five.
In Act Five Scene Three Friar Lawrence makes a reference to fate as being the cause of Romeo’s death.
“A greater power than we can contradict Hath thwarted out intents.”
This is the scene where Juliet has woken up and the Friar is trying to get her to leave with him.
There are many more references to fate in this play, so maybe no-one character can be to blame but perhaps that nothing the characters could have done could have changed the circumstances because Romeo and Juliet were fated right from the beginning of the play to love each other and so out of that love die for each other.
