Friar Laurence's plan for Romeo and Juliet was that Juliet was to take a potion to make her appear dead on her wedding day. She would then be taken to the Capulets ' vault meanwhile after receiving a letter from the Friar Romeo would return to Verona from Mantua 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 not of fear! (Act 4 Scene 1)
The Friar is a man with good intentions but is persuaded to make risky decisions by Romeo and Juliet, such as agreeing to marry them without their parents' consent. I think he gets too involved and it is then left up to him to ensure that everything goes smoothly as planned.
He goes behind the backs of Juliet's parents by agreeing to marry Romeo and Juliet but he has a good reason for this. "To turn your households rancour to pure love", to reconcile the two feuding families. Though the Friar is concerned about what he is doing, "These violent delights have violent ends", the plan to reconcile the families soon comes to grief as Romeo is banished. This time he makes another plan that is as risky as the first. Romeo is to go to Mantua where he will then try to arrange a meeting between Romeo and Juliet. The plan goes wrong and he accuses fate, "Unhappy Fortune".
Juliet, who now faces the rest of her life with Paris turns to the Friar for a solution, he supplies her with a "sleeping potion" which she uses to make it look like she is dead so she does not have to marry Paris. I think it is fair to say that Friar Laurence is one of the main people to blame for the tragedy, as it was his plans that went wrong. But from Romeo and Juliet's view he was very helpful and always had a solution for their dilemmas.
The Nurse is 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 to Juliet and her family. In Act 1 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 cockerel’s stone". Even though the Nurse may be very simple minded and talkative she is very loving and fond of Juliet
"Well sir my mistress is the sweetest lady" (Act 2 Scene 4)
The Nurse appears to have got too carried away with the situation with Romeo and is eager for Juliet to marry, but she offers no advice or caution to what Juliet is doing, although she clearly knows that Juliet is young and inexperienced. She makes no effort to suggest that this will be a problem. Like Friar Laurence she goes behind her employers' 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 1 Scene 3), but warns him not to lead Juliet into a "fools paradise" (Act 2 Scene 4), mostly because Juliet is young.
After Tybalt's death she turns against Romeo "Will you speak well of him that killed your cousin" (Act 3 Scene 2), "Shame come to Romeo" (Act 3 Scene 2). Finally when Juliet needs the Nurse most "Comfort me, council me" as her parents tell her that she must marry Paris, the Nurse lets her down by simply telling her to forget Romeo and marry Paris. It is at this point that Juliet dismisses the Nurse, ending their friendship. I think that the Nurse was partly, to blame. I don't think she seriously realised what could happen if things got out of hand. The Nurse was well intentioned but in her concerns for Juliet's welfare she became very excitable and could not hold her tongue.
Benvolio is one character who seems to realise the potential dangers such as when he tries to dissuade Mercutio from starting another street brawl. He also urges Romeo to leave the scene of the fighting as he has a good idea of the Prince's reaction, the prince enters the scene after the deaths of Mercutio and Tybalt, he shouts angrily,
"Romeo slew him; he slew Mercutio.
Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe?" (Act 3 Scene 1)
I think Benvolio is not at all to blame, if anything he actually tried to help the situation; he is a peacemaker.
Tybalt is a hot tempered and aggressive person. His view of the Montague’s and his part in the play is summed up in one sentence "What, drawn and talk of peace! I hate the word /as I hate hell, all Montague’s and thee" (Act 1 Scene 1). Again at the ball when he overhears Romeo he is angered and looks for his sword but is luckily stopped. Tybalt is always looking for trouble and will not back off, he tries to make fun of Romeo by saying things like,
"Romeo, the love I bear thy can afford
No better term than this - thou art a villain." (Act 3 Scene 1)
Lastly, he challenges Romeo to a duel. Mercutio steps in but Tybalt is happy to fight him as well. Romeo attempts to sort out the situation peacefully but Tybalt is uninterested. In his anger over the death of his dear friend Mercutio, Romeo takes revenge and in his anger kills Tybalt. I think Tybalt should take some blame in the tragedy as it was his actions that killed Mercutio which in turn led to his own death and Romeo's banishment.
Mercutio is a lively character who tries to resolve Romeo's problems and advise him in a light-hearted way, he says to Romeo,
"Thy wit is a very bitter sweeting; it is a most sharp sauce."
He is loyal to Romeo in the way he steps in when Tybalt challenges Romeo. His death is a turning point in the play as Romeo, and then avenges his death by killing Tybalt. All these deaths add more fuel to the fire. I think maybe that Mercutio should not have intervened, but being that type of person he did. I do not think he can be to blame for the tragedy as neither Tybalt nor Mercutio new of Romeo and Juliet’s love for each other. Also Tybalt would probably have fought Romeo anyway and one of them could have been killed.
The Prince is the ruler of Verona. He tries quite hard to keep the peace, but not enough to stop the tragedy, he is big in his threats but does not carry them out for - he has the chance to enforce the death penalty on 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 3 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 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 their discords" (Act 5 Scene 3). He also tries to bring the two sides together by, "What a scourge is laid upon your hate, /that heavens finds means to kill your joys with love" (Act 5 Scene 3)
Timing
The third and biggest, most crucial wrong Friar Lawrence did was to let the letter to Romeo get lost. If only the letter had not gotten lost, then this whole thing would never have happened. The Friar should have made sure of, on all accounts, that whatever should happen, the letter would get to Romeo. Instead, though, the boy Friar Lawrence sent to give Romeo the letter never gave it to him.
Timing was an important factor. Friar Laurence had missed his opportunity to send the message with Balthasar and reverted to sending it with Friar John. As fate would have it, Friar John was locked up in a condemned house because of the plague. As a result Romeo received incorrect information. The only information he received from the unsuspecting Balthasar was that Juliet was dead.
Family
Both Romeo and Juliet loved each other very much and only wished that one day their families would understand their love, but that never happened with them. Their families could not get over their hate for the other family and so their children ended their lives so that they could finally be together.
Romeo's parents seem very caring and loving, but Juliet's parents especially Lady Capulet are very cold hearted and uncaring, they force Juliet into marring Paris without giving her a choice. "She shall be married to this noble earl". (Act 3 Scene 4).
The feud between the two households, Montague and Capulet, underlies the entire tragedy and is the most responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. "The fearful passage of their-marked love and the continuous of their parents' rage, which, but their children’s end, nough could remove." The feud was also responsible for the tragedy. It aggravated the characters to express their anger towards their enemies, which resulted in fights. Without it, Romeo, and Juliet would never have had to keep their marriage and love a secret.
The distance relationship between Juliet and her parents were also partly responsible for the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Juliet’s farther doesn't understand his daughter. He always presumed that she was obedient and respect whatever he had to say. That's why he became furious when Juliet did not accept her father’s plans to marry Paris. "Hang thee, young baggage! Disobedient wretch! I tell you what, get to thee church o'Thursday, or never after look me in the face." Juliet’s parent's unawareness of their daughter's actions and feelings resulted in a secret marriage. Her parents never knew that Romeo was their daughter's husband. Juliet could not tell her parents about it, all because Romeo was a Montague. This illustrated why the feud was the most responsible for the tragedy of 'Romeo and Juliet.'
Love
Romeo and Juliet were fast in love and once they laid eyes on each other, they could not be separated. Their families were their biggest enemies and could not stand it for the to have anything to do with each other. Juliet was so fast in love with Romeo, and Romeo could only dream of being with her. They would sneak together in different places to be together. The play focuses on romantic love, specifically the intense passion that springs up at first sight between Romeo and Juliet. In Romeo and Juliet, love is violent, ecstatic, overpowering force that superseded all other values, loyalties, and emotions. Love in 'Romeo and Juliet' is a brutal, powerful emotion that captures the individuals and catapults them against their world, and, at times against themselves. The powerful nature of love can be seen in the way it is described, or, more accurately, the way descriptions of it so consistently fail to capture it entirety. "Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health," is a quote showing violence against love and is a oxymoron. That helps it create a striking expression. At times love is described in the term of religion, as in the fourteen lines when Romeo and Juliet first meet. At others, it is described as a sort of magic: "Alike bewitched by the charm of looks" (II.prolouge.6). Juliet, perhaps, most perfectly describes her love for Romeo by refusing to describe it: "But my true love is grown to such excess/I cannot sum up some of wealth" (III.i.33-34). Love, in other words, resists a single metaphor because it is too powerful to be so easily contained or understood.
Conclusion
In conclusion, from the very beginning, the love of Romeo and Juliet was destined to be disastrous. It is tragic that both these people had to die. There were circumstances throughout the course of their lives that led up to their deaths. If their parent's had not been feuding and would understand them. The outcome of this story may have been different, although fate could not be changed. The murderer in the case of Romeo and Juliet was, over all, fate.
Because it is truly a tragic story. I don’t think one person could be blamed for the entire tragedy. If I were to choose the character that had the greatest influence it would be Friar Lawrence. Friar Lawrence was the first adult to find out Romeo’s plans to marry Juliet after meeting her only once, and yet he told no one about the dubious plans of the two teenagers.
Romeo came to the Friar after his first encounter with Juliet. Romeo told Friar that he was in love with Juliet. If Friar had really been a spiritual and moral role model he would have told Romeo that he should slow down the relationship with Juliet. Instead of telling Romeo to slow down, he encouraged the two naïve youths to continue their relationship.
Many would say that Friar Lawrence’s intentions were for the best. I find that hard to believe. He was playing with the lives of the two lovers and he knew it. He gave Juliet a potion to make her family believe that she was dead. Friar gave Juliet the potion because he was scared that Capulet would find out his daughter was married to Romeo. Romeo is the son of Montague, the enemy of Capulet.
Friar did not admit his guilt until the very end of the play. He finally realized that several people had died because of his ignorance. Mercutio, Tybalt, Paris, Romeo and Juliet all died because Friar Lawrence refused to tell Romeo to slow down. Although Friar did not actually kill these people, he was responsible for their deaths. I do not think fate played a part in the play as there were too many mistakes made by the main characters. In my opinion, even though Friar killed no one, he is to blame for The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.
By Hitiksha Patel