What is to blame for the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.

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Romeo & Juliet

Introduction

Four hundred years ago William Shakespeare wrote the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, a popular play that continues to capture the imagination and emotions of people around the world.  The drama portrays the passionate violent and often desperate lives of the youth of Verona.  Even today the tragedy resembles a blueprint of the problems that the adolescents of the 21st century must face each day.  

In this play Shakespeare explores the pit-falls of young love and consequences they receive from their actions.  The whole idea of love in Romeo and Juliet’s thoughts was totally misunderstood and they showed this in many sections of the play through often quite foolish and selfish acts.  In this play Shakespeare shows that love can cause and finish anything, “these violent delights have violent ends and in their triumph die, like fire and powder which as they kiss consume”, (Friar Lawrence Act 2, Scene 6, Lines 9 – 11).  But was love the only thing to blame for the death of these two star-crossed lovers?

What is to blame for the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet

There were many events that contributed towards the tragic outcome of the play; the influence of parents being one of them.  To begin with the general situation is rather like a family conflict.  The feud between the Capulets and Montague’s had been passed down through the generations until the youngest child had been planted with the seeds of hate.  So, this family feud was the foundation of which the tragedy is built upon, the fire had been stoked ready for ‘someone to throw in the match’.  And this came from a freak string of events, which were related to one of two things, either people and misfortune or fate!  Now, I personally believe that it was a mixture of both, with fate acting as they most prominent element, and I will explain why.

Before judging to what extent fate was responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet, we must first answer the question; what is fate?  According to the Oxford English Dictionary ‘Fate’ is the “inevitable destiny or necessity destined term of life.  Doom”.   On a more basic level fate can be described as a pre-planed sequence of events influences ones life.  In the modern world, with horoscopes aside, most people choice to believe they have a sense of responsible and can control their own lives, they suppose that their problems are caused by the actions of themselves or those influencing them.  From one viewpoint it is true to say that the deaths of Romeo and Juliet were caused by an unfortunate set of mistakes made by themselves and others and the influence of fate was almost nonexistent.  

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Five characters in particular in the play intensely manipulate the tragic path of the young couple (apart from Romeo and Juliet themselves).  Mercutio, the nurse, Tybalt, Friar Lawrence and Balthazar.

Mercutio, Romeo’s best friend changed the course of events by encouraging Romeo to go to the Capulets masquerade ball and by duelling with Tybalt in town. If Mercutio had not encouraged Romeo to go the Capulets ball then the couple would not have met and there deaths may have been averted but were they supposed to meet? Had Mercutio not got involved in Romeos duel with the fiery ...

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