Juliet’s over reliance on Friar Laurence’s advice is not well thought through and does not consider any other options then the first ones that are suggested. If she had thought about them more then she might have got some different ideas on how to solve her problems.
Juliet’s motivation is to remain faithful to the man she loves even if this can be achieved by death. If she had not felt this way then she would not have committed suicide. Juliet’s intensity of her love for Romeo always results in her to under take some violent action, for example her suggesting marriage, drinking the drug and stabbing herself in the end. “O’ happy dagger! This thy sheath; there rust and let me die.”
The Nurse is an old servant in the Capulet household and has reared Juliet since she was a baby. The Nurse helped the marriage between Romeo and Juliet as much as she could, but should have been more loyal to Lord and Lady Capulet by telling them about the marriage. (She had been employed to look after Juliet and to keep her safe)
Later on in the play the Nurse loses favour with Juliet by offering practical rather then romantic advice. “I think it’s best if you married with the County. O’ he’s a lovely gentleman! Romeo’s a dishclout to him!” The Nurse only wants the best for Juliet because she cares for her, but if the Nurse had not offered that advice then she would not have been angry and gone off to see Friar Laurence and taken the sleeping drug.
If the Nurse had persuaded Juliet not to marry Romeo (despite her motivation to see Juliet, married) or had not supported their secret meeting/marriage then the play wouldn’t have turned out the way it did.
Lord Capulet is the father of Juliet. We see two sides of this character in the play: a devoted man who loves his daughter, and a stubborn tyrant that does not like to be crossed. We see an example of this at the party he throws. Lord Capulet greets his guest happily with jokes and puns. “Welcome Gentleman, Ladies that have toes unplagu’d with corns will walk bout with you!” Also when Tybalt sees Romeo and his friends at the party and reports to Lord Capulet about their trespassing, he lays down the law that they’re allowed to stay, “You’ll make a mutiny among my guests.” If he had taken Tybalts advice and kicked them out then Romeo would not have seen Juliet and fallen in love with her. Also Tybalt would not have challenged Romeo to the fight that killed Mercutio and himself.
Lord Capulet was unhappy when Juliet refused to marry Paris because he expected her to be obedient. If he had had not wanted his own way then he may considered that Juliet didn’t want to marry a man she didn’t love. (But he didn’t know that he was pushing her into an impossible situation.) Capulet’s motivation is for Juliet to marry into a good family and even if he may seem ignorant, he only wants the best for his daughter.
Prince Escalus only appears three times in the play, each time to settle a disturbance caused by the Capulets and the Montagues. His motivation is to resolve the fighting in Verona and to be a fair leader. The Prince is not severe enough in his punishments because he says, “If you disturb our streets again, you lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.” But when Romeo murders Tybalt, he was not killed but banished from Verona. If the Prince were more serious and executed Romeo, then Juliet’s life might have been spared. Or maybe if he had punished people after the first three riots then things would never have gone so far.
Tybalt is Juliet’s cousin, like Mercutio he’s full of energy but unlike Mercutio he has no sense of fun. He seems to have a motivation of picking fights with the opposite family just to boast about his skills. So if he had been less aggressive and determined to pick a fight then neither Mercutio nor himself would have died. Also if Tybalt had not taunted Romeo about his best friends death, “Thou wretched boy, that didst consort him here, Shalt with him hence.” Romeo might have not got that angry and killed him, leading to his exile and ultimately Juliet’s death.
Mercutio is one of Prince Escalus kinsman and therefore makes his death is as ironic as his language: he is killed as a result of a family feud in which he is supposed to be neutral. Mercutio’s motivation was to be a good friend to Romeo and tease him about his love melancholy and clearly shows this in the Queen Mab speech. When Tybalt and Mercutio fight in Act 2, Romeo tries and stops it but Mercutio won’t let it drop, “ Come sir, your passado.” If Mercutio had listened to Romeo and ignored Tybalt then he would not be dead.
Friar Laurence is the priest who marries Romeo and Juliet in hope that it brings the two quarreling family together. “For this alliance may so happy prove, to turn your households’ rancour to pure love.” It’s ironic that the two lovers do in the end stop the fighting and bring peace to Verona, but sadly aren’t alive. Through the play the Friar gives some bad advice in what seems to be an advantage each time towards him. An example of this is when he gives Juliet the sleeping drug, it’s partly because he can’t commit a sin by marrying Juliet again, and because he doesn’t want anyone to find out about his part in the first marriage. If Friar Laurence were not so cowardly and run away from the Capulet’s tomb when Juliet woke up the he would have been able to save her life. Also if the Friar had not have been thinking of himself getting the blame for the marriage then he might have been able to come up with some more practical advice for Romeo and Juliet and they would not have died.
In this essay I have analyzed some characters in the play and explained why they might be held responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. In conclusion I hold no one person to blame for the deaths of the two lovers. All main characters to a larger or greater extent contributed. The Nurses support for a bad marriage, Capulet's strictness, Tybalt’s taunting, the Friar’s usage of Romeo and Juliet’s marriage to fulfill his ultimate need to protect his own position and Mercutio’s humour, are all connected to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. The tension and obstacles placed in the path of their love resulted in the conflict that led to Romeo’s banishment, the sleeping drug Juliet took and Romeo’s ultimate tragic death at the loss of his true love, which in turn, was mirrored by Juliet’s death at her own hand.
