Who Was Responsible For The
Death Of Romeo + Juliet?
In the play Romeo + Juliet, written by William Shakespeare all of the characters are somehow interconnected making for a very close-knit community. Therefore what one character does will somehow have an effect on all the others. This is the case in the eventual deaths of both Romeo and Juliet. Almost every character in the play does something (or doesn’t do something) that affects the lover’s star-crossed path. However there are a few that are more closely involved with one (or both) of the couple, therefore have more to do with the relationship. Those that spring to mind are, Mercuitio-best friend of Romeo, Tybalt-Juliet’s cousin, Friar Lawrence-A priest who knows both of the families and finally The Prince, who is the ruler of the city and who also is supposed to keep law and order between the warring families, which he only achieves at the end through the death of Romeo and Julie. There is also a huge degree of fate and fortune that seem to work against the couple, and of course the hastiness and impatience of both Romeo and Juliet.
The first person I am going to comment on is Friar Lawrence. Although Friar Lawrence is very closely involved with what’s going on between Romeo and Juliet, I do not think he is as responsible as he seems. I think he can be seen as more responsible than he is because of the role he plays in their lives. Whereas it may look the friar is responsible for events leading to deaths of Romeo and Juliet, it is usually other influences that are accountable. For instance the friar’s plan (pretending Juliet was dead and then spiriting her off to Mantua to live with Romeo) was itself flawless. However the hastiness of Balthazar, who told Romeo that he saw, Juliet lay low in her kindred’s vault, eventually leads to the joint suicide of the couple. And also whereas marrying the couple may have looked like and irresponsible action, it didn’t contribute to the death of the lovers. If the friar had not done this they would have only gone to another priest in a different city, or gone on seeing each other whether married or not. The only derogatory factor I can see that came out of the friar marrying the couple is that Juliet could not marry Paris, but this cannot be said to be the friars fault, It was due to the hastiness of Capulet to have his daughter married, which was caused by the
