“Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name, or if thou wilt not, but be my sworn love and I will no longer be a Capulet.”
At the ball where she met Romeo, she was already engaged to marry Paris and until she met Romeo she was quite satisfied with marrying Paris
Others might think the Nurse is responsible for the two lover’s deaths. She was very close to Juliet and she had brought her up. If she were ever in need of help she would ask the nurse, so she was the one who helped Juliet sort out all her problems. So that's why Juliet turned to the nurse for help when she had fallen in love with someone from the rival family. So the nurse helped her keep their relationship secret by delivering messages and she then told Juliet to marry Romeo, in an honest way:
"Then hie you hence to Friar Laurence cell, there stays a husband to make you a wife."
By doing this she is encouraging Juliet and going behind her father’s back and deliberately doing something that she knows he would not approve of. The Nurse was the one responsible for telling Juliet that Romeo wanted to marry her and telling her that Friar Laurence would marry them. After Juliet had married Romeo, the nurse told her to marry the County Paris:
"The since the case so stands as now it doth I think it best you married with the county,
O he's a lovely gentleman: Romeo's a dish clout to him."
Although I have said this, in the Nurses defence, she always had Juliet’s best interests at heart, although a more likely suspect is Romeo himself. A very popular character when it comes to blame for Romeo and Juliet's deaths is Romeo himself. He just made matters worse by keeping the feud going, rushing into an immediate relationship with Juliet and not thinking properly. He was usually one of the main victims in fights, and he acted too violently in them. When Tybalt was fighting with Mercutio, he accidentally stabbed him and this made Romeo very angry,
"Now, Tybalt, take the ‘villain’ back again
That late thou gav'st me, for Mercutio's soul
Is but a little way above our heads,
Staying for thine to keep him company
Either thou or I, or both, must go with him."
So Romeo was very serious about this and thought that he and Tybalt should both fight until one of them or both of them died. Romeo was not thinking straight and because of this he killed Tybalt, who was Juliet's cousin. Romeo also rushed into an immediate relationship with Juliet by asking her to marry him way too early. He arranged the marriage with the Friar who agreed to do it:
“And all combin'd by holy marriage, when and where, and how."
So he wanted the marriage to be arranged quickly so he could claim Juliet his wife. Romeo could have also thought more carefully after hearing about Juliet's death. He shouldn't have come straight to Verona and immediately thought that his wife was really dead. He even killed Paris outside the Capulet's tomb as Paris thought that he was breaking in to do something to Tybalt's body. Paris challenged him to a fight and then Romeo killed him.
This then brings me on to Tybalt; others may say Tybalt was to blame for Romeo and Juliet’s death. He started the fight with Romeo and he of all people kept the arguments between the two families alive. He is described by some as “King of Cats” and always causing trouble. His argumentative ways lead to Romeos banishment and therefore Romeo and Juliet taking their own lives.
Romeo’s friend Mercutio was another person who didn’t help with the feud between the Montague’s and the Capulet’s, He saw the feud as being a sort of “game”. Mercutio, being an eccentric character saw all the killing and death as a load of fun. He invited Romeo to a ball hosted by the Capulet’s which only he had been invited to. This is where Romeo and Juliet first met and if Romeo would have never gone then they would have never fallen in love and therefore died. This also caused Mercutio’s own death because Tybalt comes to kill Romeo because he made a show of the Capuet family by going to they party which he was not invited to. Tybalt killed Mercutio, with his last words
“A Plague on both your houses”
This meant that Romeo and Juliet were also cursed to die; Mercutio’s death made Romeo angry and kill Tybalt. Romeo was then banished from Verona by the prince, which leads to my next point of why it was why the prince was to blame for Romeo and Juliet’s death. The prince should have acted earlier to stop the feud between the Capulet’s and the Montague’s. It was not fair to send Romeo away for killing Tybalt when Tybalt started the fight anyway which sent Romeo into a fit of blind rage after Tybalt killed Mercutio.
Others think that fate was to blame, as it plays its part in both of their deaths. Romeo and Juliet are described as star cross'd lovers, as they weren't right for each other and their relationship just wasn't meant to be, this is written in the prologue. The night they first set eyes on each other and fell in love was at the Capulet’s feast and just before the feast; Romeo had a vision of an untimely death:
"I fear, too early; for my mind misgives some consequence, yet hanging in the stars, shall bitterly begin his fearful date with this night's revel's, and expire the term of a despised life dos'd in my breast, by some vile forfeit of untimely death. But he that hath the steerage of my course, direct my sail: on husty gentlemen."
This also happens to Juliet when Romeo has to leave her chamber; she gets a premonition of him dead in a tomb:
"O god, I have an ill-diving soul, methinks I see thee now, thou art so low, as one dead in the bottom of a tomb."
So both Romeo and Juliet have had a vision that he will die, but how is a mystery. Bad luck also struck when Friar Lawrence sent the message about Romeo meeting Juliet at the tomb, and then they could run away together; to Friar John the messenger, but it failed to be delivered to Romeo. But Romeos friend Balthasar had heard that Juliet was dead, so he rushed to tell Romeo straight away. Romeo didn't know that Juliet wasn't really dead and that she was in a deep sleep, which was part of the plan for them to run away together. The message not getting delivered played quite a major role in the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. It was also really bad luck that Juliet woke up from her deep sleep about a minute after Romeo has commit suicide over her.
Other people might blame Friar Lawrence for Romeo and Juliet’s death, as he made several major things go wrong in Romeo and Juliet's secret relationship. Firstly he agreed to marry them without any hesitation:
"For this alliance may so happy prove, to turn your households' rancour to pure love."
He knew what he was going to do was wrong but still agreed with it and did it. He was also very stupid to come up with the plan for Juliet, to pretend to her family she was dead. So he gave Juliet a sleeping drug that would make her look like she was dead. He made it sound so convincing to Juliet that the plan would work and everything would be fine, so she had faith in him. He even told her that he would send a letter to Romeo so he would be waiting for her to awake at the tomb,
"Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift, and hither shall he come, and he and I will watch thy waking, and that very night shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua."
She didn't think twice about the problems there could be like the letter not reaching him. Friar Lawrence could have either told Friar John that the letter was important and needed to be sent straight away or he could have sent it himself, the he would defiantly know that Romeo knew about the plan. But he didn't think about anything like that and didn't know what he was really doing, therefore the plan went wrong. The Friar could have saved Juliet after Romeo had taken his life and Juliet was about to do the same. The watchmen were on their way to the Capulet's tomb and the Friar was getting scared incase they thought he was the one who had broken in, so he was about to run away and asked Juliet to come with him:
"Stay not to question, for the watch is coming, come go good Juliet, I dare no longer stay."
Then he just went and left Juliet and it was obvious she was going to commit suicide, but he didn't force her to leave. He could have dragged her or pushed her out, but he was too worried for himself and not Juliet, even though he was the one who got her into the mess in the first place.
In conclusion, I think Friar Lawrence is to blame for Romeo and Juliet’s deaths even though the prince does not.
‘We still have known thee for a holy man.’
This leads to the explanation that Shakespeare did not want you to blame Friar Lawrence, but I do because I think he abuses his trust as a holy man. He agreed to marry them in the first place; he should have delivered the letter to Romeo himself seeing as it was so important. He also was a total coward when he heard the watchman coming and could at least have saved Juliet. He is very deceitful for a man of god and for these reasons I think he is to blame for Romeo and Juliet’s deaths.