Who was to Blame for the Deaths of Romeo and Juliet?

Contrasting to her lover’s immaturity, Juliet was too advanced for her age, insisting Romeo declare his love for her; by marriage. Having voiced her adoration for him on only their first night of meeting, ‘My love as deep; the more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite.’ Carelessly yearning for her pain to end, suicide is perpetually an option once incidents had not resulted to her liking, evident at Romeo’s death, ‘O happy dagger. This is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die’, Juliet committed suicide by attaining a dagger. Boasting disobedience, Juliet deceives her parents when marrying Romeo, although the Nurse is seen to her as the dominant parental figure. Placing too much trust within the Nurse lead only to betrayal, whilst the Nurse continued to be the only person Juliet could rely on. The stars had predicted failure of the couple form the beginning of the play, ‘Star crossed lovers’.

Perhaps the dominant parental figure to Juliet, the Nurse holds too much sway over Juliet’s actions. Secretive towards Juliet’s parents, the Nurse encourages Juliet’s relationship with Romeo excessively. The Nurse got over exited about the young love, having lost her youth she lives through Romeo and Juliet. She helped the lovers to meet and get married secretly when she should have let Juliet’s parents know what was occurring. One morning, Romeo and Juliet are in her bedroom, the Nurse warns them that Lady Capulet is coming, ‘Your lady mother is coming to your chamber. The day is broke, be wary, look about’.  When reality looms, she realises that if Juliet’s parents discover what she has been involved in, she would lose her reputation and respectability, and above all occupation. So the Nurse reluctantly tells Juliet to marry Paris, ‘I think you are happy in this second match for it excels your first’, advising this whilst she was married to Romeo encourages Juliet’s distrust.

Naive Friar Lawrence got too involved with the lives of Romeo and Juliet. The Friar mocks for falling in love with Rosaline and then Juliet, ‘Is Rosaline, that thou didst love so dear, so soon forsaken’, but he treats the new love seriously despite Romeo being young and vulnerable. He isn’t a good role model; wanting the feud to end he still proceeds with marrying Romeo and Juliet in secret. Friar Lawrence thought that it would be the couple’s love that would bring the two feuding families, when ironically it is their deaths. He suggests a dangerous plan to bring Romeo and Juliet back to together once Romeo is banished, when supplying Juliet with a deadly potion and organising the false funeral, ‘take thou this vial being then in bed, and this distilling liquor drink thou off’. Responsible for getting the news to Romeo of Juliet’s sleeping drug, the news never reaches him after trusting another friar to do the important deed, allowing Romeo to believe that Juliet was dead. Fate stops his chosen method of a letter by a plague. When the plan goes terribly wrong, he leaves Juliet to die in the tomb and does not try hard enough to get her out; being too concerned about his own escape.

Each character mentioned played a key role in the deaths of Romeo and Juliet, with their minor actions resulting in greater loss for both houses. Their deeds spread across the Five Acts, I believe that the blame should be held to the character at the route of the problem; Peter the messenger. If he were able to read, he would not have enlisted to help of Romeo. This crucial reading allowed for Romeo to know of the Capulets Ball, although in hope of seeing Rosaline. In the event that another, literate messenger was appointed to deliver the message, Romeo would never know of the Ball, and would perhaps never see his fair Juliet.