How much are Romeo and Juliet responsible for their deaths?

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How much are Romeo and Juliet responsible for their deaths?

By Sam Cumbee

Romeo and Juliet were characters in a Shakespearean play of grand magnitude. They were both characters in high stature and great wealth. They were both a part of the two richest families in Verona, as the play points out. The two families were deadly rivals and Romeo of the Montague and Juliet of the Capulets fall in love and in the end, died. There are three different thought patterns that place the blame of Romeo and Juliet’s deaths on three different topics. The fact that Romeo and Juliet both had doubts about the day they met and the marriage.

         When Mercutio takes Romeo to the Capulets ball, Romeo says (in act 1 scene 4 line 106-107) “I feel too early, for my mind misgives / Some consequence yet hanging in the stars / Shall bitterly begin his fearful date” meaning that he has a really bad feeling about the whole thing. He then goes on to say “With this nights revels, and expire the term / Of a despised life closed in my breast, / By some vile forfeit of untimely death.” He has a feeling that what ever starts now will end with a death of some sort, but he puts it aside to say that its wrong and goes to the ball anyway. Though as soon as he had seen Juliet he forgot about it completely. Though the will to keep the marriage a secret was a bad choice because, although the families would be extremely angry at them, in the end both families would have treated the other better because they would know that they were related. The fact that it was Romeo and Juliet’s decision was their fault. But for what they knew at the time the decision was the right one, though I could be said that it was the Friar’s fault because he knew of it and told no one.

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When the marriage ceremony was over he should have gone straight to the prince and told him, and keep the rest from happening, but he kept with Romeo and Juliet’s wishes and kept the secret. The “sleeping draught” that he gave to Juliet. He should have told the families then, before he gave it to her even if he thought he had it all figured out, because being a father of the church he probably knew both Montagues and Capulets, so he would be committing a moral sin to both the families. The same goes for the nurse, she had ...

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