Romeo and Juliet. If I were asked to put the ones who take the blame in order I would have the families of Romeo and Juliet at number four,

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Will Barrett

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is probably one of Shakespeare’s most well known stories about two start crossed lovers dying tragically after a series of unfortunate events. There may be many causes to these deaths but I believe that the nurse and friar are two major factors to this story along with the two families dispute over a very old argument that has been happening for hundreds of years, there isn’t a blatant offender but I will attempt to come to a conclusion of who I think was responsible for these tragedies.

The friar is like Romeo’s father as well as being his best friend, He some how always manages to help Romeo out with his problems and questions about his life, and appears to be a very wise character, although one day when Romeo decides he is in love, the friar has something to say, ‘be plain, good son, and homely in thy drift; Riddling confession finds but riddling shrift.’ The Friar is a very religious man and he is therefore put high up on ‘the great chain of being’ which is a scale on which we place characters to find out how close they are to heaven and hell, this is therefore the reason for the friar being high up. Although once Romeo finds out about what family Juliet comes from, he is heart broken, he doesn’t know what to do and even threatens to commit suicide, this puts the friar in a very difficult position and In the this case you cant help but feel sorry for the friar as he is faced with such a difficult question, and he knows that if whatever he does it wont be a good out come for both of them. Just from reading parts of the friars speech you can immediately tell he is a very intelligent and well spoken man, as he speaks in verse, two kinds in fact, for the part where he will be talking to himself he will be mostly talking in rhyming verse, ’The grey-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night, Check’ring the eastern clouds with streaks of light’  Which shows he also very poetic in the way he speaks, whereas when he is talking to other people he tends to speak in non rhyming verse ‘Thy love did read by rote that could not spell. But come, young waverer, come go with me.’

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The nurse however is a rather uneducated and unmannered person, as she wants to see Juliet get married for the selfish reason of not wanting to die before she does get married and she doesn’t actually seem to care that much about who Juliet marries just so long as she does, Juliet however has a very high opinion of marriage and doesn’t believe she’s worth the honour of marriage ‘it is an honour I dream not of’. Where as the nurse treats it in a completely different way, ‘An honour!

Were not I thine only nurse, I would ...

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