‘Tybalt, you rat – catcher, will you walk?’
Here Mercutio is asking Tybalt if he will fight with him. Calling him a rat – catcher is referring to Tybalt being the Prince of Cats, in this fight Tybalt kills Mercutio.
‘O Romeo, Romeo! Brave Mercutio is dead.’
Benvolio tells Romeo that Mercutio is dead. When Tybalt returns Romeo kills him. This gets Romeo banished. There are other characters that have added to this tragic ending more than Mercutio.
The next characters that I will be looking at are Old Montague and Lady Montague. They did not take part in the action of the play but if they had not been feuding with the Capulets then Romeo and Juliet could have married without having to do it in secret. Old Montague is still eager to draw his sword and fight the Capulets.
‘Thou villian Capulet! Hold me not; let me go.’
He wants to fight with Old Capulet but Lady Montague will not let him.
‘Thou shalt not stir one foot to seek a foe.’
She wants to keep them from duelling and so stopping the families from making peace. If they had not been feuding and wanting to fight with the Capulets then the families could have been happy.
I feel that although Juliet was one of the characters who ended with a tragic death she was partly responsible herself. She made many mistakes, which led to her death. The first of these is at the party where she meets Romeo for the first time. They flirt together and kiss Romeo says
‘Then move not, while my prayers’ effect I take.’
This tells her what he is about to do to her, she does not pull away but instead she kisses him back.
Another instance where she performs an action, which leads, towards her death is in the orchard. She exchanges promises of love and marriage to Romeo.
‘If that thy bent of love be honourable,
Thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow.’
Here she says that if his love to her is good and true then they should marry and tell her the next day when and where.
Soon after Juliet marries Romeo in secret. You do not see them get married but when the Friar says
‘Come, come with me, and we will make short work,
For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone,
Till holy church incorporate two in one.’
He is telling them to go with him where he will marry them quickly.
When she refuses to marry Paris is another important thing which leads towards her death
‘He shall not make me there a joyful bride!’
From hearing this her Father forces her in to marrying Paris or he threatens to disown her. The nurse tells her to forget Romeo and Juliet is alone. The main thing that went towards her death was when she took the sleeping potion.
‘Here’s drink – I drink to thee!’
The potion made her sleep for forty-two hours, everybody would think she was dead and she would run off to be with Romeo.
If she had not done these things she would have lived, married to Paris but alive. She shouldn’t have deceived and disobeyed her parents and she was too hasty in rushing in to marriage.
I would say that Romeo is as much to blame as Juliet is. He goes to the Capulet party when he is not invited the servant say
‘If you be not of the house of Montagues’
Romeo is a Montague but he goes along to the party anyway. If he had not gone then he would not have met Juliet in the first place and so would not have led to their deaths. After he met Juliet he fell in love very quickly and acted too hastily. If he had been able to control his anger when Tybalt killed Mercutio he would not have been banished for killing Tybalt.
‘Either thou, or I, or both must go with him.’
Here Romeo tells Tybalt that one of them or both of them must go with Mercutio to the grave. If he had not killed Tybalt Romeo and Juliet could have carried on their secret relationship much easier. He acted very violently. He acted very hastily which meant that he did not get all of the facts before he rushed back to Verona when Balthasar told him that Juliet was dead. He rushed to an apothecary who gave him a poison to kill himself when he sees Juliet dead.
‘To Juliets grave, for there I must use thee.’
This tells us that he is going to Juliet’s grave to use the poison and kill himself. If he had not rushed off the second letter which Friar Laurence sent him would have reached him and he would have known the truth about Juliet. He should have thought more carefully and they might have ended up happy together.
I feel that the Capulet family contributes to the tragic ending of the play more than the Montague family because if they had not pressured Juliet in to marrying Paris then she would not have taken the potion that resulted in her death. Juliet says
‘I’ll to the friar to know his remedy:
If all else fail, myself have power to die.’
There she says that if the friar has no way of stopping the marriage she would kill herself. Capulet is so anxious to find Juliet a good husband that he does not stop to ask her what she wants.
‘O Thursday let it be – o’ Thursday tell her,
She shall be married to this noble earl.’
Capulet decided when and to whom Juliet would be married. When she did not want to marry Paris because she was already married to Romeo he threatened to disown her. They also contributed to keeping the feud going like the Montague family. They were too hard on Juliet when she said that she did not want to marry Paris.
Fate plays quite a part in this play there are many references to it including the scene before Romeo departs to Mantua. Juliet says
‘O God! I have an ill-divining soul:
Me thinks I see thee, now thou art so low,
As one dead in the bottom of a tomb:
Either my eyesight fails, or thou look’st pale.’
Juliet has a vision of Romeo dead in a tomb in fact the next time she sees him he is dead in a tomb. In Act three Scene three Friar Laurence says
‘Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable.’
to Romeo. This means, cheer up cheer up for miserable people will die. This is a reference to fate because Romeo and Juliet both died when they were miserable. Lady Montague also dies at the end of the play when she is miserable about Romeo being banished. If fate has put in an appearance then there is no way of stopping what happens.
There are two people who I consider to be most responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. These are Juliets nurse and Friar Laurence. Friar Laurence started by secretly marrying Romeo and Juliet. He thought that it might help to end the feud when the families found out.
‘In one respect I’ll thy assistant be,
For this alliance may so happy prove
To turn your households’ rancour to pure love.’
He always looked for the brighter side of things; he should have had a second thought that the feud between the families was so ancient and brutal that could the alliance of Romeo and Juliet really help to end the feud? In fact the only thing which ended the feud was the death of their children. The friar also gave Juliet the sleeping potion as part of his badly thought out plan. He acted irresponsibly and lied to everybody about Juliet’s death. If he had not run off when he heard a noise from within the tomb he could have stopped Juliet from killing herself.
‘Come, go, good Juliet – I dare no longer stay.’
He did not want to be blamed for the deaths of Romeo and Paris and be questioned about why Juliet was alive.
The Nurse encouraged Juliet in her romantic ideas. She carried messages and helped the star crossed lovers to meet and get married secretly. She went behind her employers’ backs; they should have been able to trust her after fourteen years of service. When Juliet was being forced in to marrying Paris the nurse changed her views and advised Juliet to marry Paris.
‘I think it best you married with the county.’
Juliet then feels alone and turns to the friar and his terrible plan.
So from this I think that Mercutio is least responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet and Friar Laurence most responsible although every character has a part in the tragic ending. Mercutio duelled with Tybalt, which resulted in Romeo being banished but the friars terrible plan actually resulted in the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.
I consider Friar Laurence to be most responsible for the tragic outcome of Romeo and Juliet
