Who Is To Blame For The Deaths Of Romeo And Juliet? Romeo and Juliet is a
tragedy about two star crossed lovers whose love cannot apart them from their
two feuding families. In this essay I will state who or what are responsible for
their deaths, the main theme of the story is hatred and fate. Firstly I must
introduce the two families because their attitude of hatred is responsible for
the deaths mainly because if they hadn’t quarrelled then maybe Romeo and
Juliet wouldn’t have got married in secret. Resulting in the feud all the
members perpetuated the feud this is illustrated by Tybalt from the Capulet
family, Juliet’s cousin, he started the fight that resulted in Romeo getting
banished and he was always causing trouble. He more than any one else in the
story kept hatred alive between the two families because of his violence. I also
blame Lord and Lady Capulet, Juliet’s parents because they should have paid
more attention to Juliet’s wishes when she refused to marry Paris. At first
they threatened to throw her out onto the streets as in Act three Scene 5
Capulet says to Juliet “Thursday is near lay hand on heart and you be mine,
Ill give you to my friend, and you to be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the
streets.” Lady Capulet also put her daughter in the care of the Nurse who
raised Juliet as her surrogate daughter. The Nurse being a blabbermouth out
spoken person was also responsible for the death of Juliet. She never
acknowledged that maybe Juliet wasn’t ready for this immense step in her life
from an on looker guardian. In Act two-Scene four the Nurse warns Romeo to be
true to Juliet and she explains there is another man after her Paris she
compares the two. She says to Romeo that her Juliet is sweet “well sir my
mistress is sweetest lady, lord o there is a noble man in town Paris.” She
encouraged Juliet in her romance with Romeo because the action of her being a
blabber mouth is that she carried the messages of a secret meeting of where she
knew that they where going to spend a night of passion together in Act three
Scene two she says to Juliet “hie to your chamber Ill find Romeo to comfort
you hark ye, your Romeo will be here all night” She advised Juliet to marry
Paris, knowing she was already married to Romeo. I also blame Friar Lawrence who
was the person that took these newly met lustful children into their marriage,
since Romeo and Juliet where two children were married so soon and at a young
age this made them unable to make they’re own decisions. This statement can be
proved about Romeo because when he was banished he bellowed like a baby the
Nurse had to make young Romeo act like a man just to think of Juliet instead of
himself. The main reason for Friar Lawrence’s decision to marry the two is
wrong is because he thought this might help to make the two families stop
fighting in Act two Scenes six Friar Lawrence says, “till holy church
incorporate two in one”. In the end this was proven to be the motivation for
the two children killing themselves he also gave Juliet the sleeping potion Act
four Scene one “take this vial, being in bed and this distilled liquor drink
thou off”. Now I must introduce The Prince ruler of Verona where the story is
set. The Prince had the power to act to stop the feud between the two families.
It was unjustified of him to send Romeo away from Verona as a punishment for
killing Tybalt when the fighting was Tybalt`s own fault for killing Mercutio in
Act three Scene three he says “hence from Verona art thou banished: taking thy
part, hath rushd aside the law and turn`d that black word into banishment”.
Mercutio had an influence on Romeo because of his friend ship, Mercutio`s
attitude to the quarrels and fighting made the situation worse. He saw the feud
as a game and that attitude led him to his death and Romeo’s banishment. Even
though I am blaming certain people for the tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet I
have to consider that Romeo and Juliet had an affect on there own fates.
Firstly, I will blame Romeo because he acted too hastily throughout the story
and he was a romancer because the opening of the story he was in love with
Rosoline then he fell for Juliet. He shouldn’t have asked Juliet to marry him
so suddenly, and he should have thought more carefully before rushing back to
Verona after hearing of Juliet’s death. He also acted violently and without
thinking when he killed Tybalt in revenge and then later the killing of Paris.
Now I will explain why I think Juliet was responsible for her own death Juliet
of death and Romeo’s death to, I think she shouldn’t have deceived and
disobeyed her parents. Like Romeo, she was too rash in rushing into marriage.
She knew she was already engaged to marry Paris at the time of the ball when she
first met Romeo and until then she was very happy with her parent’s choice of
Paris a wealthy bachelor. Before my conclusion can be stated I will have to
introduce what I think are the main reasons for the deaths, which is fate. Fate
seemed to control their lives and force them together, becoming the ultimate
controlling power in this play even if it is not recognised however in the
prologue there is a chosen identity of starts “a pair star-crossed lovers”.
A large part of the beliefs for both Romeo and Juliet involved fate, they
believed in the stars and that their actions were not always there own, Romeo
for example scene 1 act 4 says “some consequence yet hanging in the
stars….by some vile forfeit of untimely death. But hath the steerage over my
course direct sail”. He is simply saying to his friends he had a dream, which
lead him to believe that he will die young because of something in the stars,
something that will happen. The only instance of fate managed to direct Romeo
into its web like a spider. There is another instance of strong fate where an
illiterate servant of the Capulets was sent to invite people to the ball; in Act
one Scene two “I can never find what names I must to be learned”, Romeo saw
this list with Rosalines name on it, which got Romeo and his friends to the
ball. When he got to the ball Romeo was memorised by Juliet, and she was simply
memorised by him. They later realise their identity, but they are in love and
won’t let their names get in the way of their strong emotions. If fate
didn’t put them together then what or who did? What are the chances of all
that happening a million to one so that’s why I have come to my conclusion
that the main reason for what is to blame for the tragic deaths of Romeo and
Juliet is the fate.