Mehaffey
Hailey Mehaffey
Ms. Muhlbaier
Language arts
5 May 2017
The Blaming of Romeo and Juliet
Throughout time, there have been many tragedies cause by romance. Romeo and Juliet find love for each but it can't be followed through because of the families feud, Romeo is sent off and Juliet Is set to marry Paris whom she doesn’t want to marry. Friar and Juliet make a plan so Juliet and Romeo can be together but that plan never gets to Romeo so meanwhile Romeo thinks Juliet is dead and kills himself and Juliet wakes up sees him dead and kills herself. At the end of the play, prince Escalus wants to know who should be punished. In other words, he wants to know who is most accountable for Romeo's and Juliet's deaths. While both families and friar Lawrence are partially responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet, fate is mostly to blame.
Both the Montague and Capulet families can be blamed for their children's deaths. Both of the families can be blamed for their children's death because the families have a big feud going on that leads them not being able to be together. As it states in the text, " from forth the fatal loins of these two foes"(prologue). To explain, the hatred of the two families is still continuing with Romeo and Juliet making them think they have to hate each other. When they want to be together its hard with the families arguing which leads to lying and lying leading to death. More specifically, Juliet's mother can be blamed for the deaths of both Romeo and Juliet because she is forcing Juliet to marry someone she doesn’t want, "think of marriage now"(1.3). Her mother is putting pressure on her and forcing her not to marry anyone else. Her mother's sense of doing what she wants leads to her daughter not being happy and faking her death to be with someone she actually wants. Lastly, Juliet's father can also be blamed for the deaths of both children because he threatens to not be with her if she doesn’t marry someone just like her mother, "get thee to church o' Thursday,/Or never after look me in the face:" (3.5). He's threatening her which means she will get even more mad and not like her dad forcing her to leave which means her and Romeo can be together but if her dad finds out thy both shall be dead. The feud between the family's is leading them all to death.
Friar Lawrence Is partially to blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. One reason he is blamed is because he questions Romeos love for Juliet, making Romeo feel stupid, "But come, young waverer, come, go with me,/ In one respect I'll thy assistant be;" (2.3). Friar is questioning Romeo's emotions and just agreeing with how he feels not giving it much thought on how it could all turn out. This leads to him being a secret and it wasn’t brought upon on how it might end and he shouldn’t have let this all happen. He can also be held responsible for the deaths because he knew the outcome of the marriage would end badly, "These violent delights have violent ends" (2.6). This explains that all the fun their having will slowly come to an end because they can't keep it a secret or else other bad things will happen. This means that their marriage will die and also they will to. A final reason he can be blamed for the deaths s because he didn’t get Romeo the plan fast enough. In the text it says, "I'll give thee remedy" (4.1). this is saying that he's helping because he's giving them a plan so they can be together but the letter doesn’t get to Romeo fast enough and he doesn’t look for other ways, this matters because Romeo won't know what the plan is and really think Juliet's dead and kill himself so in this case friar killed them both. Friar killed both Romeo and Juliet because of his helping and this little unlucky things come from fate.
Despite the responsibility of the Montagues, Capulets, and friar Lawrence, fate is ultimately to blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Fate is the most to blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet because they were doomed from the beginning and meant for this to happen, "star-crossed lovers"(prologue). To explain, they are very unlucky and fate has made them be together but causing these lovers death as their doom. An additional reason fate is responsible for the deaths is because it caused friars letter to be delayed in getting to Romeo, " I could not send it,-here it is again,"(5.2). Fate caused the letters to not get to Romeo for a reason and it ended up killing them because the letters didn’t make it. Finally, fate can also be blamed for the deaths of the two lovers because the two lovers themselves put their self's there. As it says in the text, "unhappy fortune", meaning they did this to their self's and fate made this happy because of their love. Fate leads them to death but everything else leads them to fate.
In conclusion, Although prince Escalus may choose to punish characters that contribute to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet, they are simply pawns in fates game as well. Romeo and Juliet's love for each other was so strong even fate didn’t know what else to do but have them dead. It made others realize what really mattered and hating families was not one of them. Their deaths left a mark that would heal them but also make they suffer for what they did forever.
