The Responsible for Romeo and Juliet’s Tragic
End
The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet was due to a series of
unfortunate events and each of these unfortunate events happened with
the help of everyone who contributed to them. In this case many
characters had done just that, but there were three parties who were
especially guilty for Romeo and Juliet’s downfall. One of those parties
were Juliet’s parents, Capulet and Lady Capulet. They drove her to
desperate measures because of their ignorance and pride. Another person
who was largely at fault was friar Lawrence. His meddling was the cause
to many bad things that happened. Lastly and probably the guiltiest is
Romeo. If he had not gone after Tybalt for revenge then things would
probably have turned out very different. There is a universal law of
cause and effect, which states that every cause has an effect and every
effect is a cause. In this tragedy we see exactly that. Every unfortunate
event was an effect of a cause that was created by the characters
mentioned.
In the beginning chapters Juliet’s parents seem like they
genuinely care about her feelings and her opinion, especially towards
marriage. In the beginning of the play Capulet say’s to Paris “But woo
her, gentle Paris, get her heart, my will to her consent is but a part; And
she agreed, within her scope of choice lies my consent and fair
according voice.” (I, II, 16-19) What Capulet meant by this is that he
would give his blessing to Paris only if Juliet truly wanted to marry him
because he would support whatever she chose. He explained that his
own opinion was only a small part of this arrangement. However we
know that Capulet did not prove faithful to his own words, instead he
chose pride. In the beginning of act three scene four Capulet promises
Paris that Juliet will marry him, instead of first asking her how she felt
about it. When Juliet finds out about the promise her father made to
Paris she refuses to go along with it. Capulet then goes on to say “Hang
thee, young baggage, disobedient wretch! I tell thee what: get thee to
church a’Thursday, or never after look me in the face. Speak not, reply
not, do not answer me! My fingers itch. Wife, we scarce thought us blest
That God had lent us but this only child, but now I see this one is one
too much, and that we have a curse in having her. Out on her,
hilding!” (III, V, 165-172). Here he clearly chose his pride instead of
keeping his word to support his daughter’s decision. In addition Lady
Capulet did not defend Juliet at all. If Juliet had her mother’s support
then she would have dealt with things more carefully but because she
felt betrayed she no longer cared if she died. This made her reckless with
her plan to reunite with Romeo.
On the other hand if Capulet had just kept his word, then Juliet would
not have felt that she needed the entire scheme that got her and Romeo
killed.
Another character that was largely at fault...
