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Romeo and juliet moral essay
Romeo and juliet moral essay
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In William Shakespeare’s "Romeo and Juliet", Prince Escalus exclaims at the end; "All are Punished." Is this true? Montague and Capulet have certainly committed a crime of upholding an ancient grudge that has claimed many lives. The Friars crime was to run away from a suiciding person and also to mastermind Romeo and Juliet’s wedding and plans to run away, which eventually lead to the death of Romeo and Juliet. Even the main characters, who are painted as innocent and saint-like, have committed crimes punishable by the law. We know that the main characters have committed the crime, but do they all serve the time. The paragraphs below explain if they do.
The crime which Montague and Capulet committed was that they were fighting with each other. The reason for which they started fighting is uncertain. The hatred they feel towards each other filters down to their family members and servants. Gregory exclaims in the first scene, "The quarrel is between our masters, and us their men." (Act 1, sc (i) line 19). He is saying that how their masters fight is also theirs. Since Montage and Capulet committed atrocious crimes, god found a way to punish them both. The way in which he punished Capulet is first he killed off Tybault, and then he took his daughter Juliet, along with her proposed suitor, County Paris. Montague is emotionally destroyed when his only son, Romeo is banished from Verona, the same day that Benvolio breathed his last. . This upsets his wife so much that night after Romeo was banished, she slept, never to wake up again. The next day, he learns that his son, Romeo, has committed suicide, which brings an end to the emotional punishment he will receive. Both Capulet and Montague committed a crime, and for these acts have received the appropriate punishment.
The Friar is portrayed as an innocent person, who has committed no wrong doings, but this is not the case. The Friars biggest mistake was to marry Romeo and Juliet without their parents consent. Although this is not a crime, it is morally wrong. The friar also committed a crime by trying to make Romeo and Juliet run away, but this plan ultimately leads to doom. He also abandoned Juliet when he heard that the watch were coming, and let her kill herself. Although the reason why he committed these wrong doings was to unite a family and save a couples life, what he did was wrong.
All are punished. ”(Shakespeare Act. V: iii) And all are punished, but the ones who feel it the most are those who began the feud; the Capulets and the Montagues.
This could be selfish behavior on his part, as the Friar knows he would be. committing a sin if he married Juliet to Paris, when she was already married to Romeo. & nbsp; Another example of the Friars selfish intentions, is the tomb scene.
In William Shakespeare's tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, Friar Laurence plays a major role. He makes not just one, but three fatal mistakes; he marries Romeo and Juliet, gives the potion to Juliet, and gets caught up in their love. Romeo and Juliet knew they could trust Friar Laurence because he was a priest, and he always did what was right. Since Friar Laurence was so quick to make decisions he made these three fatal mistakes, which is why he is most to blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.
Pardoned or Punished - a sham? The play, Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, is about a tragedy of two star crossed lovers who want nothing more than to be together forever. “.Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.” (2.2.35-36) Romeo, a Montague, who is young and passionate, meets Juliet at a Capulet party. When they meet, it’s love at first sight.
Friar Laurence is a character that should be pardoned for his actions. He was just trying to do what he thought was best for both Romeo and Juliet and their families. Friar Laurence agreed to marry Romeo and Juliet together, his reason was “This alliance may so happy prove to turn your households’ rancor to pure love.” (2,3,90-93). Friar Laurence was hoping that if he married Romeo and Juliet, their two families would stop fighting. It seemed like a good plan to him at the time, because why would he suspect that their marriage would lead to their deaths? The Prince should understand his reasoning, and he also wanted the two families to stop fighting; therefore, he should pardon Friar for his mistake. Friar Laurence also knew that Juliet would have rather died than marry someone other than Romeo, because she told him “O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris, from off the battlements of any tower, or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk where serpents are.” (4,1,77-80).
The Friar was right about what he did. The marriage of Romeo and Juliet was both good and bad, but mostly good. The marriage helped to bring peace and unity between the families. It also brought happiness to the two lovers. The bad part was that the families did not see the error of their ways fast enough to stop the feud that their children had to die for it. If they would have noticed it before everyone could have been
An act of dishonesty carried out by haste can result in very unlikely consequences to an individual’s life. Firstly, the dishonesty of Friar Lawrence in choosing to marry Romeo and Juliet without the knowledge or permission of their parents, results in undesirable after effects. Secondly, the sudden cessation of support from Juliet’s Nurse, to continue the relationship of Romeo and Juliet causes harm to Juliet’s feelings as a young lover and contributes to their fatality. Finally, Romeo’s haste to marry Juliet to prove his intentions, accounts for a future filled with even more hasty decisions. In Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, the dishonesty of Friar Lawrence and Nurse and the haste of Romeo and Juliet, results in the deaths of the young lovers.
...ts built up in Lord Capulet are good building blocks for someone who is going to cause the deaths of 3 people. So you could say other people were responsible for the deaths, and you may even be right, but of those suspects the one who could have very easily done something better is Capulet. He could have not thrown a temper tantrum and Juliet wouldn’t have felt the need to fake her own death and escape the inevitable matrimony of her and Paris. Capulet had several opportunities to turn this story around, and he just didn’t, and that’s what makes him responsible for the tragic deaths of Romeo, Juliet, and Paris. Although Capulet is irrational, and in my opinion just a dummy, he does offer a good moral of the story. Hatred is a wasted emotion, with no other intention than to ruin people’s lives. Patients is a virtue, and maturity is a choice.
When one looks closely at the story of Romeo and Juliet, one will see that it is a story with many ethical aspects. The first ethical concern was the two feuding families. How moral is it to hate someone only because they have a certain family name? This all come from a time period when people were fairly focused on religion, which teaches us not to hate. I also question this because I think it is ironic that both Romeo and Juliet seem to be fairly religious, since the first person Romeo went to for help was Friar Lawrence, and a few scenes in the play took place in or around the church. I think that this hatred is especially bad in the case of the Capulets and the Montagues, because I was always under the impression that the families had been feuding for so long that no one really knew why they hated each other anymore. This was the beginning of the problems for Romeo and Juliet. They had a moral decision to make. Should they stay true to their families, and deny their love, or should they stay true to their feelings and disgrace their families? In order to resolve this dilemma, Romeo turns to Friar Lawrence, who perhaps could be seen as the most moral character, to begin with. Because he was a holy man, he was the most logical confidant of anyone in the play. People see men of the cloth as reliable and a good source of advice. Of course, Friar Lawrence has every intention of helping the two lovers, also hoping that he could reunite the feuding families. However, unbeknownst to him, everything he will do throughout the play will have an unnerving consequence. No matter what he did to correct what he had done wrong, it only drug him deeper into trouble. Who ever would have thought that by marrying the two young lovers, he would have caused all of this heartache for the families, and really for all of Verona? No one ever considered the fact that two young people wanting to get married would have affected the entire city. Friar Lawrence was only trying to be a good friend and ally, but everything he did just ended up backfiring for him.
In the end and after the many deaths, the prince and the parents realize that through the actions of the Feud has this tragedy occurred. Romeo and Juliet realized this much sooner. “My only love sprung from my only hate (Shakespeare Act I Scene V).” She did not even know Romeo but hated him none the less, because of this feud. The prince, through losing his own kinsmen now understands “... winking at your discords too, have I lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punished (Shakespeare Act V Scene III).” The prince knows that all are to blame for the deaths and all are punished in some way.
The forbidden wedding of Romeo and Juliet could not have happened without the Friar. First of all, the Friar unwisely agreed to marry Romeo and Juliet, even though he knows it will cause later problems. In the beginning, the Friar thinks that "...this alliance may so happy prove/ To turn your households' rancor to pure love." (II iv 91-92) This shows that the Friar has a slight hope of their marriage possibly working. Therefore, he decides to marry the two lovers. However, as time moves on, the Friar lets on that he has regrets about the marriage. The Friar feels that "too swift arrives as tardy as too slow." (II vi 15) In other words, the Friar means that he senses that this whole wedding is happening too fast and starts to have second thoughts. If the Friar had thought this important decision clearly through, he may have prevented many future tragedies. Therefore, the Friar knows all along that, "These violent delights have violent ends." (II vi 9) The Friar knew that this is an impossible situation, which if made possible by himself will without a doubt end up in tragedy in one way or another. Under these conditions, as the Friar predicts, Romeo sinks into a deep depression; as a result of the fact that he cannot see his wife. Similarly, Juliet becomes depressed and is grieving over the truth of her and Romeo's separation. Without the Friar the two lovers would not have been married, which would have prevented both depressions and future problems to come.
The Friar thought that this marriage will end an ancient grudge of two prominent families, when it will only separate them even more. Friar Laurence was helping Capulet and Lady Capulet mourn over Tybalt’s death. Paris says, "With these times of woe afford no time to woo!" . If everything was thought about clearly and not rushed through then none of this would have happened and Romeo and Juliet would not have died such a tragic death. Another example of the Friar lying is by not telling Montague and Lady Montague of Romeo and Juliet’s elopement. This only made matters worse, and now both Romeo and Juliet are dead. The Friar made this marriage a huge mistake, and he could have stopped the whole thing right there and then by just saying no.
Friar Laurence's immature actions make him part of the tragedy. For one, he married Romeo and Juliet. When told that Romeo loves Juliet, Friar replies, "Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here! /Is Rosaline, that thou didst love so dear, /so soon forsaken? Young men's love then lies/ not truly in the hearts, but in their eyes," (II, III, lines 66-69). In these lines, Friar admits that Romeo is only lusting for Juliet. Being the adult, Friar shouldn't have married Romeo until he found true love. However, the Friar was immature and married them anyways. Then, Friar came up with the idea for Juliet to fake death. Juliet is distressed about Romeo being banished so Friar comes up with the plan saying, "Hold, then. Go home, be merry, give consent/ to marry Paris. Wednesday is tomorrow,” Juliet is then suppose to "Take thou this vial, being then in bed/ And this distilling liquor drink thou off." After being buried and awakened, "Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua." (IV, I, Lines 90-119). This bad advise, to give a girl a drink like death and tells her to run away, is only one of many immature actions Friar takes. Finally, Friar did not stay with Juliet after she frantically woke up, in a tomb, next other diseased husband who was supposed to run away with her to Mantua. Inste...
If Romeo had not been banished, Romeo and Juliet would continue living a happy life together. Benvolio witnessed the entire fight, the authorities came, Lady Capulet wants Romeo dead which is completely blowing things out of proportion, and in the end, poor Romeo is banished even though he was defending himself and trying to get justice for his best friend’s heinous death. Lady Capulet states, “Benvolio is part of the Montague family. His loyalties to the Montagues make him tell lies. He’s not telling the truth. There were twenty Montagues fighting in this awful riot, and together those twenty could only kill one man. I demand justice. You, Prince, are the man who can give me justice. Romeo killed Tybalt. Romeo must die” (3.1.153). This proves that because of Tybalt’s actions, Romeo was punished, and unfairly banished from Verona. Only one can imagine what it must feel like to be banished from their love, from their family, from everyone. This fact led to their death. This was not the end of Tybalt’s wrong doings however. He had one more trick up his sleeve, even for being
executing and much more. But in this the prince is a fair ruler and does not intend to use his power to be a ghastly ruler. This is proved when he banished Romeo instead of executing him, after giving them an ultimatum ‘If ever you disturb our streets again, your lives shall pay. the forfeit of peace’. That basically explains if ever there is fighting between the Capulet’s and Montague’s will be executed.