Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare

Rome and Juliet by Shakespeare is a tragic tale of two star-crossed

lovers whose lives come to a tragic end. In this assignment I intend

to explore the question, ‘Who is to blame for the deaths of Romeo and

Juliet?’ There are many characters that may have helped or hindered

the situation between them. The social context that is the backdrop to

the play and the parental expectations of each noble family will be

explored as this assignment develops.

The feud between the two households, Montague and Capulet, underlies

the entire tragedy and is the most responsible for the deaths of Romeo

and Juliet. The feud was the setting of the tragedy. Without it, Romeo

and Juliet would never have had to keep their marriage and love a

secret. The feud aggravated the characters to express anger towards

their enemies, which resulted in fights that ended fatally and these

fatal fights lead to the fatal deaths of Romeo and Juliet.

During the course of the play, Benvolio often emerges as the

peacemaker. We can see right from the start when he tries to stop a

brawl between the servants of two families in act 1 scene 1, “Part

fools. Put up thy swords, you know not what you do,” He fights only

when he is attacked, “I do but keep peace. Put up thy sword, or manage

it to part these men with me.” At the beginning of the play, due to

his nature, he persuades Romeo to gate crash the Capulet’s party to

take his mind off Rosaline. “Compare her face with some that I will

show. And I will make thee think thy swan a crow,” Is what he tells

Romeo. It is because of him that they met. Although he had good

intensions, it was the...

... middle of paper ...

...s no feud between

the families maybe they would never have met or hated each other or

have lived happily ever after. Maybe if the families we’re great

friends they would have been made to marry each other and killed

themselves because they didn’t want to marry.

I believe all our lives as individuals would be different if we came

from a different background, a different place to live or a wealthier

background.

I have also learnt that feuds should never be long lasting. One party

should have the maturity to attempt at making up and if that fails,

have the maturity to leave the situation and let it die out. There

should be no wrong in trying to make up whatever the reason was behind

the feud in the first place. This is why I believe in ‘forgive and

forget’ because in the end people will get hurt due to immaturity.