The Blame for Romeo and Juliet's Death

The Blame for Romeo and Juliet's Death

The story of Romeo and Juliet originally came from a myth around the

old town of Verona, later on in history Shakespeare took this idea of

'two star-crossed lovers' and made it into the 'Romeo and Juliet' we

know today. In Elizabethan Verona the story begins with two families,

the Capulets, and the Montagues. The families have been feuding for

many years, much to the dismay of the Prince of the town. The Capulet

family has only one child, Juliet. The rest of the Capulet family

consists of Old Capulet – Juliet’s father, Lady Capulet – Juliet’s

mother, Tybalt – Juliet’s cousin and Juliet's Nurse. The Montague

family also has only one child, Romeo. The family also has Old

Montague and Lady Montague, Romeo’s parents. Here already we can see

a comparison between the two families; both only have one child,

making the final tragic loss far worse. Other characters in the play

are Benvolio and Mercutio – Romeo’s friends Escalus –Prince of Verona,

Paris – Juliet’s husband to be, and Friar Lawrence – A Friar of the

Order St.Francis.

Throughout the play we hear many mentions of fate and chance usually

referring to the stars, and hinting towards the outcome, from the very

beginning during the prologue it says,

‘A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life’.

Both Romeo and Juliet speak of the role of fate and chance, it plays a

major role in the occurrences. Shakespeare wrote the play around fate

and chance with many ‘cross-roads of fate’ where the slightest of

actions may have altered the final result. An example of such a choice

is when Old Capulet decides to ignore the fact that Romeo had entere...

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...ll times. The Nurse was

an old lady who had seen much of her life and before she got to old

she wanted to see true love one more time, she wanted a love story to

dote on. And finally the Friar, a man of good intentions but lacking

when it comes to future thought he had the right idea but applied it

incorrectly, resulting in the deaths of the pair. In conclusion, the

fateful meeting of the two lovers, the undelivered message from the

friar, the innocence of the two young people could be blamed for their

deaths, but I believe that the main culprits were the people around

them, the prince for not stopping the feuding sooner, the parents of

Juliet for being overly dominant about their child, the nurse for

acting the mediator and lastly Friar Lawrence for marring the couple

under the belief that it would unite the families.