Fate is to Blame for the Deaths of the Main Characters of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

2435 Words5 Pages

In this essay I am going to discuss who is responsible for the tragic ending of the play, by talking about how each character interacts with the one that dies and see if any of their actions could have resulted in the death of the main characters. During the essay I am going to eliminate characters that I think did not influence people enough to resort in the killings from my list below, whether it was Romeo, Juliet, Tybalt, Friar Lawrence, the Nurse, both the feuding families, Fate or other influential characters including the writer, Shakespeare himself. At the end I will draw a conclusion of who I think is most to blame for the deaths at the end of the play, although I do think each person added their own little bit to the cause, and explain why to answer the initial question that I was set.

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy about two feuding families and the children from each house that meet and fall madly in love but are forbidden to be together. Within the language Shakespeare uses a lot of technical terms that also describe the thoughts and feelings of the main people. For example oxymora is used a lot when Romeo is describing his love for Rosaline and Juliet, ?O brawling love, o loving hate? as the opposites show he is confused and resembles the two family?s conflicts. It also shows that love has pros and cons as does everything in life, which is an example of dramatic irony as Romeo doesn?t realise how true it?s going to be. This also helps us understand the dramatic effects of the language.

Fate is talked about a lot too, which adds to the dramatic features of the play, so as the story evolves everything the characters say can relate back to the prologue in some way when we find out what is going to happen in the end. The quote ?From forth the fatal loins of these two foes? shows that nothing good will happen as fatal means almost deathly and both the families children end up dying at the end. Also in the prologue ?The fearful passage of their death-marked love? means they are fated to die because they are in love through a course of unfortunate events. Also at the Capulets? party when Romeo and Juliet first kiss the rest of the play is almost set out for you.

Open Document