Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is composed of a plethora of characters with varying personalities. Romeo and Juliet is a tale of a boy and a girl from feuding families who fall in love with each other, and end up killing themselves. Shakespeare ends with “Some shall be pardoned, and some shall be punished” (Cite). Among the ones who deserve to be punished for their selfish actions are Friar Lawrence, the Nurse, and Lady Capulet. Through these characters’ malevolent actions came the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.
On the other hand, the two characters that deserve to be pardoned for doing everything in their power to keep Romeo and Juliet alive are Balthasar, and Friar John. Amongst the selfish characters was Friar Lawrence. He didn’t contemplate the consequences that might have been suffered if he married Romeo and Juliet without the consent of their parents. By making this serious mistake, it led to all the controversy between Romeo and the Capulets. For example, before Romeo killed Tybalt, the Capulets didn’t despise Romeo, Lord Capulet even defended Romeo to Tybalt by saying, “Is it young Romeo?
Content thee, gentle coz. Let him alone. He bears him like a portly gentleman, and, to say truth, Verona brags of him to be a virtuous and well-governed youth. I would not for the wealth of all the town here in my house do him disparagement. Therefore be patient. Take no note of him. It is my will, the which if thou respect, show a fair presence and put off these frowns, an ill-beseeming semblance for a feast” (Act one scene 5 page 3). Not only did Lord Capulet defend Romeo, but he even praised him.
This proves that the Capulets had no atred for Romeo before he killed Tybalt, despite the everlasting family feud that they were involved in. However, after Romeo killed Tybalt, Lady Capulet said outright, “I’ll send to one in Mantua, where that same banished runagate doth live, shall give him such an unaccustomed dram that he shall soon keep Tybalt company” (Shakespeare 194). Since Romeo was a Montague, she was quick to consider him guilty, and already wanted to kill him. However, if she had gotten to know him before, and saw what kind of person Romeo really was, she would have listened to Romeo’s side of the story instead of giving him instantaneous banishment.
After Romeo killed Tybalt, the Capulets sought him as a villain, and wanted to see him dead. This might have changed if Friar Lawrence discussed the plans Juliet had to marry Romeo with the Capulets. Additionally, Friar Lawrence made the mistake of not telling anyone else about the faking of Juliet’s death. Some will argue that he put it in the letter, and he needed to keep it a secret for the plan to work. However, he should have been aware that there was more than one life at stake, and in situations that dangerous, there needs to be a backup plan.
He should have made sure there were other ways to give Romeo the letter. Even if he did not have a backup plan, he should have at the very least told the messenger how important it was to get that message to Romeo before he delivered it, instead of informing him of its importance upon his return. Friar Lawrence risked lives when making his decision not to tell anyone that Juliet was still alive, and by not informing the messenger of the importance of the letter, and therefore, deserves to be punished. Another character that punishment would be fitting for is the
Nurse. She is constantly playing a hoax on Juliet and performing acts of deception. When Juliet was anticipating the arrival of the Nurse news on the fate of Romeo, the Nurse replied, “I am aweary. Give me leave awhile. Fie, how my bones ache! What a jaunt have I” (Shakespeare 126)! The nurse had the audacity to keep information about Juliet’s lover’s well-being away from Juliet! Additionally, she tricks Juliet into thinking Romeo is dead by saying, “I saw the wound. I saw it with my own eyes. God bless that wound, here on his manly chest.
A pitiful corpse, a bloody, pitiful corpse” (PAGE NUMBER ACT 3 SCENE 2). The Nurse deemed it acceptable, to again, lie to Juliet about her lover’s health. She wanted Juliet to be heartbroken about her lover being killed and the Nurse continues to show countless examples of her being ill-mannered. This proves that the Nurse didn’t truly care about what happened to Juliet, and that all she wanted was to humor herself with the mental pain of Juliet. Some may argue that the Nurse thought Juliet would be heartbroken over Tybalt regardless, therefore, what The Nurse told Juliet was permissible.
However, when Juliet asked her how Romeo was doing, the Nurse replied that he was killed. It is one thing to tell Juliet Tybalt was killed after the fact that Juliet knows that Romeo is well, but for the nurse to answer Juliet’s question about Romeo, using a reference to Tybalt’s state of being, is utterly ridiculous. To make matters even worse, when the Nurse thought she was helping Juliet by helping her with Romeo, it only ended up negatively affecting Juliet, and it even cost Juliet her life.
The Nurse could have easily prevented the relationship of Romeo of Juliet by advising Juliet to stay away from him. The longer she let her stay with him and not convince her Romeo wasn’t her soulmate, the more Juliet got attached to Romeo. At that point in time, Juliet mostly relied on the Nurse for her opinion, and the Nurse betrayed her. Even though she tried at the end to convince Juliet not to marry Romeo, at that point she was already attached, and it was far too late.
Additionally, Lady Capulet deserves to be punished because she tried forcing Juliet into marrying Paris. Lady Capulet couldn’t stop herself from constantly insisting that Paris was the right one for Juliet, and even said, “The valiant Paris seeks you for his love” (Page number). She keeps trying to show Juliet the best things about Paris in the hope that Juliet will change her mind. like calling Paris “valiant,” but that is not the right approach. Love cannot be forced onto someone for love is a feeling, just like happiness can’t be forced onto someone.
This proves that Lady Capulet kept making suggestions for Juliet to marry Paris, even though Juliet shows no interest in marrying Paris whatsoever. Some may say Paris and Juliet were “meant to be” because they were both from royal families, however, who decided that Juliet and Paris were soulmates? Juliet doesn’t take attraction to Paris anywhere, and who is to say Juliet doesn’t have a choice with who to spend the rest of her life with? If she was not persuaded, and was allowed to decide freely, she would not have felt the need to be daring and go for Romeo.
Since Juliet was pressured and forced by Lady Capulet, her curiosity got the better of her and she fell for Romeo. If she wasn’t pressured into marrying Paris, and Lady Capulet explained to her that everything was her choice but she would have preferred that she approves of her future husband, Juliet would’ve agreed to marry someone Lady Capulet would appreciate, and if Lady Capulet was a little more passively aggressive rather than being aggressive, Juliet would’ve seen the good in Paris and she would have still been alive.
Another character that deserves to be pardoned is Balthasar. Even though he was the one that falsely informed Romeo that Juliet had died, he was totally unaware that she was still alive. He didn’t do anything wrong because he honestly didn’t know that Juliet was dead. When Balthasar told Romeo the bad news, he was reluctant in doing so. Balthasar didn’t want to tell Romeo the news, but he felt he had to for it “was left for his office. ” (Act 5 scene 1)
This is a perfect depiction of the old saying “don’t kill the messenger. Balthasar clearly did not want to tell Romeo of the tragic news, but he felt obligated to because he was loyal to his occupation. Some may argue that Balthasar was mistaken in telling Romeo the truth, but Balthasar was just doing his job. In addition, how could Balthasar possibly have known that Romeo was going to commit suicide after hearing the news? Balthasar was given an order, executed the order, and reported back. Those were his instructions, and that is what he performed. Therefore, Balthasar did nothing wrong, and deserves to be pardoned.
Additionally, Friar John deserves to be pardoned. Friar John did not know what was contained in the letter Friar Lawrence had given him, or he would have made a better effort in delivering it to Romeo. When Friar John was telling Friar Lawrence he couldn’t deliver the message, he seemed calm because he thought it wasn’t a big deal, his words were “I could not send ithere it is again” (Get page) If Friar John knew what was contained he would’ve been a little more frantic and would have gone around the town to get Romeo the letter.
Since Friar Lawrence didn’t tell Friar John what was inside the letter, Friar John did not go to extremes to make sure the letter was delivered because he didn’t know that the letter contained crucial information. Some will argue that Friar John was given a job, and he had to execute it. However, Friar Lawrence was at fault for not having a backup plan. Additionally, in a normal situation involving a messenger, if the messenger gets held up at a town that is quarantined, no one can blame him for not delivering the message. Therefore, when Friar John thought that it was just a normal job, he took normal measures to get the job done.
If he had known that it was very important, he would’ve gone around the town or found another way to deliver the letter to Romeo, and for those reasons, Friar John deserves to be pardoned. In conclusion, a variety of characters affected the fate of Romeo and Juliet. Despite Balthasar and Friar John’s righteous actions in an attempt to preserve Romeo and Juliet’s lives, it was the malignant side consisting of Friar Lawrence, the Nurse, and Lady Capulet that ultimately prevailed in the end, which led to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.
