It is known that in Shakespeare’s tragedies main characters die in the end, and in his comedies people marry. Since Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy, Romeo and Juliet are going to die in the end. Some events have to lead to their deaths, and someone makes these events happen. The person(s) who started it all and did something that led to all the other events that caused the death of “a pair of star-crossed lovers” (Prologue, 6). The Capulets and Montagues would be most responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet because if their ancestors didn’t start the fighting, and they didn’t continue it, nothing terrible would have happened.
The first lines of the book tell us about the hate and envy between the two houses. Choir: “Two households, both alike in dignity,/. . . /From ancient grudge to new mutiny,” (Prologue, 1-3). The choir tells us that the whole conflict started a long time ago with really little things, and then grew into huge fights involving many people. No leader of either household ever though about making peace, they were all too busy to spoil everything for the rival family. Only after the death of their children they realized how wrong they were.
Their hate reminds me of Holocaust, when Nazis hated and killed Jews for no particular reason at all, only because they were of a different religion. That kind of hate just makes me mad. ) Romeo and Juliet first meet each other at a party at the Capulets’ house. They fall in love with each other at the first sight without knowing that they are from rival houses, and when they do learn about it, it is too late.
Juliet says: “My only love, sprung from my only hate! /Too early seen unknown, and known too late! I, v, 147-148). Juliet realizes that it was a mistake to fall in love with Romeo, because he is one of the people she should watch out for. He is her first and only love, but he is an enemy of her family. Luckily for Romeo, Juliet is smart, and such dumb thing as unreasonable hate between their parents wouldn’t stop her from loving Romeo and getting married with him. She is sorry that their families are enemies, though, because everything would be much easier if they weren’t.
So this is the first time when the hate between Capulets and Montagues becomes an obstacle to Romeo and Juliet’s happiness. Only after their children die, do the Montague and Capulet come to their senses. The Prince accuses them of killing Romeo and Juliet: “. . . Capulet, Montague,/See what a scourge is laid upon your hate,/That heavens finds means to kill your joys with love! ” (V, iii, 304-306). The Prince makes them see how wrong they were all the time, that all because of their hate, because they couldn’t let their children love each other, Romeo and Juliet died.
After that, Capulet and Montague make peace, and Montague even says that he will make a gold statue of Juliet, but what is that going to do, it is too late, nothing will bring their children back. It is totally Capulets’ and Montagues’ fault that Romeo and Juliet died. If they didn’t hate each other so much, they would let their children marry, and they would be able to live happily ever after. There was only one person that realized how unreasonable the fighting was and even tried to stop it, and he was Benvolio. Benvolio was a Montague, but the Capulets didn’t have a peacemaker such as Benvolio.
They only had Tybalt, whose only goal was to destroy all the Montagues. Also we don’t really know how Romeo and Juliet’s parents would have reacted if they had known that their children love each other. Romeo and Juliet didn’t even try to tell them about love between them because they were afraid that their parents wouldn’t understand them, but maybe they would. The problem is, we don’t know, because Capulet and Montague learned about their children’s love when they were already dead. It is still mostly Capulets’ and Montagues’ fault that Romeo and Juliet died, but maybe it was just their fate to die.