4. Who is responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet? Be sure to use the text to prove your point. Romeo and Juliet is a story of great tragedy, two young people, falling deeply in love, and at the end, not even spending a week together, but maybe in their own minds their love felt longer, like they loved a lifetime’s worth. They both tragically died, Romeo drinks poison because he thought Juliet had passed, and Juliet sheaths a dagger into herself when she saw Romeo had died. Could this tragedy have been avoided? Yes I feel like there are 3 people to blame for their deaths.
Capulet, for trying to force Juliet to not do something, Romeo, because if he never killed Tybalt he never would have been banished sending Juliet into a depression, and the friar for getting too involved with their lives. Capulet, the Lord of the Capulet family, father of Juliet, could be to blame for the death of Romeo and Juliet. At the very beginning of the story in act 1, Paris confronts Capulet and asks for Juliet’s hand in marriage, When Paris says (1,2,12) Younger than she are happy mothers, this is obviously Paris saying that she is at the right age to marry him, as people younger than her are mothers.
At this point Capulet is still a little concerned, but he says Paris can go ahead and try to win her over, if she says yes, then he will give them his blessing. He then invites Paris to a feast that he invites his closest friends to. Though I think Capulet only invited him so he would lose interest in his daughter because he tells Paris that at the party there many beautiful women there, much better than his daughter. Capulet could have stopped all this, if he just denied Paris’s offer, and just told him to wait he would not change his mind.
Instead, he opens the door for Paris to obsess over his daughter. This event could be what caused the death of Romeo and Juliet. When Tybalt is killed by Romeo, Juliet falls into a deep depression, not because Tybalt died, but because Romeo had been banished from Verona forever. Capulet sees that his daughter is grieving and thinks the only way to cheer her up would be to get her married. He tells her that she will marry the noble Paris, he probably chose Paris because that was the only man who had shown interest in his young daughter.
Juliet quickly has to think of a plan, because she doesn’t want to be called the wife of Paris, but the wife of Romeo. The wedding was scheduled very soon, she asked the Friar for the potion as a last resort. This is how Capulet is to blame for their deaths, but we also need to look at a couple different characters. Romeo, yes Romeo, the man who wanted to spend the rest of his life with Juliet, could be to blame for their untimely death. He made one huge mistake interfering in the fake fight Mercutio and Tybalt were having.
While Mercutio and Tybalt were putting on a little show, Romeo showed up right after he had married Juliet, Mercutio was testing Tybalt, and just wanted to have a little fight, so to take this to the next level, when Romeo enters Tybalt says(III,1,61-62) “Romeo the love I bear thee can afford, no better term than this: thou art a villain” he insults Romeo, just to make him a bit upset, but Romeo just married Juliet, Tybalt’s cousin, so Romeo attempts to not overreact, he tells Tybalt that he has a reason to love him now, so he put aside their differences.
Tybalt isn’t having any of it, and wants to duel, but Romeo fights him with words, not swords. This angers Mercutio that Romeo is surrendering, so he challenges Mercutio to a duel. Romeo quickly tries to disperse the fight, he tells them to put their swords away as fighting in the streets of Verona was made illegal. At this point Romeo is standing between them, when Tybalt accidentally stabs Mercutio, seeing what he has done Tybalt runs away. Mercutio then knows his time is coming, and uses his last couple of breaths to curse both Romeo and Tybalt, then he dies from his wound.
Tybalt comes back, probably because he was feeling guilty, when Romeo sees him, he says(III,1,124-131)”Alive in triumph—and Mercutio slain! Away to heaven, respective lenity, And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now. Now, Tybalt, take the “villain” back again That late thou gavest me, for Mercutio’s soul Is but a little way above our heads, Staying for thine to keep him company. Either thou or I, or both, must go with him” At this point Romeo stops trying to keep peace, and says rage will control his actions, and either him, Tybalt, or both will join Mercutio to heaven.
They fight and Tybalt is slain, this is when Romeo sets into motion both of their deaths. Romeo ran away from the crime scene, when the prince enters, he banishes Romeo to Mantua. The nurse tells Juliet Tybalt was slain at the hands of Romeo, she falls into deep grief, because she probably knew the penalty for murder was banishment, she begins weeping uncontrollably, because in her mind Romeo was basically dead. Then her grief leads Capulet to thinking she needs a husband, she is forced to marry Paris, even though her heart belongs to Romeo.
This is when she asks the Friar to help her, and he offers a potion that makes her look dead, she would be carried to the Capulet grave, and then Romeo would come get her. Unfortunately only one of those happened, her going into the Capulet grave, Romeo did come to save her, but didn’t know she had drank the potion and assumed she was dead. With all this grief, Romeo drinks poison, right before Juliet wakes up, then Juliet sees dead Romeo, and can’t bear to live without him so she stabs herself.
If Romeo kept calm, didn’t attack Tybalt and kill him, Juliet wouldn’t have to worry about Juliet being forced to marry Paris, and they could’ve avoided their untimely deaths. The Friar Laurence, the Holy man, who helps people with their problems, may be the one to blame. The Friar is like the local Pastor, he serves the church and offers people advice if they need it. When Romeo came to him asking what to do as he had fallen in love with Juliet, he scolds him for losing his love in Rosaline, because Romeo shed many tears for her.
This is one instance when the Friar could have stopped their deaths, if he just told him he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and said you can’t love someone you barely met. After this Romeo asks him to stop scolding him, as the Friar also scolded him for loving Rosaline, but then the Friar says he scolded him for obsessing over her, not loving her. Then Romeo explains that Juliet loves him back, when Rosaline never did. Friar then seizes his opportunity to help them, he wanted to secretly marry them without anyone knowing.
He felt it could help fix the families feud, but I think this was a horrible mistake, even if they didn’t end it all the way the story goes, if the parents found out, then they would probably separate them, and then they would just end it all again. If the Friar just tried convincing the parents into letting them marry, then this could have been avoided. If they just went about this the normal way, and Friar didn’t try tricking everyone, then he could have avoided their deaths. In conclusion, they way the story ended was satisfying, as they died with love in their hearts, and could say they loved each other until the point of death.
Of course it could have been avoided. Capulet could have just tried letting his daughter be and not take control of her life, Romeo just needs to control his emotions because if he never lashed out in anger, he never would have been banished, and so on, and if the Friar just went about their love in a good and honest way, then they might of gotten married without any conflict. These are the people I feel responsible for their deaths. Shakespeare doesn’t idealize Romeo and Juliet. He is careful to remind us that their love is destructive partly because it fails to see life as it really is.
Romeo and Juliet do not act with caution, patience, or wisdom. They act on impulse and in haste–and they get bad advice. Answer the following questions for this argument: a. What should Romeo and Juliet have done, instead of what they actually did, at three or more points in the play? b. Could Romeo and Juliet have triumphed–if they’d had good advice? c. Would Mercutio have helped them had he lived? Romeo and Juliet had many opportunities to fix their love, and talk about it openly.
The first instance of when they should have done something else, is when Romeo lashed out in anger towards Tybalt, if Romeo didn’t fight him, then he never would have never been banished, which would stop Juliet from being depressed, and so on. Or if Juliet didn’t just think on impulse when she heard the Friar’s plan, if she asked if there was another way to go about this, then that could have saved them. Finally when Romeo goes to the Capulet tomb, he should have met up with the Friar, and then the Friar would have explained everything, preventing their death. Romeo and Juliet definitely could have triumphed if they had better advice.
Specifically if the Friar gave them better advice, the bad advice he gave was to be married in secret, if they didn’t do this and just asked their parents if they could marry each other with the Friar supporting them, then it would prevent their deaths, and would greatly fix the families feud. I feel like if Mercutio was alive, that he wouldn’t have helped them. Mercutio appears to be a hothead throughout the play, and appears to really hate the Capulets, if Mercutio found out Romeo loved Juliet, then he would probably be mad at him, and eventually try attacking him.