Who Was Responsible For The Deaths Of Romeo And Juliet Research Paper

Assigning the Blame

A series of untimely and unfortunate events lead to the tragic deaths of two of the most famous star crossed lovers of all time. In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, two teens fall into a love that inevitably becomes their demise. Yet the question arises, who should be held responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet? There are countless people and events that lead to the deaths of the couple but the blame could be ultimately be placed on three people, Juliet, Romeo, and Friar Lawrence. The first person to take responsibility for Romeo’s and Juliet’s deaths is Juliet herself. The first night Romeo and Juliet met on the balcony Juliet brought up marriage which further rapidly pushes their relationship forward . If Juliet hadn’t suggested marriage maybe their relationship wouldn’t have had such fast drastic consequences. Juliet also went to the Friar and took the potion to put her into a death like state. This resulted in Romeo really thinking Juliet was dead which lead him to taking his own life. Lastly Juliet is responsible because she is the one who stabbed herself. When she awoke from her potion coma and found Romeo dead, she also made the decision to take her own life, making it at least somewhat her fault.

To begin Romeo murdered Tybalt as vengeance for Mercutio's death which got him banished. If Romeo hadn’t been banished there wouldn’t have been a need for Juliet to drink a potion to pretend she was dead. They could have just ran away but because he wasn’t in Verona there was no way for them to communicate. Romeo also made the decision to go the Capulet tomb to see Juliet and take his own life. If Romeo had gone to Friar Lawrence first instead of breaking into the tomb he would have realized the plan. Lastly, Romeo was 17 and Juliet was only 14, obviously much older than her. Romeo being older should have been somewhat more responsible and aware of how his actions would impact