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Responsibility In Romeo And Juliet

Decent Essays

The word responsibility connotes a feeling of having to do a task but in reality “responsibility to yourself means refusing to let others do your thinking, talking, and naming for you; it means learning to respect and use your own brains and instincts; hence, grappling with hard work” (Rich, 18). In Romeo and Juliet, two lovers tragically die after many miscommunications occur. Both act hastily so they can be with each other, but two factors claim responsibility for their early demises. In Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, while Juliet is under the pressure of external, Romeo is personally responsible for his death.
Romeo is personally at fault for his death for his early end. Many people are willing to excuse his behavior because “the …show more content…

Some say that Juliet is personally to blame because she is “partly honest, not telling parents the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth all of the time” (9-10). These people don’t realize that she can’t tell them everything because of the rivalry between the Montagues and the Capulets. When she falls in love with Romeo and wishes to marry him, she knows that because of the rivalry her parents won’t let her. Therefore she does it in secret, without her parents approval because to Juliet “bondage is hoarse, and I may not speak aloud” (Shakespeare 2.2.163). Later in the story when the Prince banishes Romeo for killing Tybalt, Juliet’s father decides to enforce the gender roles of Verona in the 1400s and threatens her that if she marries Paris “I’ll give you to my friend. / An you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets, / For, by my soul, I’ll never acknowledge thee, / Nor what is mine shall never do thee good” (Shakespeare 3.5.192-195). Despite how she feels, Juliet’s father forces her to be with a man she doesn’t love and when she refuses, her entire family betrays her. Juliet feels like she’s in a trap and because of that, she makes poor decisions. The rivalry makes it impossible for her to confess her love for Romeo and her family refuses to listen to her opinion. If these pressures didn’t weigh on her, Juliet wouldn’t have to make the decisions that she does and ultimately would

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