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The Three People Most Responsible For Romeo And Juliet's Deaths

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The Three People Most Responsible for Romeo and Juliet’s Deaths Romeo and Juliet is a play that was written by William Shakespeare between the years of 1594 and 1596. Shakespeare based the plot of the play off of a poem called The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet, which was written in 1592 by Arthur Brooke. Arthur Brooke based his poem off of a translated tale written by an Italian poet called Matteo Bandello (Britannica 2017). At the end of the play, Romeo commits suicide as he thinks that Juliet is dead. When Juliet finds out that Romeo has committed suicide, she also commits suicide. There were many people and events that led to Romeo and Juliet’s deaths. The three main contributing factors were the feud between the Capulets and …show more content…

Romeo was a Montague and Juliet was a Capulet and the families’ feud meant that the two could never be together. This is shown in this quote, “My only love sprung from my only hate! / Too early seen unknown, and known too late!’ (5.3.295-299). In this scene, Juliet complains about Romeo being a Montague. She wishes that he wasn’t so that they could freely be together. Also, both families and their servants would always pick fights on the streets of Verona. One of these fights would result in Romeo being banished from Verona. In a scene of the play, Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin decides to pick a fight with Romeo and his friend Mercutio in the middle of the street. Romeo tries to stop the fight because he is now related to Tybalt through his marriage to Juliet. This is shown in the following quote where Romeo tries to keep the peace, “Draw Benvolio, beat down their weapons. / Gentlemen, for shame! / ... / Forbid this bandying in Verona’s streets” (3.1.381-384), but no one listens to him and Tybalt ends up killing Mercutio. Romeo has no choice but to kill Tybalt for revenge which leads to the Prince banishing Romeo. Without the feud, Romeo and Juliet would not have had to keep their love a secret and, the fight that resulted in Romeo’s banishment would never have happened. This is why the feud between the Capulets and the Montagues is responsible for Romeo …show more content…

The Friar had good intentions when he married Romeo and Juliet, as shown in this quote, “For this alliance may so happy prove/ To turn your households’ rancour to pure love” (2.4.91-92). In this quote, Friar Lawrence explains his reasoning behind marrying Romeo and Juliet, he thought that by marrying the two, he could stop the feud. This did not work as no one told the rest of the families and the Capulets tried to marry Juliet to Paris. The Friar also failed to get the letter to Romeo that would have told him that Juliet wasn’t dead. If Romeo had received this letter, he would not have committed suicide in Juliet's grave when he returned to Verona. Also, if the Friar had gotten to Juliet’s grave any earlier, he could have saved both Romeo and Juliet. The following quote is from the final scene of the play, “Miscarried by my fault, let my old life / Be sacrificed, some hour before this time, / unto the rigour of the severest law” (5.3.271-274). In this scene, the Friar admits the part that he played in Romeo and Juliet’s deaths. He volunteers himself to be punished for this, but the rest of the families and the Prince don't want to punish him. Although he meant well, Friar Lawrence’s actions resulted in the deaths of Romeo and

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