is written by William Shakespeare. It is a story about two lovers called Romeo and Juliet; whose lives end in a tragedy. There are many reasons why the tragedy occurred. The feud between the Capulet’s and the Montague’s is largely responsible for the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. However, there are a number of factors or characters that may be considered to be responsible. Some characters unintentionally influenced the course of the tragedy by not thinking rationally and having only good intentions.
However, other factors and characters are responsible for the tragedy by acting out of vengeance and hatred. The feud between the two households, Montague and Capulet, underlies the entire tragedy and is the most responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. The feud was the setting of the tragedy. Without it, Romeo and Juliet would never have had to keep their marriage and love a secret. The story expresses this through part of the opening chorus, “The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love, and the continuous of their parents’ rage, which, but their children’s end, no ugh could remove,” The feud aggravated the characters to express anger towards their enemies, which resulted in fights that ended fatally. When Tybalt saw Romeo at the Capulet’s party, he immediately wanted to kill him, and he didn’t stop to think that Romeo wasn’t doing anything wrong.
When Tybalt confronted Romeo and Romeo talked of peace, Tybalt couldn’t accept peace. In his mind Romeo was a Montague and a Montague is an enemy. If the feud had not existed, then Tybalt would have had no reason to approach Romeo to kill him hence, starting a chain of events which ended in the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. The distant relationship between Juliet and her parents was partly responsible for the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Juliet’s father never took to the time to understand his daughter and he presumed that she’d always be obedient and respect whatever he had to say.
When Juliet did not accept her father’s plans to marry Paris, he became furious and said, “Hang thee, young baggage! Disobedient wretch! I tell thee what, get thee to church o’Thusday, or never after look me in the face.” This resulted in Juliet having to take desperate measures to avoid marrying Paris. If Juliet’s parents had listened and tried to understand their daughter, they would ” ve realised she was in love with Romeo. When the Capulet family found out about Tybalt’s death, they were totally unaware that Juliet was not grieving over Tybalt, but she was grieving over her husband’s banishment. The parent’s unawareness of their daughter’s feelings and actions resulted in Juliet’s secret marriage and risky plans to escape from marrying Paris. They never knew that Romeo was Juliet’s husband and they never knew he came to her house the night of Tybalt’s death. Juliet could not tell her parents of her marriage because Romeo was a Montague, which illustrates why the feud was the most responsible for the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.
Friar Lawrence’s good intentions to make peace, and to use love to conquer hate is partly responsible for the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. When Friar agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet and says, “For this alliance may so happy prove, To turn you households’ rancor to pure love,” His plans go drastically wrong. The secret marriage doesn’t help the feud, but only results in the Friar having to make some risky decisions about the fate of Romeo and Juliet. His plan for Juliet to take the poison and the letters to be sent to Romeo ends up being fatal. If the Friar had not shown Juliet the poison then Romeo would never had come back to Verona to kill himself. Friar Lawrence’s good intention to make peace by using love to conquer hate also illustrates that the feud was the most responsible for the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.
If the feud had not existed then there would ” ve been no need for Friar to marry Romeo and Juliet in secret and to bring peace to the two households. There are other characters who can be seen to have contributed to the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, but their role is largely one of fate or chance, because they are not as involved in the lives of Romeo and Juliet as some of the other characters. Tybalt can be partly blamed for the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet because when Tybalt killed Mercutio, it resulted in Romeo’s banishment. It was only by chance that Tybalt killed Mercutio. It was never planned. The murder of Mercutio also illustrates that the feud is the most responsible for the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet because if the feud did not exist then Mercutio would never have had to defend Romeo and die.
The nurse too can be seen to be responsible in some part of the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by providing Juliet with assistance in marrying Romeo, which placed Juliet’s fate in danger. Clearly while the feud underlies the tragedy and many characters contribute in some way, Romeo and Juliet were also masters of their own destiny. When Juliet says, “Be not so long to speak; I long to die, If what thou speak ” st speak not of remedy,” to Friar Lawrence, she was not thinking rationally, which was partly responsible for the death of Romeo and Juliet. Her plea for help to Friar Lawrence resulted in the risky plan with the poison. If Juliet had calmly thought things through, the tragedy would never had occurred. When Balthasar informs Romeo that Juliet is dead, Romeo says, “Is it e’em so? Then I defy you stars! Thou know ” st my lodging: get me ink and paper, and hire port-horses.
I will he nse to-night,” he does not bother to see the priest or find out more information about Juliet’s death. If Romeo had gone to the priest, he would ” ve found out that Juliet wasn’t dead and they would never had killed themselves. There were many characters that were partly responsible for the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Some characters had good intentions to make life easier and more peaceful, but other characters were out to seek a war. However the actions of all the characters were based around the feud between the Capulet’s and the Montague’s, which is why the feud is the most responsible for the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.