How Both Romeo and Juliet Take Full Responsibility for their Deaths

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From the very prologue of Romeo and Juliet, we are informed by Shakespeare that these two “star-cross’d lovers” are going to “take their life”. For the rest of the play, we are left to observe how they kill themselves and who or what leads them into doing so. However, placing the blame on one person or event would be impossible, as nobody was directly responsible for their demise. Instead, everything that could possibly have gone wrong did go wrong. Although both Romeo and Juliet end up thinking it was their own decision to kill themselves, there were many other factors that unwittingly forced them into the situation they eventually found themselves.

One such factor was the County Paris, cousin of Prince Escalus. Through no fault of his own, he was one of the key reasons that Juliet died. If he hadn’t have been scheduled to marry Juliet then she would never have had to fake her own death, in turn leading to Romeo’s. The most ironic thing about the situation was that Paris’ love for Juliet led to her death. Paris was a noble gentlemen and it was sheerly bad circumstances that led him to be a key part in the death of the two lovers.

Mr Capulet could also be considered a key part in the death of his beloved daughter. He was the one who agreed to let Paris take her hand in marriage without first asking her. Later on, when Juliet expressed the fact that she didn’t want to marry Paris, he became incredibly angry with her and threatened to disown her if she didn’t obey his will, “For, by my soul, I'll ne'er acknowledge thee”.

This essentially forced her to either marry Paris, or find another way out of the situation, which eventually led to her death.

Paris wanted to marry Juliet, but Friar Lawrence both legally and ethically could n...

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...hey could not be together, “And with this knife I'll help it presently.”, and were constantly complaining to whoever knew about their secret whenever they could not be with each other. By overreacting so much they just made themselves feel more and more self-sympathy, which manifested in them dramatically taking their own lives so that they could eternally be with each other.

In conclusion, Romeo and Juliet do consider the killing of themselves as their own responsibility. What they don’t realise, however, is the huge amount of bad luck that narrowed their options as much as it did. They thought that taking their lives was the best option, but in reality it was the only option available to them. Whether it was bad timing, bad circumstances, bad personalities or simply bad luck, everything seemed to be against the two lovers, and this is what resulted in their deaths.

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