Comparing The Montagues And The Capulets

The Montagues and the Capulets feel remorseful in the end because they forgave each other after their children have died and I think they should be pardoned. They understood that holding grudges, to their extent, led to terrible outcomes and they surely feel terrible for having their children sacrifice their lives. Therefore, further punishing them would be pushing them over the edge. They would go crazy or commit suicide, anyways, you get my point. It would be too much for them, especially at their (advancing) ages.

Some people think that we should blame Friar Lawrence, but I think he’s the most miserable because all he wanted to do was to help placate the two feuding families by marrying Romeo and Juliet. Little did he know that the potion

plan will fail causing a misunderstanding, which lead Romeo to killing himself and subsequently Juliet killing herself because Romeo killed himself. If I was Friar Lawrence I would be traumatized and punishing him would be mean.

The people who mostly ’caused’ the conflicts (Tybalt and Mercutio) are dead and the one to pay for Tybalt’s death is also dead (Romeo) and not to mention Juliet who died just because Romeo died. If all these people have died already, is it really logical to kill more people who are supposedly responsible for Romeo and Juliet’s death? Of course one could argue that the Prince defined a point that there should be someone to blame for a person’s death, however he’s a more or less a spineless ruler so one shouldn’t be so critical about giving a little leniency.

The Prince isn’t a resolute leader because when he proclaimed the law that if a person kills someone, then he/she would be put to death. Romeo killed Tybalt and he was only sentenced with banishment. If he can be wishy-washy dealing with a death sentence, then we can assume he would be the same with punishment. Especially when he is put into a situation where all the suspects (Montague, Capulet, Friar Lawrence) are in emotional pain.