Romeo And Juliet Who's To Blame Essay

“A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life” (Prologue, 7). This sentence foreshadows the suicide of Romeo and Juliet in William Shakespeare’s, Romeo and Juliet. In this tragedy, Romeo and Juliet express their love to each other by killing themselves. Many people struggle with who is to blame for the deaths of the star-cross’d lovers and many argue who is the real victim. Romeo and Juliet are not victims, they are the ones to be blamed because they are impulsive, irrational and ignorant decision makers.

Both Romeo and Juliet make very important decisions by acting entirely on their impulsives. The two lovers meet at a party and instantly fall in love, within twenty-four hours, they are married. “‘By holy marriage. When and where and how

. We met, we wooed and made exchange of vow, I’ll tell thee as we pass, but this I pray: That thou consent to marry us today.’” (II, iii, 61-64). This proves how eager Romeo is to marry Juliet, he has to beseech the Friar to even consider performing the ceremony. “‘Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here! Is Rosaline, whom thou didst love so dear, So soon forsaken? Young men’s love then lies. Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.’” (II, iii, 65-68). In these lines, the Friar is realizing how fast Romeo and Juliet are moving. Within just a day, Romeo is in love with Rosaline, then fell out of love with her and then fell in love with Juliet, and now they wish to be married. This is just one out of the many examples throughout the tragedy that shows how impulsively the two lovers act.
Before getting married, people tend to talk about how it is going to be arranged. When it comes to Romeo and Juliet getting married, they do not even tell their parents. This secrecy plays a huge role in their failed marriage, since they are not allowed to be seen in public together. “‘O Romeo, Romeo. Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name. Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.’” (II, ii, 33-36). From the start of their relationship, they know that they can not be together, but choose to ignore the fact. In order to make a marriage work you have to make sacrifices. Unfortunately, Romeo and Juliet both took a bigger sacrifice in order to avoid the more logical one.
Of course, Romeo and Juliet are both so young when they fell in love, they most likely did not understand what was happening.

Many of the choices that Romeo and Juliet make are impulsive. Therefore, they do not think about the possible outcomes. From birth, Juliet has always been supported by her father, he makes all of her big decisions. It is understandable that Juliet wants to start making her own decisions, and her first decision on her own she would like to make it big. However, she does not have the same experiences that her father has when it comes to making the decisions. It is very possible that she does not quite understand the impact that these simple decisions will have on her life. “‘... chain me with roaring bears; Or shut me tightly in a charnel house, O’ercovered quite with dead men’s rattling bones, With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls; Or bid me go in to a new-made grave And hide me with a dead man in his shroud- Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble- And I will do it without fear or doubt, To live an unstained wife to my sweet love.’” (IV, i, 83-91). This quote proves that Juliet has ignorant decision making skills because she is pursuing what feels right to her at the moment. A wise decision maker would ponder every reaction to the problem and choose what would most likely have the best outcome. Juliet could have thought of a million other scenarios that could have turned out better than the one she

chose.