The Domino Effect

In the course of four days, a mass of tragic events causes two star-struck lovers to turn from complete strangers to husband and wife to dead. This is a stunning, brief summary of the tragedy Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Throughout this play, a number of occurrences cause a seemingly unbreakable love to be separated by banishment, a sentence worse than death according to Romeo. Eventually, just as everything comes to an end, so do the lives of Romeo and poor Juliet. The main people who can be held responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet are Lord Capulet, Friar Laurence, and Romeo.

To begin, One person in this play who is responsible for Romeo and Juliet’s deaths is Lord Capulet. One major thing he did that completely screwed up their chances was he set up the marriage of Juliet and Paris without Juliet’s consent. Had he had thought of what she had wanted, perhaps she and Romeo might have been able to marry without having to worry of the trouble that would brew from it. Lord Capulet also moved up the date of the marriage, which threw off Romeo, making her ‘death’ and the marriage even sooner than was planner and making it impossible for Romeo to remove Juliet from the tomb before she wakes up from her 42 hour coma. In the play Capulet says:”Mistress minion of you/ Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds/ but fettle your finejoints against Thursday next/ To go with Paris to Saint Peter Church/ Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.”( III.v. 170-174). This quote shows Lord Capulet’s opposition to Juliet’s desire and how inability to comprehend the wants of another rather than the wishes of one’s self.

To continue, a second character in this play that is responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet ...

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...his quote shows what occurs when he finds Juliet when she awakes in the tomb. All this and more would have never happened had he thought through all possible options when given the choice to marry them.

In conclusion, throughout the play of Romeo and Juliet, a tragic chain of events caused by three unlikely people ends the lives of the two main characters, Romeo and Juliet. Though Friar Laurence though only for the greater good, he could have simply refused to marry Romeo and Juliet in private tell the two that it would be a more intelligent idea to do so in public, instead. Had Lord Capulet thought for what his daughter wanted, she might have actually been willing to marry in public rather than without a formal wedding. And had Romeo had thought more rationally rather than upon impulse, perhaps he and Juliet might have survived through all those tragic events.