Who Was To Blame For The Deaths Of Romeo And Juliet Essay

TThe play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare tells a tale of two young lovers who fell in love instantly, but were doomed for failure. Their two families had a lifelong feud that seemed to just bring the two closer and closer. Throughout the whole story more and more problems popped up for the Romeo and Juliet, but rather than accept that they were not meant for each other, they tried to solve the problems and kept their love. Sadly, in the end, Romeo and Juliet killed themselves while taking other lives on the way. This is a very tragic situation and someone or something is to blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Some people may believe that Romeo is to blame for all his violence, but there is more evidence to blame the feud between

the Montague’s and the Capulet’s. The feud is to blame for this tragedy because they would not have to do anything secretly, Tybalt would not have died, and there would not have been all this violence in Verona.
In this play, the family feud is responsible for the deaths of both Romeo and Juliet.

Had the two families not have so much hate for each other, Romeo and Juliet would not have had to hide their affection for each other. Also, since Romeo cannot speak to Lord Capulet about marriage with Juliet, he has Friar Lawrence secretly wed them instead. Also, Friar Lawrence would not have had to create such an elaborate plan to help the two lovers escape. In a critical essay on the play, it states that “...the plot of Romeo and Juliet is actually only one episode of a long feud” (Kerschen 1). This quote proves how the feud is much more than just this story of Romeo and Juliet, it is a lifelong hatred between the Montague’s and Capulet’s, and this is the reason why the two teens had to do everything in

secret.
Furthermore, when Tybalt, notices Romeo’s presence at the Capulet party, his hatred causes him to later on get into a fight with one of Romeo’s good friend. Mercutio is fatally wounded during the sword battle with Tybalt. Without this hatred between the two families, Romeo and Mercutio would not conflict with Tybalt, and neither would be placed in danger. Soon after Mercutio was killed Romeo and Tybalt pulled out their swords and fought to the death, resulting in the banishment of Romeo. This was said by Romeo shortly after Mercutio’s death and before they battled “This day's black fate on more days doth depend; this but begins the woe, others must end” (Shakespeare). This banishment has caused him to remain ignorant of Juliet's supposed death. If he was not banished, Juliet would not have been forced to marry Paris which led to the plan to fake her death. If this never happened, Romeo and Juliet would still be alive.
Lastly, the feud is the reason behind their deaths because of all the violence in Verona.

Even after the Prince declares anyone who fights between the two families will be killed, they still continued to cause trouble. Tybalt is known to be violent and aggressive, as shown all the way back from scene one. He has wanted to fight everyone and anyone from the Montague family. At the party, after overhearing Romeo, Tybalt says, “This, by his voice, should be a Montague. — Fetch me my rapier, boy” (Shakespeare). Also the feud as resulted in Paris’ death. Paris was doing everything he could to marry Juliet and he was ecstatic to hear, he finally could marry Juliet. This was until he found out she “died” unexpectingly. Later that day Paris went to rest flowers as respect at Juliet’s grave, until he met Romeo there. Paris fought Romeo thinking he was there to ruin and disrespect Juliet’s grave, sadly the caring Paris was

killed.
Some people may try to blame Romeo for the tragedy because he killed Tybalt. This is not a valid reason because Tybalt was already out to kill Romeo. So for Romeo it was kill or be killed. Second, Tybalt’s reckless behavior and hatred toward Montague’s could have resulted in him killing more of Romeo’s friends and family. The bottom line, if the feud did not exist, the hatred would not exist, and Romeo and Tybalt would never have a conflict.
The feud is to blame for this tragedy because they would not have to do anything secretly, Tybalt would not have died, and there would not have been all this violence in Verona. If the feud did not exist, Romeo and Juliet then would be able to everything in the open, rather than hiding it from everyone. Again, the feud was the reason behind Tybalt’s death. Also, he would still be living if it was not for the hatred the families had. Lastly, Verona would have been a much better town without the feud and all the violence that was dragged along with it. The death of these two lovers, Romeo and Juliet, is a tragic event in these two families’ lives. However, it can also be looked at as a building block toward happiness and peace within the two households since the feud is now over.