Why Do Romeo And Juliet Blame Their Parents

In the play, "Romeo and Juliet," written by William Shakespeare, the two protagonists both lose their lives towards the conclusion of the play. Ironically, since their deaths ended their parents' strife that prevented them from openly loving each other, it created a world that would have allowed them to hold great amounts of affection towards one another because they would no longer need to hide it as it would have now been allowed. Although, since Romeo and Juliet are already dead, they cannot live in this world that they have created. This tragedy is the fault of their own parents. Although, some may blame Tybalt or Friar Lawrence for Romeo's and Juliet's death, I claim that the characters most at fault are the parents because they are the

ones who continued the strife that forbid Romeo and Juliet from loving each other, which later on lead to broken trust, misunderstandings, the making of rash decisions, and ultimately all leading to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.
The major evidence pointing towards the idea that Romeo's and Juliet's deaths were at the fault of their parents, was in act 3, scene 5. In this act, Romeo visited Juliet at her balcony one last time before he departed from Verona because of his exile. His departure caused Juliet great anguish as she started to cry. When Lady Capulet saw Juliet in this state, she believed that Juliet was behaving in this manner because she was grieving for Tybalt, who had recently lost his life. This is one of the first instances in which misunderstandings begin to form as Lady Capulet mistakenly associates Juliet's grief with Tybalt and not Romeo. To further worsen the situation, Lady Capulet tells Juliet of her desire to see the "villain Romeo"(pg.32) dead and in response, Juliet leads her mother to believe she also wishes Romeo's death as she does not want her mother to find out that she is in fact in love with Romeo. This also lead to another misunderstanding as Lady Capulet now believed that Juliet hated Romeo when Juliet in fact loved him very much and was even married to him. These misunderstandings caused misconceptions between the characters, further complicating their relationships and the situation at hand. Thus beginning to form the bases in which Romeo and Juliet lose their lives.
The lack of trust created between the two protagonists and their parents is also caused because of the strife between the two families.

Due to this, the two never tell their parents that they were indeed married to each other. That is why in act 3 scene 5, Lady Capulet tells Juliet about her and Lord Capulet's plan to get Juliet to marry Paris on Thursday as it will distract her from Tybalt's death, which Juliet's parent believe is the cause of her constant grief, and thus presume that the marriage will make her happy. Unknowingly, because of the lack of trust present, Juliet's parents put her in a situation where she has to marry another man while she is already married to Romeo. In this situation, Juliet turns to one of the only people she can really rely on, the nurse. She asks the nurse for advice on what to do as she knows that the nurse is one of the few people that were informed that she was married to Romeo already. The nurse then tells Juliet that she should marry Paris as Romeo is not coming back and was less superior to Paris anyways. This moment shattered all the trust Juliet had with the nurse. This lack of trust with both her parents and the nurse causes Juliet to make rash decisions that ultimately lead to Romeo's and Juliet's

death.
The rash decisions Juliet makes after the events that happened between her and the nurse and her parents, as mentioned before, creates the foundation for the soon to be deaths of both her and Romeo.

Juliet rejects marrying Paris, recklessly saying in act 3 scene 5, "I will not marry yet; and when I do, I swear...it shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate, rather than Paris." By stating this, he father becomes enraged and threatens to disown Juliet if she does not go through with the marriage. This thus causes Juliet to lie to the nurse that she will be meeting Friar Lawrence to make a confession. As Juliet hurries to the friar, she impulsively vows that she will never again trust the Nurse's counsel. Then she also goes on to make the hastily decision that if the friar is unable to help her, then Juliet herself, will take her own life. This leads Friar Lawrence to devise a rather risky plan in act 4, scene 1. He wants Juliet to take a potion that would make her look lifeless. He will then send a letter to Romeo to come get Juliet when she wakes up two days later in the family tomb and will then escape to Mantua together. Even though Juliet shows her concerns about this plan when she mutters to herself in act 4, scene 3 ," what if it be a poison [or what if] I wake before the time that Romeo come to redeem me," she still plans to go through with this scheme as she will do anything to not marry Paris and stay with Romeo. All of this, was caused from the argument she had with her

parents and the nurse, over the marriage to Paris. It was also due to the strife between Juliet's parents and Romeo's parents, as it does not let them realize or even consider the truth, that Juliet loves Romeo and is already married to him and cannot thus marry another.
In conclusion, the deaths of both Romeo and Juliet where the fault of their parents. Their parents' strife blinded them from the truth. Thus causing the two protagonists to not trust their parents, and for that reason, they never told them of their marriage. This caused many misunderstandings, broken trust, and the making of rash decisions. All of which were caused by the parents own actions and attitudes towards their children. If the strife had never even existed, then there would be no need for Romeo and Juliet to hide their love and make dangerous plans with high consequence, which is why I believe that their deaths were at most the fault of their own parents than any other character in the play.