pardon or punish

The tragic play, Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, tells the story of two young people that fell in love. Shakespeare states that his play is about, “A pair of star-crossed lovers take their lives ;”(1.Prologue.6) The play took place in Verona, Italy, where two royal families, the Montagues and Capulets, go through a huge fight, which causes a tragic ending. William Shakespeare does a wonderful job taking the reader into the fight throughout the story. Romeo, a Montague, got invited to a ball in the Capulet’s household, and that’s where everything began. Romeo met the love of his life at the ball, but little did he know, he was giving up his life to be with her. Throughout the play, Romeo and Juliet go through a lot of issues together; which leads to them killing themselves, in hopes of staying together forever. Although the two killed themselves, they are not to blame for their deaths. In the play, Friar Lawrence and the Nurse should both be punished, and Romeo should be pardoned for his actions.

Romeo’s biggest reason for jumping into things in his relationship with Juliet too fast was all because of Friar Lawrence. The first step that put Romeo and Juliet on the wrong track was Friar marrying them without any kind of permission. Romeo asked him to marry them, and he said, “In one respect I’ll thy assistant be; for this alliance may so happy prove to turn your households’ rancor to pure love.” (2.3.90) Juliet is only thirteen years old, and should be not allowed to marry anyone in the first place, let alone doing it behind her parents back. Romeo soon got banished from Verona after the wedding, so Friar made yet another mistake, and planned how Juliet could run away with him. He gave Juliet a potion that was to fool eve...

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...love and affection for her. Romeo would never have killed himself and cause the death of Juliet if Friar Lawrence and the Nurse wouldn’t have pushed him into it.

Someone has to be to blame for the Romeo and Juliet’s death, and it should be Friar Lawrence and the Nurse’s fault. Friar’s actions are somewhat reasonable, which was ending the feud between the Capulets and Montagues, but he should have picked older, more mature people that were actually ready to get married. In the end, Friar found, “Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet; and she, there dead, that’s Romeo’s faithful wife.”(5.2.23) Even though both Romeo and Juliet committed suicide, it was not their fault. They were both pressured into doing something they weren’t ready to do, by the people they loved. Therefore, Friar Lawrence and the Nurse should be punished, and Romeo should be pardoned.