Dbq Essay Who Is To Blame In Romeo And Juliet

When people (especially children) commit suicide, people usually want an explanation. In Romeo and Juliet, two teenagers kill themselves in the name of love, and by the end of the play, Prince Escalus and the rest of the characters need sometime to blame. There are many people who could be blamed for their deaths including the Capulets’, the Montagues’, Friar Lawrence, and Fate. While both families and Fate had a part in the tragedy, Friar Lawrence is mostly to blame. Fate is part of the reason that Romeo and Juliet die. In the prologue it states that Romeo and Juliet are “star-cross’d,” meaning that they were doomed from the beginning. (DBQ Doc. A Two Households)Throughout the play, multiple characters blame Fate for various unfortunate events.

Both families, especially the Capulet’s, were very unsupportive of their children. Lord Capulet was going to go as far as disowning his own daughter because she did not want to marry Paris, a man twice her age.(DBQ Doc. D “Disobedient Wretch”) Also, the prologue states that both families have “fatal loins,” meaning that the feud between the two families will lead to their children’s deaths. Romeo and Juliet could not even tell their parents about their wedding or their love because they were afraid that they would disapprove and punish them, even though they were their own parents. The feud ultimately led to a number of untimely deaths and was partly to blame for the two teenager’s

When Romeo first comes to talk to Friar Lawrence about marrying Juliet, Friar Lawrence is hesitant to perform the ceremony. He thinks that Romeo is moving too quickly, and that Romeo should not get married to a person he has just met. Despite his doubts though, he marries Romeo and Juliet behind their parent’s backs in the hopes that a marriage between the two families will end the feud. Friar Lawrence does not take into account how this will affect Romeo and Juliet. He even predicts that “These violent delights have violent ends,” meaning that he thinks that their love will end badly because it began so quickly.(DBQ Doc. C “I’ll Thy Assistant Be”) When Friar Lawrence tries to fix his mistake by helping Juliet when she refuses to marry Paris, he hurts Romeo and Juliet even more by giving Juliet the sleeping potion. He may be trying to help Juliet, but he is also trying to prevent someone else from finding out that he married Romeo and Juliet. Friar Lawrence is the most at fault for the events leading up to and the deaths of Romeo and