Examples Of Guilt In Romeo And Juliet

Who’s Guilty As Charged for Romeo’s Death?
The play Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, is the story of a very tragic love story. The play begins in Verona, Italy, where there was a long lasting feud between two families, the Montagues and the Capulets. This feud had been going on for ages, and was beginning to cause a plethora of issues. Romeo, the only child of the Montague family, fell in love with Juliet, the only child of the Capulet family. They secretly married, with the help of Friar Lawrence. Throughout a course of actions, including the faux death of Juliet, both Romeo and Juliet took their own lives. When Friar Lawrence informed everyone of what had happened, the two families decided to terminate the feud, being their

The fact that Friar Lawrence was a man of religious order, meant that he needed to follow the rules on marrying individuals. He was expected to have consent from the parents of Romeo and Juliet, and also for it to be a public marriage. Considering this, marrying Romeo and Juliet was wrong for the reasons previously mentioned. Also, Romeo and Juliet were young to be getting married. Not to mention, they had only known each other for less than twenty-four hours. He married them, saying, “For this alliance may so happy prove, to turn your households’ rancor to pure love,” (Act 2, Scene 3, Lines 91-92). As a final point, the first thing Friar Lawrence did to gain responsibility for Romeo’s death, was to help Romeo marry Juliet, hoping to end the

In other words, he illegally helped Romeo, being the fact that he was banished, and sent him to Juliet. Sending him to Juliet, where he could be found by any Capulet and be killed on the spot, was quite risky. In that case, it was unethical to help Romeo and send him to Juliet, because he broke the law and put Romeo in danger. As previously mentioned, Friar Lawrence was supposed to be a man of religion, but yet he was breaking the law. Friar Lawrence was anxious about being caught, so when someone knocked on his door, he said, “Hark, how they knock!- Who’s there?- Romeo, arise. Thou wilt be taken.-Stay awhile.-Stand up,” (Act 3, Scene 3, Lines 74-76). He then came up with a plan for Romeo to go to Juliet and say goodbye, “Go, get thee to thy love: as was decreed, but look thou stay not till the watch be set,” (Act 3, Scene 3, Lines 146-148). In conclusion, Friar Lawrence placed blame on himself by helping Romeo when he got banished and sending him to Juliet to say