There are many characters that contributed to the tragic acts of love and suicide in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, but who is the most to blame? In the famous play, we have two families, the Montagues and the Capulets, who have been feuding with each other for many years. Romeo, from the Montague family, and Juliet, from the Capulets, have fallen in love. Due to the distasteful acts from each side, their children must go to great lengths to keep their love a secret. The end of this story isn’t pretty, so whose fault was it? Friar Lawrence is the character most to blame for the tragic events in Romeo and Juliet because he was the character who assisted throughout the entire situation that Romeo and Juliet had. He agreed to marry the young lovers even though he was aware that their families were feuding, and he aided in Romeo and Juliet …show more content…
Now that Juliet is (unwillingly) being wed to Paris, the Friar sees a solution in a vial of poison that will make Juliet seem as though she’s dead. His warning speech goes: “Take thou this vial, being then in bed / And this distilled liquor drink thou off / When presently through all thy veins shall run / A cold and drowsy humor, for no pulse / Shall keep his native progress, but surcease” (Act 4, Scene 1). Essentially, the Friar is warning Juliet of what how the poison will affect her. He instructs her to lay in bed as if asleep, and drink the liquid. In the morning, the nurse discovers her and pronounces her dead. Of all the things the Friar has done so far, giving Juliet the poison is the worst of his actions. As the Friar’s plan goes, Romeo did not receive the letter from the servant describing the situation of how Juliet is not dead, only sleeping. Romeo then kills himself when he sees his ‘dead’ wife, and when Juliet rises only to see her dead husband, she ends her life with a