Who’s to Blame for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet Through catastrophe and affliction, even the morals of good intentions can convict heartbreak and grief to emanate. In William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, two lovers prevail from rivaling nemesis as they go against their destined norms and fall in love. Together they have faced hardships and endeavors that ultimately lead to their calamitous end. With numerous suspects that coherently add and lead to their deaths, Friar Lawrence is to blame for the demise of Romeo and Juliet because he married them in secrecy and failed to dispatch the letter to Romeo, resulting in his plan to default. In defiance of their parent’s wishes, Friar Lawrence marries Romeo and Julet in secrecy. When …show more content…
As Balthasar informs a clueless Romeo on his sighting of Juliet “laid low in her kindred’s vault” he elucidates “her immortal part with angels lives” (5.1.20-21). Balthasar, Romeo’s trusted and dependable servant, had been the one to apprise Romeo on Juliet’s “death” due to his vowed loyalty to him. If Friar Lawrence had told Balthasar that everything was a scheme and Juliet wasn't really lost forever, Romeo's anguish and dire misery could have been avoided. Furthermore, as the Friar inquires over his letter sent to Romeo, Friar John “could no send it…nor get a messenger to bring it thee” (5.2.15-16). The fiasco of Friar Lawrence's attempt to contact Romeo causes the plan to fail and the situation to deteriorate. Without investigating the Mantua plague that was occuring, the Friar sent someone else to deliver the letter on his behalf rather than delivering it himself to ensure Romeo received the message. Friar Lawrence constructed this plan expecting every step to work out as intended but as components of the plan begin to fail, he continues to selfishly make irrational decisions to try and salvage it, resulting in the tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet when they could have lived a life