Romeo's Responsibility In Romeo And Juliet

Cale Schrantz

Mrs. Thilken

English 1, Period 2

March 14, 2023

Romeo’s Responsibility In the historic play, written by William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, the character most responsible for the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet’s deaths, along with the deaths of many others, is Romeo. In this play, two powerful families live feuding against each other in the town of Verona. Romeo, the son of Lord Montague, and Juliet, the daughter of Lord Capulet, fall in love. After this, it all goes downhill, causing tragedy to occur. Built up events start to create a snowball effect and led to the unfortunate deaths of the two characters. Overall, this character is the most responsible for this tragedy due to the continual negative effects of Romeo’s actions

It is clearly stated of the two families feuds, but Romeo puts this aside so he can marry the woman he is in love with, and while this may have positively affected him, it destabilized the integrity of the situation. A clear showing of this is is in Act 1, Scene 5, when Romeo states, “O doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night as a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear- Beauty too rich for use, for Earth too dear.” (Rom. I. v. 51-54). This well-known quote from Romeo expresses his disdain for the families’ feud when family cares about is being with Juliet. When he says this, it is also a bad idea on his part, showing up uninvited to the Capulet ball, even though it is clearly stated that Montagues are not to be present at the event. The second showing of this cause of tragedy is when Juliet says, “Tis but thy name is my enemy. Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot, nor arm, nor face.” (Rom. II. iii. 41-44). In this example, Romeo has come along with Juliet to disobey their families, and forget about feuding, because they want to put their relationship first. This could possibly have a positive outcome, but they didn’t know that, so they were going neglectful of their houses. Overall, between these two examples, it is a clear showing of the responsibility on Romeo’s shoulders for the snowball effect of

This is exemplified after Tybalt and Mercutio fight, leading to the unintentional killing of Mercutio, Romeo is filling with anger, adrenaline, and grief, and goes after Tybalt, “This days’ black fate on more days doth depend this but begins to woe others must end.” (Rom. III. i. 124-125). Romeo’s words here show his anger before he goes after Tybalt, and eventually kills him. The lines written here by Shakespeare show the foreshadowing of the beginning of the tragedy, referencing the “days’ black fate on more days doth depend,” meaning that more dark days will come, looking forward in the play to other deaths of characters including Romeo and Juliet. Secondly, when Mercutio is in anguish when he is about to die, he says, “A plague o’both your houses! They have made worms’ meat of me. I have it, and soundly, too. Your houses!” (Rom. III. i. 111-112). This quote by Mercutio is another clear statement in the beginning of the tragedy, contributed to by Romeo. The plague Mercutio talks about references the death of the two families’ children at the end of the story, when Romeo and Juliet commit