Two Decisions In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

Have you ever been in a situation where you have to make a split second decision? In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare many decisions are made in a split second and force the characters into uncomfortable consequences. Two star crossed lovers, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet kill themselves because of a age old family feud. This causes the feud to come to a halt due to the loss of their children. This all occurs in the beautiful city of Verona, Italy during the 15th century. Romeo and Juliet are accompanied by their feuding families, and Friar Laurence. Though examining Juliet’s secret marriage to Romeo, taking Friar Laurence's sleeping potion, and killing herself, one can see Shakespeare's message that not thinking things

She clearly doesn’t love Paris and this is prevalent throughout the play. Her father sets up her marriage to Paris very early on in the play and Juliet never is alright with the man she is being forced to marry, “Not proud you have, but thankful that you have. Proud can I never be of what I hate. But thankful even for hate that is meant love” (3.5 147-149). She never has feelings for Paris in the book and it more seems that she hates him. Her family does not listen to her and she becomes clearly unstable as a person. Once she takes the sleeping potion everyone in Verona knows about it and then the news is given to Romeo, “Her body sleeps in capels’ monument and her immortal part with angels lives” (5.1 18-19). When the news is broken to Romeo about the “death” of Juliet he become extremely unstable and depressed. He immediately wants to go back to Verona to confirm the news. When he gets to Verona and finds Juliet still sleeping and he ends up doing a very impulsive thing in killing himself. Moments after Romeo’s death Juliet wakes up and finds him dead and decide to kill herself, “Yea, noise? Then I’ll be brief O happy dagger! This is thy sheath. There rust and let me die” (5.3 169-170). This is the final moment before her death and this death is caused by the impulsiveness of two young lovers, this death could have been prevented by better communication between the people involved or a more responsible mediator than Friar Laurence, who is the cause for their deaths. It also has to do with the unlucky events before the deaths that were caused by Friar John, even though he did not choose to get the plague, the letter would have got to Romeo in time and the deaths would not of happened. But, it seem as though from the beginning of this play the outcome of tragedy was certain and there was no way to stop