William Shakespeare’s renowned tragedy Romeo and Juliet is best known for the tale of the untimely demise of two star-crossed lovers from the feuding Montague and Capulet families. When Romeo is banished from the city of Verona, Juliet is forced to take a poison that will render her comatose such that she seems to be dead, preventing her marriage with her parents’ chosen suitor, Paris, and ensuring that she and her love may be reunited. Orchestrating this scheme is Friar Lawrence, the religious man who married the pair. However, the Friar’s self-serving decisions and lack of consideration of the effects of his ill-thought-out plans ultimately result in both Romeo and Juliet taking their own lives. To some, Romeo may appear to be at fault for his death and that of his beloved, Juliet, as he played a significant role in the events …show more content…
For instance, when the two lovers meet in the famous balcony scene and confess their love for one another, Juliet tells Romeo “[she will have] no joy of this contract tonight,”(2.2.1117) going on to say “It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden,” (2.2.118), indicating that she does not wish to discuss a relationship between them, children of feuding households. Subsequently, however, Juliet agrees to be wed to him, enamored by his extravagant professions of love, the likes of which she has never received before. In significantly influencing Juliet’s choice to marry so suddenly, Romeo could be blamed for beginning the pair’s doomed relationship. Additionally, when Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, attacks Romeo in the name of the families’ ongoing feud, he kills Romeo’s closest friend, Mercutio. Instead of choosing peace for the sake of his Juliet, to whom he has recently been married, he kills Tybalt, “fire-eyed fury” (3.1.123) consuming him. As he is now a murderer, Romeo is banished from Verona, leaving