Who Is To Blame For The Deaths Of Romeo And Juliet Essay

“For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo” (5.3.309-310). And these were the last lines of the tragic play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. The drama follows the premise of the son and daughter of two opposing families: the Capulets and the Montagues, who fall in love and marry without their families’ knowledge. Their destinies, however, had already been written by a thing called fate. Playing a large role in their story as well as their eventual demise, fate was the only thing at play when the lovers made the decision to end their lives. Fate is most to blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.
From the beginning, Romeo and Juliet’s lives were destined to end in violence. Before the play starts, a prologue

After Romeo is exiled from Verona, and Juliet has to deal with Paris’ proposal, Friar Laurence produces an elaborate plan to save Romeo from his banishment and Juliet from her marriage to Paris in a few days. His plan is as follows: “In the meantime, against thou shalt awake, / Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift; / And hither shall he come” (4. 3. 113-115). This is what Friar Laurence wanted to happen. He wanted Juliet to agree to marry Paris, drink the temporary poison, “die,” then awaken after Romeo got the letter. Though fate was not with him, as Friar John later fails to deliver the message to Romeo saying that Juliet is alive and well. Friar John explains, “I could not send it— here it is again— / Nor get a messenger to bring it thee, / So fearful were they of infection” (5. 3. 14-16). This happening beyond anyone’s control. It could not have been stopped nor prevented, as something as large as a pandemic and need for quarantine is only something fate could control. It was not fate for Romeo to receive that message, for he would not die and put an end to his family’s

The first few parts of Friar Laurence’s plan were successfully reenacted up until Friar John’s letter. Now, Juliet rests, about to wake up in the next few hours. Romeo hears that she is dead from Balthasar instead, who tells him that Juliet is dead. Romeo cries at the news: “Is it ‘e’en so? Then I defy you, stars!” (5. 1. 24). Romeo exclaims, because of Juliet’s death supposed death that he will “defy the stars,” defying the fate that binds him and gives him misfortune. This is proof that it is fate that is the most prevalent and to blame in the play. Romeo is aware that he cannot “defy the stars,” but he will try, as he’s defied his parents, the truth, and the rules of Mantua, so the least he could do is defy fate itself as well. Defying fate, in Romeo’s context, means denying Juliet’s death and going on to Verona to save her and be with her once more. It means gathering his poison, in the case that she is dead, and he has to die too. Later, Romeo returns from Mantua with his deadly poison, ready to face a supposedly dead Juliet. He enters the tomb and is faced with Paris, who he fights and kills before seeing Juliet. Upon seeing Juliet, Romeo exclaims how she is still so beautiful and the pink is still in her lips and cheeks. Which is ironic, because the readers, as well as Friar Laurence, who orchestrated this plan, knows that she is not