Who Is To Blame In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

Taking your own life is an extremely difficult and complicated situation where there are many factors that play into why teens and adults commit suicide.Through this tragic story about two star crossed lovers, there comes a point where we need to determine who was at fault and who is to blame. In Verona, two well known families, the Montagues and Capulets have been enemies for generations but one thing they have in common is they both have one child. The play Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare deal with sensitive topics and the capturing story about true love.

For years and years the Montague and Capulet families have hated each other and have had an ongoing feud. Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet came, “from forth the fatal loins of these two

The Capulet family would frequently encourage Juliet to marry Paris and if not threatening to kick her out of the house, “To go with Paris to Saint Peter's Church, or i will drag thee on a hurdle thither.” (Act 3 scene 5 line 159-160) By putting this pressure on a young girl to make a difficult decision, she then ran to Friar Lawrence with the intention of killing herself right then and there. With that pressure of marriage from her father, Juliet felt like she didn't have any other options where she and Romeo could live happily. In the other household, Montague convinced Benvolio, Romeo's cousin, to cheer up Romeo which led to him going to the party, Montague said, “I would thou wert so happy by thy stay…” (Act 1 scene 1 line 161) If Romeo hadn't had gone to the party, he would have never met Juliet and they would never have fallen for each other. Montague is to blame for this because although he wanted the best for his son, he pushed his closest friends to convince him to go to the party he was not welcomed to. The pressure of the two families was too much for Romeo and Juliet's young love and it came from the Montague and Capulet

Some may say Mercutio is to blame for the death of Romeo and Juliet because he was the one to start the fight with Tybalt, “Tybalt you rat catcher, will you walk” (Act 3 scene 1 line 75) which got Romeo banished. Mercutio is not to blame because if Capulet had listened to Tybalt during the ball and asked Romeo to leave, Tybalt could have relaxed and not wanted Romeo dead. Juliet is not to blame because she is a child, she is 13 years old and she was in reaction to her parents pushing her, “ Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.” (Act 1 Scene 2 line 11）Juliet also opposed marriage and was not interested in that lifestyle for herself. Additional characters contributed to the events in this play but the main source of why this all happened and so quickly was the Montague and Capulet