Guilt In Romeo And Juliet

William Shakespeare’s tragic comedy, Romeo and Juliet is the story of two lovers, bounded by fate, who by their deaths ended the feud between their families, the Montagues and the Capulets. Despite the play being under the genres tragedy and comedy, it doesn’t exactly follow the common pattern of tragedy in dramatic literature. Usually, the characters are responsible for the outcome of their actions, but in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, guilt is drawn from many aspects of the play, affecting the outcome of the story. Although several characters such as Friar Laurence and Benvolio could ultimately be responsible for Romeo and Juliet’s death, the guiltiest one of all is no doubt Juliet’s own father, Capulet himself.

For someone who seems to be respectful and supportive of his daughter’s opinions in the beginning of the play, Capulet sure did not show much affection
when Juliet denied the offer of marrying Paris. Instead of keeping calm and listening to what she has to say, Capulet was apprehensive and uptight. He starts yelling at Juliet, using offensive language and calling her ugly names such as “young baggage [and] disobedient wretch” (3.5.166). Despite Juliet’s opposition, Capulet is determined to follow through with his plans. Upon being pressured into becoming the wife of Paris, Juliet feels upset and exploited. She begs on her knees in an attempt to change her father’s mind, but Capulet refuses to listen to what Juliet wants and neglects her. If Capulet had not force juliet to marry Paris, then Juliet wouldn’t have needed to go to Friar Lawrence to seek a way out of the marriage, which ultimately lead to her death. Capulet’s forceful opinions on Juliet, expecting her to uphold his wishes pushes Juliet over the edge, leading her to make disastrous and dangerous decisions in order to be with her one true love, Romeo.

After completing the first step of Friar Lawrence’s plan of agreeing to marry Paris, Capulet moves up the already hasty wedding date and sends the Nurse to tell Paris that he’ll “have this knot knit up tomorrow morning” (4.2.22).
The original one day plan has turned into an overnight plan, meaning that everything will have to get done two times faster. In the play, the letter was not delivered to Romeo, but if Capulet had not moved up the wedding date, then there would have been more time for the letter to be delivered to Romeo. And if Romeo gets the letter from Friar Lawrence, then everything would have gone as planned. Neither Romeo or Juliet would have died and they would have had a happily ever after ending. In conclusion, the deaths of Romeo and Juliet is mostly attributed to Capulet, Juliet’s father, because of his apprehensive, uptight, and impatient attitude towards the dilemma. In dramatic literature, guilt is a key factor that resolves conflict in the story. The guilt Capulet and Montague felt at the end of the play successfully ends the long time, pointless feud between the two
families.