Romeo Juliet Essay

Romeo & Juliet Essay Romeo and Juliet, written by Shakespeare, is a romantic tragedy that involves two teenagers who fall in love at a ball and later, they find out that they are from feuding families. Nonetheless, they still manage to continue their love affair in secret and ultimately, things end up spiraling out of control which results in their death. Romeo and Juliet are to blame for their own deaths. It’s their fault and not the families for the feud—or other misunderstandings that might have been interpreted wrong—because it was their own decision to take their own lives, thus makes them responsible for their own death—not anyone else’s.

There’s a lot of controversy about who is to blame, but a lot of people don’t seem to realize that no one forced a vial of poison down Romeo’s throat or forced Juliet to stab herself. Towards the beginning of the story, as their “love” that seemed more like lust commenced, they kiss each other without even knowing each other’s name, then when they find out about their family, they continue to be with one another, neglecting the hatred between their families that had been going on for many years. Within a few hours later, they were married, but from the beginning it was easily perceived that their relationship was not going to end well. All their actions were abrupt and within the length of a couple of days. Their lust and obsession with one another led towards Juliet faking her death in order to be with Romeo, who had been banished for killing Tybalt, and because Romeo did not know of this, he ended up killing himself, which resulted in Juliet’s death when she awoke. “Yea, noise. Then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die.” (V, iii, 169-170).

The conflict that was occurring in the play overwhelmed Romeo and Juliet which ended up causing them to take abrupt decisions without first thinking them through. When Romeo discovered Juliet was “dead”, he immediately rushed to her aid without waiting for a second and thinking things through. If he had only waited a bit longer—and this was his decision, not faith—he would have received the letter from Friar, he would have known of the plan for them to be together. Additionally, they also had a lot of time for them to tell their parents about their love and that they aspired to be with one another. It was their decision to marry in secret, their decision to continue their love affair behind everyone’s back, their decision to kill themselves instead of trying to look for another way out. At the beginning, Romeo was in love, more like obsessed, with Rosaline, but a few hours later he is married and claimed that he “loved” her, obsessing over her just like he did with Rosaline. No one made him go to a party that his enemy made either. Some people do have some fault, but no one forced Romeo and Juliet into anything—it was their own choice.

Another way Romeo is responsible is that he killed Tybalt. If he didn’t kill Tybalt, no law would have been broken, and Romeo would not have been banished, which would diminish the chances of Romeo and Juliet ending up killing themselves. Romeo killing Tybalt led for the prince to declare justice by banishing Romeo. “And for that offense, Immediately we do exile him hence.” (III, i, 185-186). It was also said at the beginning of the story that those who start another disturbance in the cities will pay with their life. “If ever you disturb our streets again, Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.” (I, i, 92-93). Therefore, Romeo should have known the consequences of killing Tybalt. The only reason he was exiled and not killed was because Tybalt killed Mercutio, so Tybalt would have been killed, but because Romeo killed him, the prince didn’t know who to blame. So instead of killing Romeo, who at first attempted to stop the quarrel between Mercutio and Tybalt, he exiled him. Romeo and Juliet are held responsible for their own death. They were both overreacting over lust, attempting to hide their relationship from their parents who could have perhaps accepted it if they had only tried to explain. From fatal mistakes one after the other, including Tybalt’s death, everything led up towards the end. A lot of people have fault for having the dispute in the first place. But, it was Romeo’s and Juliet’s fault because they chose to commit suicide. They had a choice whether to commit suicide or not. It’s totally unreasonable to throw the blame on another person or an issue that made them commit suicide. They were responsible for their own deaths as evidenced by Romeo’s and Juliet’s to act upon their love for each other too quickly, their decision to hide their affection for each other from their families, and taking their very own lives on their own free will. If herpes they would have thought their decisions thoroughly, they would have ended up living a happy life together—or perhaps not.