Who Was Responsible For The Death Of Romeo And Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a very tragic story of love, resulting in both Romeo as well as Juliet’s untimely demise. Although, one question remains. (There are actually several unanswered questions, but I thought that that would be a good way of transitioning topics.) The question being, who is most, if not entirely responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet? My vote; Romeo himself. Romeo, feeling a bit down on himself after having had his feelings for the love of his life, Rosaline, ripped to shreds, is trying to recover from that emotional sucker-punch. While having been down on his luck with already foggy intentions, he finds, yes finds another girl at the party, Juliet. It’s love at first sight, I suppose. He brings her to the back and kisses her, not even knowing her name. Romeo, upon taking Juliet’s hands, states “[I]f I profane with my unworthiest hand, this holy shrine, gentle sin is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims ready stand, too smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss” (1.5.105).
Now here enlies the first problem with Romeo.
He is impatient, wanting to rush right into another relationship to replace the hole in his heart for Rosaline. No time was wasted. In fact, they are SO positive it’s love at first sight, they plan to marry in one day, no, three hours of knowing each other. While you could argue that Juliet is just as impatient as Romeo, she was not the one to decide to take his hand, was she? In fact, she attempted to resist before just letting it happen, stating “[G]ood pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, Which mannerly devotion shows in this; For saints have hands that Pilgrims do not touch, and palm to palm is holy palmer’s kiss” (1.5.110). So it would be unfair to say that Juliet is equally as responsible as Romeo, as he is being the forceful one
here.
Secondly, Romeo takes it way to hard when Juliet “dies” While yes, I can understand why he would have thoughts of suicide, that was just a very poor route to take. Not to drift into the topic of suicide, but it is the single most selfish thing anyone could do, ever. Even though he sees it as a way for him to be with his - and I use this term loosely - love, that’s only what he wants. Not even considering the dire consequences of being the only son of Montague, he poisons himself. I suppose that maybe in some way, shape or form, this could be tied into the fact that Romeo is impatient, but I felt that it was a separate issue on it’s own.
In conclusion, Romeo is impatient and selfish. Having rushed into another relationship just to get over his true love turning him down, passing it off as “Love at first sight,” he drags Juliet into his own mess of problems that needed to be solved right then and there, apparently.