Who Is to Blame for Romeo and Juliet's Death

Vanessa Laurent

Sylvain Millette

EAE2D

13th April 2017

Who is to blame for the lover’s death?

“To be to blame”, whoever is the subject of such description is held responsible for the speaker’s eyes. In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare shows that fighting between families almost always leads to destruction. Such destruction includes lies, murder, and suicide. In this case, the only responsible for Romeo and Juliet’s death are the Capulets, who, because of their weak relationship with Juliet, their hatred toward the Montagues and their overly controlling characters, failed to avoid the young couple’s death.

Someone’s entourage can real determine their up going. Friends have a tendency of directly influencing decisions but furthermore, does the people in charge of the parental roles. Which brings up the first argument of the tragedy: the Capulets did a really poor job raising their daughter. Yes, the Capulets did show love at the beginning of play by turning down Paris's first approach with the marriage proposition because they wanted to allow her to fall in love. Fair enough. However later on, after the death of Tybalt, in an attempt to "relief Juliet’s grief" her parents started to arrange a marriage—without consulting the soon bride-to-be—that would occur in less than a week. In this case, indeed, the Capulets tried to again show their support toward Juliet. But even good intent can have terrible repercussions. Face to Juliet rejection, Lord Capulet loses it “Hang thee, young baggage, disobedient wretch! / I tell thee what: get thee to church o' Thursday, / Or never after look me in the face. / Speak not; reply not; do not answer me. / My fingers itch.” (Shakespeare 3.5. 166-170). These few lines absolutely show how little Lord Capulet cared about Juliet’s will. He did not truly try to understand the reason why she was so against the marriage. What was at first a way of helping her become an obligation put upon her. Their relation is so thin to him that it is worth throwing away for the only reason that she refuses to marry a stranger that she did not like. On the other hand, the nurse is definitely closer to Juliet. Taking a step back, and looking in perspective to earlier scene 3 in the first act: Angelica shows that she knows Juliet more than her own mother. Lady Capulet could not even remember her own daughter’s age: “Thou knowest my daughter's of a pretty age.” (Shakespeare 1.3. 11) The nurse repeatedly asserts that Juliet has not reached her 14th birthday and the mother—who is in the wrong—strongly believe that she did. How come her own mother is unable to properly tell her age? Clearly, she does not have much interest in her daughter. Perhaps she never had the occasion to take more interest since she deliberately left the whole raising role experience to the nurse. Either way, the mother-daughter bond is almost inexistent, which made Juliet more comfortable with the nurse. If she could have had the same level of comfort with her mother she would not have been scared of her parent’s reaction. In sum, if Juliet would have been closer to her parents, communication between the two, Juliet would have been able to express herself in a clearer way, explain that she is in love with the son of the Montagues. Making it easier for her to solve the dilemma.

Moving on to the next argument, the Capulets have let their hatred with the Montagues take too much place and priority. This feud is somehow directly lead to Romeo’s death. To start off, the "Two households, both alike in dignity / From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,” (Shakespeare Prologue 1-2) does not really hate each other. What they really despite is the relation they all have to the old feud. For example, an analogy apply is if a child is raised doing his bed in the morning his whole life, later on, he will subconsciously do his bed in the morning. This is how the Capulets and the Montagues came to hate each other. This hate made everything they said questionable. Notably, right after Tybalt’s death, Lady Capulet rejected Benvolio’s testimony by saying: “He is a kinsman to the Montague. / Affection makes him false; he speaks not true.” (Shakespeare 3.1. 1185-186). And there is one of many times where Lady Capulet let her hatred take over. Which led to her—still incognizant of the real side of the story— demanding the death of Romeo and Juliet. There is no more direct way of pushing someone to death than that. She holds on to the grudge throughout the story and assure revenge and also talks about getting someone to do the dirty job for her. She expresses that hate of the Montagues and especially of Romeo to her daughter quite a few times. This did not help Juliette mental state at all, bringing pressure, stress, and anxiety. This build-up tension restrained her ability to think wisely, making everything that surrounded her—apart from Romeo—lose their significance and therefore made the question of dying with him easier. This brings up to