Who do you consider is most responsible for the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet? Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet all ends in a terrible tragedy, however there has to be someone to blame for this, but who? I strongly believe that Friar Lawrence is responsible for the tragedy. The main reasons why I think he is to blame is because he married Romeo and Juliet without anyone’s permission; he also helped them to have a secret night together; gave Juliet a dangerous potion; faked her funeral breaking the hearts of her family and he continued abusing the use of confession throughout the play. The most disgraceful thing is that he is a man of god and he committed all of these horrendous sins!
However, Friar Lawrence is more responsible than Tybalt for the deaths of our “star cross’d lovers” because he allowed Romeo and Juliet marry and it caused Romeo to avoid the fight at first with Tybalt, than later tried to stop the fight between Tybalt and Mercutio and caused Mercutio to get killed by Tybalt. Friar Lawrence also made a potion for Juliet to fake her death to let her see Romeo, but he failed to get the note to Romeo and Romeo didn’t know Juliet’s death was fake, so he ended up committing suicide and so did Juliet. Friar Lawrence never told anyone about Juliet’s death being fake. “So smile the heavens upon this holy act that after-hours with sorrow chide us not.” This was when Friar Lawrence agreed to marry Romeo and Juliet. It lead to them dying for each other’s love, when this could have been prevented if they weren’t married.
The knife was destined to be how she killed herself. In the final act of the play, Romeo had been banished to Mantua from killing Tybalt. He runs into his old servant Balthasar, who told him that Juliet was dead. Romeo, not knowing that she had actually taken a sleeping potion, can’t believe she died, and states “Is it e’en so?-then I defy you, stars!” (V. i. 24).
If he never went to go see her then they wouldn’t have gotten married, and they would both be alive. Also, Romeo bought the poison from the Apothecary, without taking the time to think things thorough, just because he was told Juliet was allegedly “dead.” “I do beseech you, sir, have patience. Your looks are pale and wild and do import Some misadventure.”(5.1.27-29) Even Balthasar tried to talk some common sense into him, but Romeo wouldn’t listen to him. Furthermore, he killed himself, and it wasn’t because he didn’t have another choice. In the end when it came to the decision of killing himself Romeo was the one who chose to drink the poison.
This is because in the play, Juliet refused to marry Paris and so the Friar offers his help again and gives her a special potion that makes her appear dead. His intentions were to bring Romeo, who was banished, and Juliet back together again and this could be done if Juliet did not marry Paris. He wanted Juliet to go to Mantva where Romeo was. The Friar's good intentions are destroyed again when Friar John fails to deliver the message clearly of Juliet's plans of using the special potion and go to Mantva to Romeo. Romeo misunderstands this and believes Juliet is dead.
The plan sounds good at first, but when the slightest mistake happens the plan ends in devastation. I think the Friar acts foolishly because, firstly, he is the one who marries Romeo and Juliet. Since Romeo and Juliet are two children who were married at a young age, it made them unable to make considered decisions. Friar Lawrence's other foolish action is giving Juliet a potion that will put her into a death-like sleep "Take thou this vial, being then in bed, And this distilling liquor drink thou off," He does send a message to Romeo, but it dosnt reach Romeo. The Friar helps Juliet fake her death and fool her parents.
When he first met Juliet, he seemed to have forgotten about Rosaline Thinking Juliet was dead, Romeo thought that his only option was to take his life out of grief for Juliet. His impatience resulted in the death of Paris, himself and Juliet. In Romeo and Juliet's naive minds, suicide was the only answer to their problems. In Juliet's case she had other options but she choose to overlook. Romeo and Juliet's innocence show us that jumping into situations too fast can cause big problems.
Friar was also the person who orchestrated the plan to fake the death of Juliet. This plan failed miserably and caused the death of the two lovers. Another character that fate influenced was the Nurse. The Nurse was the first person to be notified of the relationship between Romeo and Juliet and she could have easily stopped the marriage. Another example is Tybalt’s death, which resulted in the wedding of Paris and Juliet to be planned earlier and resulted in Romeo’s banishment from Verona.
However when he hears of Juliet’s “death” Romeo tries to “defy the stars” and kills himself (5.1.25). Romeo is taking responsibility for his actions by trying to defy his “fate” and finally taking thing into his own hands. This doesn’t work, since he didn’t bother to check if Juliet was still alive and just kills himself in his attempt to be together with her, even if it’s in death. Romeo uses fate to justify his actions and say that a power outside of his control fueled his action, but instead everything was just his impulsive choices. Friar Lawrence’s reckless actions brought together the deaths, and he blames them on fate.
Laertes and Claudius had a plan of revenge to go after Hamlet for causing Laertes’ father death. At the end of the play while Laertes and Hamlet were fencing, Gertrude drank the poison which was suppose to be for Hamlet because it was part of Laertes and Claudius’ plan. Laertes got stabbed by Hamlet with the poison sword and Hamlet got stabbed as well but made sure he killed Claudius before dying. At the end everyone ended up dying just because plans of revenge did not turn out like they wanted. Other people suffered because of other people’s faults and mistakes.