Romeo and Juliet V

Romeo and Juliet Dead

When most people think about the cause of Romeo and Juliet's deaths they look to the feud between their houses. They think that because the feud kept the "star-crossed lovers" from being together Montague and Capulet are to blame for them both committing suicide. While this opinion is valid, I see no one else to blame for their deaths than Romeo and Juliet themselves. No one else should be held responsible for their passing and no one else should feel they alone were to blame.

Although they could not be married immediately in the public eye due to the feud between their parents, they acted on their own during those last few fateful scenes. No one told Romeo to kill himself with poison and no one forced Juliet to drive that dagger into her chest. Romeo was an erratic person in general, but seeing the girl he was married to dead in a tomb, laying next to a man he had killed with his own sword, pushed him over the edge. That is in no way anyone else's fault but his own, they couldn't have controlled his emotions or actions even if they had been there to try. 

Beyond Romeo's impulsive actions, Juliet acted foolishly when she decided to kill herself after waking up to see Romeo dead. She was already irrational when she took the sleeping potion but it appears those 42 hours of sleep did nothing to calm her or help her think straight. This quote from Juliet right after she woke up shows how unsound her mind was at the time, "O churl! Drunk all, and left no friendly drop / to help me after" (V. iii. 163-164)? Almost the moment she saw Romeo dead she thought about ending her own life, she barely mourned his loss before looking for a way to kill herself; and then when she heard someone coming she immediately stabbed herself without a second thought. 

She really didn't need to do this, she was just 14 and Romeo was only her first love, there was so much life in front of her that it was unnecessary to end it at that moment. In fact, Friar Lawrence even gave Juliet an out, the opportunity to continue her life somewhere else, although she would probably have to be a nun. It's true that was not an ideal situation but it would certainly be better than killing yourself at such a young age. 

You can see that both Romeo and Juliet killed themselves by their own free will in this video of the scene:

Beyond the fact that they each chose to commit suicide, it was their own faults that they were in that situation to begin with. Every choice they made, be it together or individually, pushed them closer to this act of double suicide. Romeo crashing the Capulet party with his friends, them secretly getting married, them plotting to be together on their wedding night, Romeo killing Tybalt, Juliet taking the sleeping potion, Romeo purchasing the poison, all of these events were choices made by the lovers and none of them were very smart. 

It's not like there weren't instances where people warned them that the path they were on was not a good one, either. Friar Lawrence, Nurse and Balthasar all tried to drive them onto a better path, but there was no stopping their quest for love. Friar warned Romeo before he married him to Juliet, saying "These violent delights have violent ends / And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, / Which, as they kiss, consume" (II. vi. 9-11). His meaning here was that their love was too quick and sudden so that it would also have a sudden end in which they would both be finished. He was, of course, right in the end.

Friar Lawrence Marrying Romeo and Juliet

 Nurse also tried to warn Juliet of a similar thing during one of their conversations, "I am the drudge, and toil in your delight: / But you shall bear the burden soon at night" (II. v. 74-75). This, especially with context, can be looked at as nurse just jokingly calling their marriage a burden because that is how many look at marriage but I believe that she honestly thinks that this action will be a burden to Juliet and she is subtly warning her of how she feels. 

The third and last person who knew about Romeo and Juliet was Balthasar, Romeo's manservant. He did not warn Romeo about the marriage but he did try to stop his irrational behavior after Romeo found out that Juliet was "dead." He tried to make Romeo aware of the crazy way he was acting in hopes that he would take a step back and rethink his plan. Unfortunately, Romeo was desperate and simply threatened to kill him if he got in his way while he went through with his plan to commit suicide. 

In the end no number of warnings, be it by a Friar or one of the people closest to them, could stop the couple from destroying themselves. It was clear that their plan for love was an irrational one, they heard it over and over from the Friar, every time they went to him for advice. Yet they never took a moment to contemplate their next move, it was always on impulse that they acted.  After every action they were a step farther away from the lives they used to leave and one step closer to their own deaths. It's true nothing went right in their story but it was always because of their own decisions or something that wasn't under anyone's control, like Friar John being quarantined.

Over all, as much as people felt responsible for Romeo and Juliet's deaths and no matter how many times they blamed each other for it the only people who had any direct influence in the two suicides were Romeo and Juliet. They slowly dug their own graves throughout the time that they knew each other, to the point that only the tinniest thing could push them over the edge. For Romeo that was hearing that the woman he had given up so much for was gone. For Juliet it was seeing the man she had faked dead for lying there, lifeless.
The events of this story never helped Romeo and Juliet be together and their deaths was just the icing on the cake for the reader. It's hard to think about the story ending any other way, mainly because it is outlined in the Prologue, but also because they never did anything that gave you a sense that they would survive. Romeo and Juliet were dead the moment they met, and everything after that just gave them more of a reason to kill themselves.


Works Cited:

Domblewski, Carol. "The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet." Prentice Hall Literature: Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999. N. pag. Print.