In history, romance was the root of several tragedies. For example, one of the most well-known plays, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, is a romantic tragedy written by William Shakespeare. In the play Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare portrays multiple characters responsible for the tragic deaths and ending. Mercutio’s stubborn behavior, Lord Capulet’s persistent demands, and Friar Lawrence’s impulsive actions clearly plays a role in the outcome of the play. The stubborn behavior of Mercutio is one factor that leads to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. For example, when Romeo, Mercutio, and Benvolio are heading towards the Capulet Ball, Romeo believes it is not smart to enter the ball because he had a dream that something will go terribly wrong. …show more content…
The first thing Friar Lawrence does is secretly marry the two lovers. He does not think about the consequences his actions may have and what could result. In Overview of Romeo and Juliet, the author states “...for the monk does not endorse Romeo and Juliet’s impulsive behavior, but rather cautions them to ‘love moderately’” (2). The friar agrees to marry the two because it may resolve the feud between the Capulets and Montagues, but he never gives Romeo and Juliet any useful advice. Friar Lawrence also conceives a plan for Juliet without thinking it through. His plan is for Juliet to take a sleeping potion so she’ll appear dead and get out of her arranged marriage with Paris. Friar Lawrence and Romeo would then take Juliet out of her tomb so Romeo and Juliet can run away together. This plan has many flaws, but Juliet agrees anyway because she is willing to kill herself to get out of the marriage. Friar Lawrence claims that “If, rather than to marry County Paris, thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself, then is it likely thou wilt undertake a thing like death to chide away this shame...” (Rom. 4.1.72-75). One of the mistakes that goes wrong with the plan is that Romeo never receives the information that Juliet is not really dead. Friar Lawrence gives Friar John a letter with this crucial information, but fails to tell Friar John the significance of the …show more content…
The demise of Romeo and Juliet can be traced back to many people. The three characters who are undeniably responsible are Mercutio, Lord Capulet, and Friar Lawrence. Mercutio’s stubborn behavior, Lord Capulet’s persistent demands, and Friar Lawrence’s impulsive actions are significant to the ending of the play. In romantic tragedies, like Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, romance can be seen as the origin of several
First, Friar Lawrence agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet to end the feuding between the families. He says, “In one respect I’ll thy assistant be:/ For this alliance may so happy prove/ To turn your households’ rancour to pure love.” (2.3.90-92). Secondly, he organizes a plan for Juliet to take the potion to fake her death. In the plan he also decides to send a message to Romeo explaining their plans but Friar John says “I could not send it – here it is again –/ Nor get a messenger to bring it thee,” (5.2.14-15) to Friar Lawrence so Romeo was never informed of the plan. Lastly, at the end of the play when he finds Juliet and a dead Romeo, he leaves and says “Come go, good Juliet, I dare no longer stay.” (5.3.159). Once both sides are involved, it means Romeo and Juliet must be
Many have said that romance brings love and affection, but when taken to the extreme, it can lead to tragedy and despair. Among the great literary tragedies, Romeo and Juliet may be the most famous of them all. The eternal feud between the Montegues and Capulets prohibits the love of Romeo and Juliet and ultimately results in their unfortunate deaths. It may be difficult to truly determine who is to blame for the tragedy, because their lives had been influenced, criticized, and controlled by many figures. Among the most important characters, Friar Lawrence enables the forbidden marriage of the two lovers and devises a plan to ensure that they end up together. On the other hand, Lord and Lady Capulet feed into the rivalry between the two
Many have said that romance brings love and affection, but when taken to the extreme, it can lead to tragedy and despair. In the literary play Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare created a tragedy protagonist, Juliet, whose tragic death “buries their parents’ strife” (Prologue). The eternal feud between Montague and Capulets restraints the love between Romeo and Juliet and ultimately lead to their death. Juliet’s death has many different factors, and it’s hard to determine the truly blame of Juliet’s death. In all the important characters, Lord Capulet refuses to listen to Juliet’s request, which result in Juliet’s death. In the other hand, Romeo’s immature, impulsive and Friar Lawrence’s cowardice are all generate Juliet’s tragedy.
Friar Lawrence plays a big part in causing the death of Romeo and Juliet because he secretly marries them knowing something either negative or positive will happen. Friar even tells Romeo the cautions for he says 'Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast.' (Act II Scene III 97) Friar marries them because he thinks that the marriage is going to end the feud between the families of Romeo and Juliet. He knows that even though Romeo and Juliet are in love they will never be able to see each other. Not in a grave to lay one in, another out to have” (Act II scene III 85) Also, if Friar Lawrence did not give Juliet the potion that she was going to use to deceive her family into thinking she was dead to get out of her marriage to Paris and make Romeo aware of what was going to happen, their deaths would not have occurred. Romeo goes to the tomb thinking Juliet is really dead after Balthasar accidently informed him of Juliet’s apparent death not knowing of her plan. If he had stayed there longer without taking the poison he had obtained from Apothecary they both would not have killed themselves. He brought the poison to the tomb to end his own life next to Juliet after seeing for himself if she was really dead. Romeo did not want to live without Juliet.
Without even thinking about it Friar Lawrence's plan was a terrible plan just out of common sense as there were too many things out of the Friar’s control that could have happened. First, he has to worry if the potion even will work when Juliet takes it or even if she takes it at all. Then he has to worry about getting the word to Romeo about the plan which of course never happened. “But look thou stay not till the watch be set, For then thou canst not pass to Mantua; Where thou shalt live, till we can find a time To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends, Beg pardon of the prince, and call thee back With twenty hundred thousand times more joy Than thou went'st forth in lamentation.” (4.2.100-105). Here Friar Lawrence explains his badly thought-out plan. His impulsive acts and plans end up getting him in trouble and costing Verona to Young people's lives. His plans failed because he did not take his time and did not think of being more reasonable because his Solutions were completely unrealistic. In a way, Friar Lawrence could be seen as a little bit selfish. Friar Laurence's religion does not permit already married people to get married. This would mean that the Friar would be going against his oaths. Marrying Romeo and Juliet when Juliet already has an arranged marriage with Paris would have
The Friar had good intentions when he married Romeo and Juliet, as shown in this quote, “For this alliance may so happy prove/ To turn your households’ rancour to pure love” (2.4.91-92). In this quote, Friar Lawrence explains his reasoning behind marrying Romeo and Juliet, he thought that by marrying the two, he could stop the feud. This did not work as no one told the rest of the families and the Capulets tried to marry Juliet to Paris. The Friar also failed to get the letter to Romeo that would have told him that Juliet wasn’t dead. If Romeo had received this letter, he would not have committed suicide in Juliet's grave when he returned to Verona. Also, if the Friar had gotten to Juliet’s grave any earlier, he could have saved both Romeo and Juliet. The following quote is from the final scene of the play, “Miscarried by my fault, let my old life / Be sacrificed, some hour before this time, / unto the rigour of the severest law” (5.3.271-274). In this scene, the Friar admits the part that he played in Romeo and Juliet’s deaths. He volunteers himself to be punished for this, but the rest of the families and the Prince don't want to punish him. Although he meant well, Friar Lawrence’s actions resulted in the deaths of Romeo and
The story of Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, results in a tragedy where both main characters die. Friar Lawrence, a character Romeo and Juliet turn to for advice, is the cause of this tragedy. Friar Lawrence is responsible for organising the marriage of Romeo and Juliet, devising a plan to help Juliet fake her death, and he is responsible for the letter informing Romeo of this plan which does not arrive. These three events lead to both Romeo and Juliet committing suicide.
First of all, Friar Lawrence explicitly knew better than to do many of the things he did. First, he should not have agreed to marry Romeo and Juliet so quickly. Romeo wanted to marry Juliet after
“And but one word with one of us? couple it with something, make it a word and a blow.” [III, i, 37-38] Tybalt was not willing to fight mercutio if mercutio had not escalated tybalt's anger. Moreover, Mercutio could have avoided this situation if he had showed respect in return.This comes to show how mercutio had made impulsive decisions instead of making rational decisions. As a result, we can see Mercutio's death occurs due to his rash and impulsive decisions. Mercutio’s impulsive acts result in his own passing. When Romeo refuses to participate in a duel with Tybalt, Mercutio challenges Tybalt himself. Using words which are highly intimidating and threatening, Mercutio gives Tybalt no choice but to engage in a duel. The following violent words are exchanged between the two characters.
The plan that Friar Lawrence aided Juliet in executing might have been a clever plan, but it was not a responsible decision. It was highly irrational, and should never have been carried out. This plan, as everyone knows, did not succeed. Friar Lawrence's failure to warn Romeo of what was truly going on with Juliet, caused Romeo to end County Paris’ and his own life, because he thought his true love was dead. Consequently If Friar Lawrence had not acted so rashly, and so quickly in giving Juliet the poison, and had perhaps taken some time to think of a safer, more practical way to help Juliet, much pain could have been
Friar Lawrence often tries to find the easiest ways out of his issues. He prefers to go behind people’s backs and make actions that attempt to quickly fix issues, instead of actually talking to people and making a compromise everyone can agree on. One example of when Friar lawrence is being selfish is when he sees juliet and Romeo commit suicide, he just runs away out of the tomb. He does not want to get in trouble with the community and does not help Romeo and Juliet. Any person in their right mind would help people in need, it is programed into people's mind. Not helping a dying person for one's own needs, is one of the most selfish actions someone can make. Friar Lawrence should have talked to Lord Capulet, and Lord Montague about the situation. He should have told them about their love and it could have sparked a conversation between families to cause a peaceful resolution for the
Many people read tragedies throughout their lifetime, and they wonder why this awful tragedy has occurred. Often times, a character causes this unfortunate demise. William Shakespeare’s famous play Romeo and Juliet tells of a tragedy between two lovers, where the two star-crossed lovers die in the end. Readers and analysts have pondered the thought of who did it. Friar Lawrence is an obvious reason for the unfortunate demise of Romeo and Juliet because he marries the two star-crossed lovers, helps Juliet escape the marriage to Paris, and fails to send Romeo a sign that Juliet faked her death.
When Mercutio first appears in Act 1, Scene 4, he, Romeo, and Benvolio are preparing to go to Capulet’s masquerade. Romeo does not want to participate, but Mercutio convinces him (I, iv. 41-42). Romeo agrees to participate, recognizing that he may not be entirely in control of his future (I, iv. 112-113). In the next scene, Romeo meets Juliet, creating the main storyline of the play. It is obvious that this would have only occurred due to Mercutio’s influence; Romeo would not have taken part if Mercutio had not convinced him to. Romeo was feeling too dejected, and would have sat on the sidelines instead. The other major example of Mercutio’s influence in the play is exhibited in the scene in which he dies. Tybalt challenges Romeo to a duel, who declines; Romeo does not want to fight his cousin. Tybalt, however, sees this as an insult and questions Romeo’s honour. Mercutio stands up for him, and Tybalt and Mercutio fight. Romeo attempted to stop them, but he is too late; Tybalt stabbed Mercutio, before fleeing the scene. With his dying breaths, Mercutio blames Romeo for his wound, saying “…Why the devil came you between us? I was hurt under your arm.” (III, i. 98-99). Romeo realizes that Mercutio’s wound truly was his fault, and his grief is made worse when he finds that Mercutio has died. Tybalt returns to find Romeo wracked with grief. To avenge his fallen friend, Romeo challenges Tybalt to a duel, which Romeo quickly wins. There is no question that this would have happened if Mercutio had not been killed; after all, Tybalt was Romeo’s cousin, if only for a couple of hours. In this scene, Mercutio not only influences Romeo, but with his death at Tybalt’s hands leads Romeo to kill Tybalt. In addition, Mercutio influenced the members of the Capulet family as well. Lastly, Mercutio’s death lead to a string
The loss of the character Mercutio is a tragedy in which many people found devastating. Mercutio was a humorous man in Shakespeare’s play. Having him die emphasized the concept of loss and mourning from both the audience and those in the play. It is very saddening to have a lovable character die, and that is why Shakespeare chose to have it that way. Feelings will be poured out from those watching/reading the
A tragedy in literature is a tragic hero who falls due to a tragic flaw. Romeo’s immature personality has a huge effect on the end of the play. Romeo never thought before he acted, causing things to go wrong. For instance, before he killed Tybalt, he was angry in the moment not thinking about what would happen. When Romeo met Juliet he was in love with another girl. From here, his judgements eventually lead to his death. His tragic flaw is his unripe personality. Romeo enters this risky relationship as a young and carefree man, who doesn’t realize what could happen during this. The play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare fits perfectly with the definition of a tragedy, beginning with two hopeless teens and ending in their death by their own violation.