Essay Who Is To Blame In Romeo And Juliet

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Where does responsibility lie for the deaths in Romeo and Juliet? A total of six characters died in the play Romeo and Juliet for many different reasons. The main characters died by committing suicide, Mercutio, Tybalt and Paris were killed and Lady Montague died out of sadness. Although they died by the hands of different people, the feud between the Montague’s and the Capulet’s, the immaturity of the characters, the pride of Tybalt and the system of marriage at that time are responsible for the deaths in Romeo and Juliet. To begin with, the battle between the Montague’s and Capulet’s caused the death of Mercutio and Tybalt. To illustrate the point, Tybalt killed Mercutio because he was close to the Montagues, which he despised, and Mercutio had challenged him to a duel. Before Mercutio died in 3.1 he exclaimed, “A plague a both your houses!” meaning that the fight between the two families are like a plague where there’s no benefit (3.1. line 106). This implies that Mercutio felt that he was caught up between the everlasting feuds between the two families and he wanted no other innocent people to die from this conflict between the two families, therefore shouted out this fraise. In addition, in 3.1 Romeo murdered Tybalt to avenge the death of Mercutio by saying “Either thou or I, or both, must go with him.” (3.1. line 129). This implies that Romeo held a grudge against Tybalt for killing his own friend. This grudge motivated Romeo to kill Tybalt which then motivated Paris to fight Romeo in 5.3. This cycle of hatred between the two families is also what caused the fight scene in 1.1 where the Capulets and Montagues saw each other, then spat rude comments at each other…show more content…
For example, the decision that Romeo made to kill Tybalt to avenge Mercutio’s death was done without any thought of the consequences Romeo would face after. Romeo’s immaturity is also portrayed when he
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