Aisa Radoncic

813

Due Date: May 16, 2014

Romeo and Juliet

The story of Romeo and Juliet is about a boy and a girl, one Capulet and one Montague, falling in love with each other. The story of Romeo and Juliet ended in tragic deaths. But who should we blame for these deaths? Of course there are many controversies on this. But I believe that the blame should be on Romeo because he acts before he thinks, he falls in love too quickly, and he is selfish.

For example, Romeo acts before he thinks. In Act 3 scene 1, when Tybalt kills Mercutio, and Romeo avenges his death by slaying Tybalt. You can tell that he acted before thinking because later on in line 142 (same scene) he says “O, I am Fortune’s fool!” Which shows that he knew what he did was wrong right after he did it. This relates to the death because when he found Juliet “dead” in 5.3, he immediately drinks the poison. He doesn’t even think about later on in life. He just immediately overreacts and drinks the poison, not thinking that maybe later on he could get over her like he got over Rosaline.

Another reason is that he falls in love too quickly.  For example, in the beginning of the story (1.1), he claimed that he had such a strong love for a woman named Rosaline. He even said “Tut, I have lost myself. I am not here. This is not Romeo. He’s some other where.” Saying that his love is so strong and the fact that she can never marry, is changing him into a new person. Then later in 1.5, he gets over Rosaline right when he sees Juliet. This relates to the death because if he didn’t fall in love so quickly and actually got to know her before “falling in love,” maybe they would’ve made smarter choices like not killing themselves for someone they met a couple of days ago.

Finally, he is selfish. For example, he kind of made Juliet fall in love with him. Like in the balcony scene, Juliet said that she thinks that it’s moving too quickly, but Romeo insisted that he needed her love. He was only thinking about what he wanted, not even taking Juliet’s feelings into consideration. Also, when he drank the poison, he was selfish and didn’t think about anyone else who would miss him when he died such as Friar Lawrence. He just thought that he couldn’t live his life without Juliet. Which is another example of overreacting and acting before he thinks.

As you can see, The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet had many people to blame. Like Juliet, Friar Lawrence, or pretty much any character in the whole script. But the person I believe caused it the most was much Romeo because he acts before he thinks, he is selfish, and he falls in love too quickly. As the Prince says “For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”