Romeo and Juliet Journal #7

Romeo and Juliet ends very tragically, with the deaths of the two star-crossed lovers. Then the feud between the two families is ended. The major theme in the play is how everyone blames bad things on fate and bad luck, and how nobody is at fault for their own actions. So this leaves a question at the end of play. Who's fault was it that Romeo and Juliet died? Let's explore that, shall we...

First off, we have Rosaline. Romeo was so in love with her, and she rejected him. She said she did not want to be in love and marry and have a family. Romeo was crushed by her rejection, and was searching for a cure for the pain he felt. Rosaline should have realized that Romeo could be a good support for her and a family if she decided to have one. He was wealthy and powerful, and had a high social status, everything that the fathers of women all over Verona wanted for their daughters.

Second, there is Benvolio. After Rosaline refused to marry Romeo, he saw that his friend was crushed. He told Romeo that he should come to the Capulet Ball and scout out new women there. That is where Romeo met Juliet. Benvolio should have given Romeo some time to recuperate, and recognized that getting a new girl is not the way to get over someone who broke your heart. Also, he shouldn't have been at the Capulet Masquerade anyway, because they were not invited.

Third, I think that Tybalt could have been partially responsible. Tybalt provoked then killed Mercutio, when Romeo tried to stop the fight. Then Romeo, in his grief and rage over Mercutio's death, and the fact that Mercutio blamed it all on the two families' feuds, killed Tybalt, and got banished. Tybalt gave him a reason to be violent and get banished, even though Romeo didn't want to be violent, because he was married to Juliet and was his family, even if Tyblt didn't know it.

Fourth, I think that Friar Laurence had a fault in the ordeal. He didn't want Juliet to kill herself over Romeo's banishment, because they could be together eventually if she could just wait for a little while, until the Friar could give them a plan. But because Juliet was so impatient, the Friar had to come up with a plan fast. So he gave her a substance that would make her appear dead for two days, and he would send word to Romeo with the plan. He didn't realize how wrong the plan could go. He sent a Friar, and didn't take into consideration that the plague had a lot of people in quarantine, so that Friar couldn't send the news. He shoould have sent more that one, just in case. He also should have told Romeo before he left that he shouldn't come back until he recieved word from the Friar himself, not anyone else.

A lot of this play had to do with the never-ending feud going on between the two families. It could have been the families' faults, because they hated each other even before some of them even met, they thought each other to be villains. Only Romeo and Juliet pushed that aside and loved each other. If the familes were not feuding in the beginning, they wouldn't have fought, Mercutio and Tybalt wouldn't have died, Romeo wouldn't have been banished, and Romeo and Juliet could have been happy together without any worries.

Another big part of the play was fate and fortune. Mercutio is the only one who sees both of the families at fault, and that only comes in his dying minutes. Maybe it was just fate that they came together and fell in love? If their love was written in the stars like they say it was, then maybe it was written just after the love chapter that they would die together, so soon. With the two familes feuding all the time and hating each other, they wouldn't have been happy together, even if they left, because Verona was all they knew, but they couldn't be together there because of their families' feud. The death of the children ended their parents' un-end-able feud, so maybe it was better that they died.

Lastly, both Romeo and Juliet had a role in their own deaths. Juliet should have realized that Paris was the one she was supposed to marry, even if she didn't want to. Then she didn't want to continue living because she could have Romeo right away because he had to be banished to Mantua. She should have been a little more patient and not so insane about having Romeo right away. She should have thought about things, and realized that she won't be with Romeo f she dies anyway, so it would be better to wait. In her rush she forced the Friar to come up with a plan, because he did not want Juliet to die. Romeo should have not been so rash about his actions. He should have taken time to get to know Juliet and not have rushed into things. He should have thought about the comsquences of killing Tybalt, no matter how sad and upset he was with what Mercutio said to him and with the fact that Tybalt killed his best friend. He should have never have gotten involved in the fight in the first place.

I think that everyone is to blame. I think that people should not be so quick to judge others, even if they are the child of a person you are not happy with. This is the root of the feud, and it is the whole reason why all of this happened. Just because someone has parents you don't like or you think they are bad, that doesn't automatically make them bad too.