Skyler Welsh

Mr. King
Honors English 1
December 10th 2014

In this essay you will find out, who is solely responsible for the tragedy of Romeo
and Juliet. This took place in a small Italian town, called Verona, which contained two
rival families. The two rival families were, the Capulets, and the Montagues, they
despised each other except for the two lovers, Romeo the Montague, and Juliet the
Capulet. Romeo and Mercutio could be the possible people at fault for Romeo and
Juliets death because they started a fight with Tybalt, but Friar himself is the real
person to blame here because he helped Juliet in a time in which he shouldnt have, and
he also married the two Romeo and Juliet together when he knew better than to go and
do that.
I believe the person at fault for their death here is the Friar. Data to support this
is that on Act IV Scene 1, Juliet had asked the Friar for a drink that would fake her
death and inevitably make her family think she was dead. With that they would put her
in the family grave and she would eventually wake up, and escape. Some of her fears of
doing that though is maybe in there seeing her recently killed Tybalt, which is one of the
reasons that she wanted the drink primarily, also that she was dreading the fact that she
was going to be forced to marry Paris. Another big reason that I think the Friar is
responsible for their death is that early in the story when he married them together, he
knew that he should not have done that. That being one of the bigger factors, if you
take that out of the scenario, his exile concerns Juliet in no way and she would not care
about it. Though, thats not the case, he did marry them, and so when Romeo was
exiled it started a downward spiral of Juliet. The last reason I believe that the Friar is
responsible for their death is because of the fact that I believe he kept it a secret that he
knew someone would get to her before she would awake and would actually believe
that she has passed away. Which did end up happening so I think he knew that was
going to happen all along, especially for a man that wise to not think of something so
obvious makes me question the Friars truthful morals.
Here Im going to explain why it first off wasnt solely Mercutios fault for the
deaths. Even though, he got in the fight that got him killed against Tybalt, I believe since
he didnt start the fight with Tybalt that its not his fault for getting killed. The full story

of his death is that he was with Romeo and met with Tybalt by random occasion on the
street and they had a battle, Tybalt who got the best draw on Mercutio struck him and
killed him on the scene. Then Tybalt fled the scene quickly. Even if Mercutio sparked
the whole fight and died which caused Romeo to kill Tybalt and be exiled, then it still
wouldnt result in Romeo and Juliets death without the Friar because of the drink he
gave Juliet is the real reason both of them ended up dying.
This is the reason I think it could be Romeo but at the same time I stand firmly in
thinking hes not. He was at the fight when Mercutio died, and when Tybalt came back
afterwards, he felt a personal vengeance to fight Tybalt because of his kinsman
Mercutio. In that if Romeo didnt fight, he would have been killed, and then Juliet
would have killed herself because he was dead. So naturally he didnt die and he killed
Tybalt, which resulted in his exile. Although he had to kill Tybalt it is his fault after all
that hes being exiled. Like I said before in the paragraph about Mercutio, Romeos exile
alone would not cause the death of either of them. It was the Friar trying to help
Juliet fake her death so she could escape to Romeo that really caused their deaths
because without that neither of them most likely would end up dead because even
though Romeo is exiled, both of them have many reason to be alive.
All in all, I will still firmly stand my ground in stating the fact that the Friar is
solely responsible for the death of Romeo and Juliet and not Mercutio or Romeo
because the Friar helped Juliet fake her death when he very well knew he shouldnt
have, and before that to make the connection between them even worthy of death had
one of them go away, was the fact that he married them together and he knew he
shouldnt have done that and I will always believe that it was the Friar that should be
faulted for the deaths and no opinion can change mine.