Stephanie Pham

Mr.Tarlton

English 1 Honors

Period 6

20 April 2015

​ The Death of Romeo and Juliet: Who is to Blame?

In a murder crime, there is always someone to blame. In ​The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet

by William Shakespeare, when Romeo and Juliet die, Friar Laurence is to be blamed. The setting

of the play is in Verona, Italy. The feud between the Montague and the Capulets has lasted for

many years is still going on an. And this affects the two lovers: Romeo Montague and Juliet

Capulet. So they go to Friar Laurence for advice and help but he does not make the best

decisions for Romeo and Juliet.There are many reasons that Friar Laurence should be blamed.

One thing he did was agreeing to marry Romeo and Juliet and regretting doing so afterwards.

Another reason why Friar Laurence is to be blamed is because he deceptively fakes Juliet’s

death, when there could have been other ways to get Romeo and Juliet together. The third reason

is that he tries to use Romeo and Juliet’s marriage to end the feud between the Montagues and

the Capulets. So, Friar Laurence is the one to blame for Romeo and Juliet’s death.

A reason why Friar Laurence should be blamed is because he agrees to marry Romeo and

Juliet thinking and hoping that it will end the feud between Romeo and Juliet’s families, but near

the ending he obviously highly doubts it and he regrets marrying Romeo and Juliet. The friar

knew that Romeo and Juliet were really just infatuated with one another and he proves this by
saying “ The violent delights have violent ends/ And in their triumph die, like fire and powder”

(Act 2 Scene 6 Lines 9-10). Some people might think he just wanted them to be happy, but really

he was just tired of the Montagues and Capulets constantly fighting and wanted to end the feud.

Friar Laurence made a really bad decision by marrying Romeo and Juliet. However this was not

the only bad decision he made in this story.

Another bad decision Friar Laurence makes is that he fakes Juliet’s death. He could have

done something else that was safer and wiser but he chose to deceptively fake Juliet’s death. A

decision that the friar could have made is letting Lord Capulet disown Juliet and when she gets

disowned she can go to Mantua and stay there with her Romeo which was what Romeo and

Juliet wanted and the friar did want to help them but he didn’t do this. Instead he gave Juliet a

potion to make her appear dead. And when Romeo sees Juliet “dead” in the Capulet’s tomb, he

cries and then poisons himself which leads to Juliet stabbing herself with Romeo’s dagger. You

can see that the friar is giving Juliet the potion and is telling her what to do when he says “ Take

thou this vial, being then in bed/ And this distilling liquor drink thou off;/ When presently

through at thy veins shall run/ A cold and drowsy humor, for no pulse” ( Act 5 Scene 1 Lines

93-96). Even though you can blame Romeo and Juliet for falling in love,you can blame the friar

for agreeing to marry though he doubted that their marriage would end the feud.

The final reason of why the friar is guilty of marrying Romeo and Juliet is that the friar

only agreed to marry them is because he is done with Romeo’s family and Juliet’s family

constantly fighting and wanted the feud to end. He wanted the two families to just be friends and

no longer fight.The friar didn’t want Romeo and Juliet to be happy. He really wants the two

houses to stop fighting and this can be proven when the friar says “ For this alliance may so
happy prove/ To turn your households’ rancor to pure love” (Act 2 ,Scene 4 Lines 91& 92). Even

though the friar wanted to end the feud , he did end two innocent lives which is more important

than a dumb family rivalry. You could say that the friar is a kind-hearted man who wanted to

help Romeo and Juliet, but he is also the most scheming character in the play because he fakes

Juliet’s death and plans for Romeo and Juliet to reunite after Romeo is banished from Verona.

Friar Laurence is the one to blame for Romeo and Juliet’s death. The friar made wrong

decisions which affected the people around him. He agreed to marry Romeo and Juliet and

regretted it. He also deceptively fakes Juliet’s death. And he also used romeo and Juliet’s

marriage to stop the feud. Something that the friar has taught me through his actions in the play

about human nature is that humans can make good decisions and bad decision and it will affect

your life or maybe somebody else’s life in either a positive way or a negative way.