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English 9B

Unit_2, Lesson_12

March 21, 2016

Who Really Killed Romeo and Juliet?

The question “Who was responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet” is not easily answered. The families could easily take the blame; because they were from two families that harbored a war against each other, they were kept apart. We could blame the suicide-couple themselves, because they were young and stupid and decided to do ridiculous things for love. The blame could also validly be put on society for pushing them into the decisions they made. But in reality, the fault of Romeo and Juliet’s deaths can be squarely placed on the friar's shoulders.

Friar Laurence was a very interesting man. He started out chiding Romeo for his little short lived spurts of ‘love’. He chided him for already casting aside the fair Rosalyn, with whom he had previously been obsessed. All in all, he really proved that Romeo was thinking with his groin instead of his head. Romeo fought that he really was ‘in love’, but I do not think he really understood what he was saying.

The friar encouraged Romeo and Juliet in their exploits of ‘love’, after Romeo was banished, Juliet was extremely distraught. The friar devised a plan so that they could be together as they wanted. On the day Juliet was to be wed, the friar helped her fake her death; he then sent a letter with the plan and all of its details to Romeo so he would understand and not worry. There was only one problem: the letter the friar sent never reached Romeo. Romeo, upon hearing his ‘beloved’ was dead, went out and purchased a strong poison so that he could kill himself and lay with Juliet in death for eternity.

The letter never reached Romeo, so after he had bought the lethal poison he went on a journey that ended at Juliet’s tomb. He, upon seeing her ‘dead’, ingested the poison he had bought for that very purpose. Juliet, upon waking and seeing Romeo, was for a moment full of joy; until she realized that he was dead. For in his ignorance of her false death, he had drunk the poison strong enough to slay twenty men and greeted his imminent death. Juliet then kissed him in hopes that a few pearls of poison might have clung to his lips, she then fell dead for real. In their ignorance, they had cultivated circumstances that they may indeed lay together forever, not in marriage, but in death.

The friar had encouraged Romeo and Juliet’s hidden affair, he had married them against their families wish and without their parent’s blessings. The friar had devised the plan that had resulted in the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Because of the miscommunication, or really, the fact that the friars letter had never reached Romeo, they had both been killed for real instead of only Juliet, and her faking it. So in conclusion: The deaths of Romeo and his beloved Juliet had resulted at the fault of Friar Laurence.